“a never-ending funeral” : U.S. Job Losses & Closings 02 June 2016

Incomplete list of U.S. job loss announcements and shutdowns.

Alabama: In Troy, after 16 years the Sears Hometown Store shutting down due to Sears Holdings refusing to renew the franchise license.  The owner of the building says he’ll sell it.

Illinois:  Local news say Oak Brook based McDonald’s will start bribing corporate level employees to quit (voluntary buyouts) in July.  Insiders report that already “several hundreds” of employees have been made the offer to voluntarily become unemployed.

Iowa: In Spencer, Ireland based Eaton Hydraulics eliminating 70 U.S. citizen jobs over the next 12 months.  Administrators claim the economy is worse than they thought and they need to “expand some of our restructuring and cost-reduction activities this year.”  However, the Sioux City Journal revealed that “Eaton had been training Chinese nationals here in recent months.”

Kentucky: God powerless to stop the federal government from shutting down ‘his’ Saint Catherine College.   The ‘christian’ school was caught withholding taxpayer funded financial aid for students!  Accusations imply the ‘christian’ school was using the taxpayer funding for students to pay-down school debt.  In Nicholasville, decades old Carpenters Dish Barn shutting down in July, due to road construction.

Maryland: Local news media reporting that Baltimore City Schools layoffs have hit 171!

Massachusetts: In the state of Boston Weak, MassMutual Financial Group laying off at least 1-hundred U.S. citizen InfoTech employees, replacing them with H-1B migrants!  Local news media reporting that U.S. citizen employees are being threatened with the loss of their two weeks severance if they go public with the plan to replace U.S. employees with migrants: “It’s like a never-ending funeral.”unnamed U.S. citizen employee to Computerworld reporter 

Missouri: Bankrupt solar panel and windmill maker SunEdison eliminating at least 43 jobs. 

New Mexico: Luna Community College quietly began laying off staff last month, at least nine people unemployed due to the college being short $400-thousand USD.

New York: Connecticut based Xerox in the final stages of shutting down their Webster distribution operation, the remaining 48 employees becoming unemployed in August.

Oklahoma: Health insurance giant Blue Cross-Blue Shield is demanding a 49% increase in premiums for their ObamaCare plans! 

Texas: Health insurance giant Blue Cross-Blue Shield is demanding a 53% increase in premiums for their ObamaCare plans! In Dallas, RAS Services laying off 112 custodians by the end of July!  They lost their cleaning contract with Dallas Love Field Airport.  In Irvine, Too Big to Jail Maryland based OneMain Financial eliminating 116 jobs by mid-July, saying only that they must “downsize”!  Houston based petroleum exploration company Warren Resources now chapter 11 bankrupt busted and being divided between creditors.  National Oilwell Varco continues to kill jobs, this time 54 people in Galena Park now unemployed.

Washington:  Everett based Rural/Metro ambulance service taken over by American Medical Response, the result is 105 people are losing their jobs by the end of July!

Washington DC: The U.S. Department of Labor said the month of May saw the lowest new job growth since 2010, only 38-thousand new jobs created.  Unofficial propagandists of unAmerican corporate America, main stream news media ‘experts’, had been promising at least 160-thousand new jobs!   The U.S. Department of Labor tracks people considered “not in labor force” in their official unemployment reports, but for some reason the main stream news media refuses to publish the data.

The U.S. Department of Labor is also dealing with an issue I’ve experienced myself; your employer suddenly says you’re now a contractor, reduces your pay and ends benefits.  It’s called Employee Misclassification.

Wisconsin: In Manitowoc, after 60 years Groz-Beckert shutting down their Foster Needle felting needle factory, 64 jobs gone between July 2016 and January 2017.

01 June 2016: “unprecedented financial challenges”

WARN=Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification.

I found a 2010 AFL-CIO analysis (titled The Public Availability of WARN Notices: Lack of Accessibility and Disclosure…) which proves what I’ve been suspecting in my search of state WARN notices; most states are not complying with federal WARN regulations and are not publicizing or tracking mass layoffs.

Former employees who receive severance are not counted as unemployed!

Employees of religious non-profits might not qualify for unemployment assistance: “If the non-profit organization is a church, you may or may not be entitled to unemployment. It all depends upon state regulations for church employers. In many cases, churches are allowed to set their own rules regarding unemployment benefits, meaning the church can choose whether to offer benefits to former employees.”

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.”