Incomplete list of publicly announced layoffs & shutdowns:
Arizona: In Gilbert, Barnes & Noble shutdown their Crossroads Towne Center bookstore. It’s part of the company’s plans to shutdown 225 stores by 2023 (proof there is no recovery).
California: In San Diego, Service America Corporation issued a massive layoff WARN saying 831 people will become jobless in April! Two tech companies merged, Cypress Semiconductor and Spansion, and made it clear they will eliminate 16-hundred Golden State jobs by the end of April!
The quietly vacated and now for lease King’s Store in Pocatello, Idaho. Prior to King’s moving in 3 years ago it was a sporting goods store.
Idaho: Burley based King’s Variety Store is crashing & burning, according to Payette news sources. The 100 years old (surviving the Great deflationary Depression and numerous recessions) chain store has 26 stores in five states, but now is forced to shutdown six stores within The Right to Work (you over) Gem State; Payette, Weiser, Emmett, Middleton, Twin Falls and Pocatello. Administrators blame the suck-ass economy! In Boise, Post Holdings announced it will shutdown their PowerBar factory in July, 165 jobs lost! Company administrators have decided to outsource the making of their energy food to unknown contractor factories, in the name of increasing profits. In Kellogg, the Sunnyside Elementary school shutdown due to massive population exodus which created what I call DSS (Disappearing Student Syndrome): “Since 1970, we’ve had a 66% decrease in our enrollment!”-Art Krulitz, Kellogg School District
Illinois: In Harvey, after 23 years Ingalls Childcare Center shutdown. Administrators blamed the bad economy for not being able to pay their employees! The Adler Planetarium laid off 15 people, blaming lack of public attendance: “We’re trying to make it so that our annual revenues match our expenses. For at least the last few years, we were using money either from our endowment or a fundraising campaign to sustain us.”-Marc Lapides
Michigan: The Right to Work (you over) Great Lakes State shut down its unemployment office in Grand Haven! State administrators say unemployment isn’t high enough to justify so many unemployment offices!
Minnesota: US Steel continues to slash & burn jobs, this time they’re shutting down their Keetac plant in Keewatin, 412 jobs lost in May! After 57 years the owner of McCormack’s Furniture said she must shutdown by the end of summer. Local news reports didn’t explain why, but indicated the owner wanted to retire.
New York: After 61 years the Lindenhurst Diner shutdown. The owners say a property developer made them an offer they couldn’t refuse. Hospital Kaleida Health says Obama Care forced them to layoff 24 managers.
Texas: In Longview, oil services company FTS International laid off about 37 employees: “The reality is that continued decline of oil and gas prices has caused a slowdown in well completions work.”-Lynaia Lutes
Vermont: State administrators warned the taxpayers that as many as 325 state employees will be laid off! The state leaders have apparently lost $113-million in tax revenues! Of course, state social services will be slashed & burned. State employees reminded taxpayers that they’ve been making sacrifices for ten years now: “Our members have for almost a decade come to the table to help the state to balance the budget! We do not think it’s fair that the way we’re balancing the budget is by picking the pocket of snowplow drivers, administrative assistants and nursing aides, working class Vermonters who provide public services….”-Steve Howard, Vermont State Employees Association
Virginia: United Airlines continues to slash & burn jobs, this time 67 people at the Richmond International Airport will be let go by May. It’s part of United Airlines’ plans to replace in-house employees with cheap-o contractors. In Culpeper, the owner of 109 years old (surviving the Great deflationary Depression and numerous recessions) Clarke Hardware announced he must shutdown by June. News reports say the owner wants to retire, but the owner blames the local Masonic Lodge, who owns the property: “They told me last Wednesday that I have to be out by the end of June. They want the building to renovate. They plan to split it into two sections to get more rent.”-Claude Minnich
Wyoming: God refuses to stop Saint James of the Valley School from shutting down. Church administrators blame it on what some Christians call The Rapture, or what I call DSS.
11 – 12 March 2015: Harley Davidson motorcycle crashing & burning?
WARN=Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification
The U.S. Department of Labor (DoL) doesn’t count the hundreds of layoffs involving less than 50 people each, in its mass layoff reports. It also doesn’t count all the little ‘mom & pop’ businesses that shutdown. It doesn’t count people who get a severance for being laid off.