California: Grocery chain Fresh & Easy officially chapter 11 bankrupt busted, a few weeks after it announced it was shutting all its stores down. Oil giant Chevron announced they are eliminating an additional 7-thousand oil industry jobs! Basically they don’t think oil prices are going to go back up, significantly. It could also be because after their last job cuts their profits went way up. In Saint Helena, after 40 years David’s Jewelers shutdown.
Colorado: Denver based Chipotle shutdown 43 restaurants in Washington and Oregon states. They claim it’s temporary, so they can eliminate Escherichia coli (E. coli O157:H7) after Washington state health administrators issued an outbreak warning on Halloween. It should be noted that affected stores posted notices blaming “equipment problems” or “supply chain problems” for their shutdown!
Idaho: The U.S. Food & Drug Administration slammed shut Ketchum-based Sun Valley Juice Company for repeated violations of federal food safety regulations. The company got in trouble with the federal regulators back in 2006 as well. Idaho’s ObamaCare insurance exchange admitted that 78-thousand Idahoans (in a state with about 1.5-million people) whose low incomes (or sex; that fact they’re healthy low income adult males) won’t allow them to qualify for Idaho’s sexist Medicaid program! Don’t talk to me about equal rights for women until you’ve come here and researched all the anti-men laws in Idaho!
Failed State Illinois: In Woodstock, after 46 years Red Barn Farm Market shutdown. Heavy vehicle maker Caterpillar ‘escorted’ an undisclosed number of Global Information Services employees out the door. Administrators tried to say they were the employees who took the “voluntary buyout” (then why the escort out the door?). After 12 years Mama Compton’s restaurant in Rock Island shutdown: “We’ve got to find a better place. In order, as a small business, to thrive, we need this downtown area to be growing, and we decided that is not happening.”-Psyndy Compton-Muse, co-owner
Indiana: United Minerals issued a layoff WARN saying 138 people will become jobless after Xmas!
Kansas: Overland Park based cell phone company Sprint warned it will eliminate $2-billion in costs, including labor costs!
Massachusetts: New Bedford based Top Quality Seafood & Shellfish now chapter 11 bankrupt busted. It’s blamed on massive debts.
Failed State New Jersey: Basking Ridge based cell phone rip-off artist Verizon on the verge of eliminating 6-thousand jobs! This is according to an investment advisor who says he’s been warned of the massive layoffs from inside sources.
Failed State New York: Binder & Binder shutting down their Bronx Social Security Disability Advocates operations by the end of January 2016, 109 jobs lost! Warren Buffett owned Kraft Heinz shutting down three food factories; Avon, Walton and Campbell eliminating about 930 jobs!
North Carolina: Heavy vehicle maker Caterpillar revealed it is shutting down its Franklin factory by June 2016, 122 jobs affected!
Ohio: Canton based TimkenSteel announced another 90 employees will be laid off, this after 91 employees were laid off in Texas between March and August. It’s blamed on continued crashing revenues due to the oil industry cutbacks.
Oklahoma: In Muskogee, Vallourec Star laying off an additional 75 people. In April they laid off 30 people, blaming the oil industry.
Pennsylvania: What I call Disappearing Students Syndrome is forcing Rider University to eliminate programs and layoff 14 people. Philadelphia Media Network merging its The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News and Philly.com, resulting in mass layoffs sometime after January 2016.
Texas: Oil service company Noble Energy warned of additional layoffs, on top of the 230 already unemployed!
Washington: In Vancouver, after seven years Bad Monkey’s Bikes shutdown: “The last half 2013 and all of ’14 were spent trying to recover from that purchase. We had a rough ’14. This year was spent trying to get caught up so I could change the business plan and create a different style of bike shop. I wasn’t able to get the money….”-Wade Leckie
Wisconsin: WEC Energy Group laying off just under 2-hundred people as a direct result of their merger with Integrys Energy Group! Mining equipment maker Joy Global announced they eliminated an additional 26 jobs on top of the 113 eliminated earlier in the month!
28-29 October 2015: “an industry-wide slowdown…throughout North America”
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.”