Incomplete list of publicly announced layoffs & shutdowns:
Alabama: The Department of Economic and Community Affairs consolidating its Surplus Property Division warehouses into a single warehouse, jobs will be lost, it’s blamed on lack of money. It’s official, 31 Department of Motor Vehicles offices are shutting down due to lack of money! State cops are insisting the public will have to use the internet to get their driver’s licenses and vehicle registrations done, that is if they can afford access to the internet. The State Parks System shutting down five parks, eliminating jobs and cutting hours and pay for the rest of the employees, due to lack of money.
Colorado: Bowie Resource Partners prepping for a new ‘longwall’ at Bowie #2 coal mine, the result is 1-hundred jobs lost after Thanksgiving!
Connecticut: Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) forcing Stamford Hospital to shutdown its mobile wellness van and layoff 20 people and not fill 113 vacancies, and cut $2-million USD in funding for primary care clinics! It’s blamed partly on new taxes that the hospital and staff will have to pay! Hartford HealthCare and Yale New Haven Health System also report drastic cuts due to the new tax!
Florida: “one of the newest Title Insurance Companies in Tampa”, Consuegra Title eliminating 28 jobs right after Thanksgiving.
Illinois: Japan based train maker Nippon Sharyo eliminating 160 jobs after Thanksgiving! Administrators blame it on problems with their prototype train car. Gov’na Bruce Rauner shutting down the State Museum in Springfield, as well as the World Shooting and Recreational Complex at Sparta.
Indiana: In Granger, after less than three years Affordable Care Act forced Doctors Express to shutdown. They called ObamaCare a “market factor”.
Iowa: Nebraska based 135 years old (surviving the Great deflationary Depression and numerous recessions) clothing store Schweser’s announced more store shutdowns for after Xmas in Beatrice, Columbus and Atlantic.
Louisiana: Aluminum maker ALCOA Lake Charles-Anode Production eliminating 130 jobs right after Thanksgiving! Offshore oil drilling service company Hercules Offshore laying off 50 people in time for Thanksgiving. Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) forcing Magellan Health-Louisiana Care Management Center to lose a contract and eliminate 80 jobs between the end of November and the end of February 2016. Garden City Group laying off five people before Thanksgiving. In Lake Charles, after more than 40 years Keith’s Pawn shutdown.
Maine: Expera Specialty Solutions shutting down their Old Town paper mill right after Xmas, 195 jobs lost! Administrators blame the value of the U.S. dollar (USD) versus the Canadian dollar (CAD), as well as the costs of papermaking supplies. At one point the mill had more than 3-hundred employees, locals say this shutdown might be the final nail in the town’s coffin.
Maryland: Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) forcing taxpayer funded Dimensions Healthcare System’s non-profit Laurel Regional Hospital to add an additional 84 jobs to its previous job cuts. In Baltimore, after 16 months Freddy art gallery shutdown, but the unknown operators swear they’ll be back.
Massachusetts: In Amherst, the decades old Belchertown Road Sunoco fuel station shutdown. The female owner and auto mechanic, Sherryann Barnes, realized “I’m not 20 years old any more.” She’s moving to Florida.
Minnesota: Imation notified local news media that it had just conducted a “mass layoff” at its World Headquarters in Oakdale, but refused to say how many people lost their jobs. Nebraska based 135 years old (surviving the Great deflationary Depression and numerous recessions) clothing store Schweser’s announced it will shutdown its Marshall store after Xmas. In Minneapolis, after three years restaurant Republic shutting down in October, due to the greedy landlord refusing to renew the lease.
New York: Medical device maker Gaymar Industries shutting down in Orchard Park and West Seneca, 160 jobs lost! It’s a combination of Affordable Care Act and being taken over by competitor Stryker.
Pennsylvania: Triple Crown Services issued a layoff WARN for November. Emerald Coast Resources eliminating 316 jobs right before Thanksgiving! Joy Global Underground Mining eliminating 85 jobs right before Thanksgiving.
Rhode Island: Affordable Care Act forcing Rhode Island Hospital to shutdown an “early intervention program” at Hasbro Children’s Hospital and eliminate 2-hundred jobs: “Rhode Island Hospital faces costs that are rising faster than reimbursement rates….”
Tennessee: In Oak Ridge, after 20 years Mr. K’s Used Books, Music & More shutdown. The owner blamed it on “…the closing of Kroger’s coupled with not being able to find another affordable space was just too much for us.” The Kroger grocery store provided a lot of customer traffic to the plaza.
Texas: Whistleblowers have revealed that the Whole Foods “generous” severance package is anything but, especially if you have less than 2-thousand hours with the company. After almost 60 years buffet restaurant Vance Godbey’s shutting down in October. The owners will continue private parties and catering only.
Virginia: Sears Holdings shutting down another Kmart, this time in South Burlington, 66 jobs lost in January 2016. Another business in the Ferry Farm Shopping Center shutting down, this time it’s the Rite Aid Pharmacy, shutdown today with no warning. Administrators say the store wasn’t doing enough sales to justify renewing the lease.
Washington: Vegan Sutra restaurant shutdown, apparently the owners split up to make their own restaurants.
29 September 2015: “I need a job!”
WARN=Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification
Former employees who receive severance are not counted as unemployed
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.”