Incomplete list of publicly announced layoffs & shutdowns:
Colorado: After 12 years con artists, I mean investment company Curian Capital stopped accepting new suckers, I mean accounts, and said they will shutdown sometime in 2016, at least 3-hundred jobs lost! Here’s their official reason for shutting down: “Given the industry-wide changes in technology, product offerings and market size, Curian has determined that it is no longer commercially positioned to provide clients high value investment programs over the long term.” (in other words they see the economy getting so bad that even the stock market is going to crash, for real this time)
Florida: Keolis Transit Services issued a shutdown WARN for their Naples ops, 103 jobs lost by the end of September! At Kennedy Space Center, InoMedic Health Applications issued a WARN saying 172 people will become jobless by the end of September! ObamaCare medical device taxes, and changes to Medicare, forced home medical device provider Univita to quit! According to WARNs, 785 people in Miramar are now unemployed! Last week Univita employees were told “We are ramping down our operations and will be experiencing a massive reduction in staff.” It should be noted that the privately run Better Business Bureau said Univita was a terrible company.
Georgia: California based bankrupt busted Anna’s Linens announced they’re shutting down their less than two years old Augusta store. It’s the result of the company totally crashing & burning, 2-hundred stores across the U.S. will shutdown!
Hawaii: No more dinner cruises? After a month of being idle 102 employees of Roberts Hawaii were laid off with only three days warning! #Roberts Hawaii No Aloha
Idaho: In Boise, Supervalu grocery store announced they will shutdown in October, 115 jobs lost! What housing market recovery? Recently KPVI reported on Pocatello housing projects that have sat unfinished for years.
Illinois: In Pontiac, after eight years Joanna’s Floral Creations & Gifts shutting down. The owner blames the bad economy for destroying her American Dream: “…I have two small children, a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old, and it’s just too hard to run a business full time and raise them…If the economy were a little bit stronger…It’s just hard times.
It’s difficult to run a small business the way the economy is right now, especially this type of business.”-Joanna Von Rhein
Kansas: After less than ten months Take Five Coffee + Bar shutdown due to the lack of customers: “We don’t have a choice. There is no option to press forward.”-Lori Chandler, co-owner
Kentucky: Liquor Barn in Saint Matthews shutting down, it might have something to do with their ongoing lawsuit against a local rival. In Louisville, Target is shutting down their only store on the Dixie Highway, just in time for Xmas.
Maryland: ObamaCare forcing Laurel Regional Hospital to become an outpatient clinic only! News reports say hundreds of people will be laid off over the next year! The hospital will be remodeled (at a cost of at least $25-million) and re-open around 2018 as an ambulatory care clinic (walk-ins only). Many hospital administrators say they cannot make enough money under ObamaCare as a full hospital service, so they are either merging with other hospitals, reducing services to walk-in only clinics, or shutting down all together.
North Carolina: Administrators with Legacy Paddlesports announced that due to crashing sales they are merging with a rival, and then they laid off 25 employees without warning.
New York: Addiction treatment center Narco Freedom issued a shutdown WARN for all locations in The Empire State, 513 jobs lost by the end of September! The owners of the non-profit were accused of frauding the government and customers of billions of dollars.
South Carolina: ObamaCare medical device tax killing off medical products maker Hill-Rom, 70 jobs lost. That’s a huge drop from the number of employees they had in 2008, according to local news reports Hill-Rom at one time employed 4-hundred people in that location. Hill-Rom is consolidating their manufacturing and call center ops.
Tennessee: After 16 years Rhythm & Brews shutting down in September.
Virginia: After 28 years toy store Quilts ’N’ Treasures shutdown, the owner has stage 4 lung cancer. Collapsing Bristol based coal miner Alpha Natural Resources is making it official and going chapter 11 bankrupt busted. A Cardinal Camera store shutdown with no warning in Richmond. No explanation, but a sign taped to the door said “Help us stay in Richmond…..and look for a new home…” implying they lost their lease.
31 July 2015: “…a catastrophic event…”
WARN=Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification
The U.S. Department of Labor (DoL) no longer issues mass layoff reports: “On March 1, 2013, President Obama ordered into effect the across-the- board spending cuts (commonly referred to as sequestration) required by the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act, as amended. Under the order, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) must cut its current budget by more than $30 million, 5 percent of the current 2013 appropriation, by September 30, 2013. In order to help achieve these savings and protect core programs, the BLS will eliminate two programs, including Mass Layoff Statistics, and all ‘measuring green jobs’ products. This news release is the final publication of monthly mass layoff survey data.”