Incomplete list of publicly announced layoffs & shutdowns:
Alabama: In Helena, after 13 years the owners of Frankie’s Market Café announced they are shutting down in April. They blame rising costs of operations, especially utility cots. Jefferson County Board of Education will beginning laying off 160 employees in July!
California: In San Pablo, Obama Care forcing Doctors Medical Center to issue a shutdown WARN for April, 709 jobs lost! In Fort Irwin, tax-sucker Northrop Grumman issued a WARN saying an additional 476 people will lose their jobs by June! Vose Technical Systems also issued a WARN saying they will layoff 60 people at Fort Irwin, in May. In San Francisco, Apollo Education issued two WARNs saying 38 people will be laid off between June and August. Sutton Place issued a WARN saying they are shutting down by the end of May, 98 jobs lost. Lightspeed-SkilledUp issued a WARN saying 27 people will be laid off in May. In Mountain View, tech company Symantech continues to kill jobs, this time their latest WARN says 30 people will be let go in May.
Florida: In Panama City, Flexsteel Pipeline issued a WARN saying 70 people will be laid off by the end of the year.
Idaho: In Nampa, after 69 years Nafziger Men’s Store shutdown.
Indiana: In Evansville, Wesselman’s Supermarkets announced they will shutdown their Pollack Avenue store.
Louisiana: Oil derrick operator Loadmaster Derrick & Equipment revealed they conducted “very minimal” layoffs the week prior.
Maryland: Men’s clothing chain store Jos. A. Bank issued a WARN saying they’re shutting down their Hampstead HQ and 122 people will be laid off between May and December! It’s blamed on the take over by Texas based Men’s Warehouse. Reports say at one point Jos. A. Bank employed more than 7-hundred people in Hampstead.
Missouri: Kansas City based Hallmark Cards wants 2-hundred employees to voluntarily quit, and they’re offering buyout bribes for “eligible employees”! Company administrators blame “changes in consumer spending”. In Jackson, Nearly Perfect Shoes shutdown, a co-owner said it was because the local economy can no longer support two shoe stores less than eight miles apart.
New York: In Brooklyn, Milestone School for Child Development issued a WARN saying they will shutdown, 73 jobs lost in June. In NYC, Skyline Tours announced they’ve been sold-off and 120 jobs will be affected! Grandpa’s Bus Service issued a massive shutdown WARN saying they lost their state Department of Education contract, more than 5-hundred jobs threatened! In Loudonville, Sodexo issued a WARN saying they lost a major food service contract and will shutdown in June, 193 jobs lost! DAL Global Services continues to warn that they could lose their contract with Etihad Airways at John F. Kennedy International Airport, 122 jobs lost in May!
North Dakota: In Bismarck, Box Office Video shutdown one of its two stores.
North Carolina: What housing market recovery? In Wilson, bathtub maker Bathcraft announced they will shutdown in May, 87 jobs lost. HR director Sandy Moore directly blamed the crashing housing market. In Asheville, the owner of Uncle Junebug’s General Store announced it will shutdown in April. He blames construction projects: “I had no idea there was going to be so much development of hotels in that area. I’m almost certain that the entire length of my lease, which would have been three years, would have just been eaten up by construction.”-David Hawkins
Ohio: Columbus based oil tank maker Worthington Industries began laying off employees, without any warning. More than 5-hundred people in Ohio and Kansas now unemployed, as one analyst said “I don’t think we’ve seen the bottom yet.”
Oklahoma: In Tulsa, after 50 years Amir’s Persian Imports shutdown. The owner says he hopes to continue his rug cleaning business.
Rhode Island: The non-profit East Greenwich Animal Protection League shutdown due to lack of donations.
Virginia: 70 years old The Fine Arts Shop shutdown. Store managers say the shutdown came without warning, and they thought it was financially stable. The owners basically said they don’t want to deal with it anymore, and they want to retire while they’re on top.
West Virginia: In Huntington, Oregon based Precision Castparts laid off at least 1-hundred people at their Special Metals factory, without warning! Administrators blame oil prices for its low “level of business activity.”
26 – 27 March 2015: “all options exhausted…no alternative”
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.