More proof you brick-n-mortar store owners can’t directly blame the internet/high-tech competition for your demise. Incomplete list of U.S. internet/high-tech/communications job destruction announcements in January 2017:
Internet publisher Medium laid off 50 employees. CEO Evan Williams (a Twitter co-founder) stated “Upon further reflection, it’s clear that the broken system is ad-driven media on the internet. It simply doesn’t serve people. In fact, it’s not designed to. The vast majority of articles, videos, and other ‘content’ we all consume on a daily basis is paid for — directly or indirectly — by corporations who are funding it in order to advance their goals. And it is measured, amplified, and rewarded based on its ability to do that. Period. As a result, we get …well, what we get. And it’s getting worse.”
Arkansas: Little Rock based communications company Windstream Holdings suddenly laid off 164 people! In November of last year the company merged with competitor EarthLink, but company administrators swear the sudden layoffs have nothing to do with that.
California: In Rancho Cordova, Verizon laid off 1-thousand 70 people, with only two weeks notice to the state Employment Development Department! Verizon also eliminating 70 jobs in San Jose, by the end of March. Verizon also laid off 55 Go90 employees as part of its plan to “consolidate offices in Los Angeles, San Jose and New York.” Mobile game developer Glu Mobile issued a layoff WARN for Long Beach, 70 jobs lost in March. The owner of anime streamer Crunchyroll, Ellation, laid off 17 engineers apparently because they have too many, despite claiming to be expanding their engineering ops. In San Jose, Cisco Systems laid off 25 people without warning. Semiconductor maker Atmel issued a layoff WARN for its San Jose ops. Also in San Jose, AOL eliminating 80 jobs by the end of March. France based drone (they used to be called RC aircraft before The War on Terror) maker Parrot warning of massive layoffs (at least 290), Parrot supposedly has operations in San Francisco. In San Francisco, software company DoubleDutch laid off 57 people without warning. San Francisco based digital (online) mental health therapy op Joyable laid off 20 people as it shifts from targeting individuals with anxiety to providing employers with a service to treat their stressed out employees (is anybody going to treat the 20 people who lost their jobs with Joyable?). San Francisco based Fitbit eliminating up to 160 jobs in an effort to reduce costs by $200-million USD! Japan based e-commerce company Rakuten issued a shutdown WARN, 73 people in Aliso Viejo jobless in March. iHeartMedia issued a shutdown WARN for their Aliso Viejo ops, 72 jobs gone by April. Med-Tech company Theranos eliminating 150 jobs by March! Santa Monica based GSN Games laid off an additional 20 people in their ongoing restructuring (layoffs made six months before as well). In Oakland, Pandora laid off 91 people without warning and despite getting 375-thousand new subscribers. Pandora admin claim that even with the big jump in customers the online music business is so competitive they’re having trouble making profits. Solar power company Sungevity eliminating 66 jobs in Oakland by March. Cloud company Crownpeak issued a shutdown WARN for their operations in Los Angeles. In Santa Clara, Intel eliminating 54 jobs by the end of February. Avaya is now chapter 11 bankrupt busted due to massive debts. Also in Santa Clara, Oracle America issued a mass layoff WARN, 441 jobs gone by mid-March! Google eliminating 94 Mountain View jobs by March. NBCUniversal warning of layoffs for its Esquire Network, apparently due to Esquire Network being switched to digital only format. In San Diego, XETV-Bay City Television-CW6 eliminating 127 by the end of March!
Iowa: HGS (Hindjua Global Solutions) shutdown its 25 years old call center, killing 125 jobs!
Kansas: Verizon shutdown its store in Atchison due to lack of sales.
Kentucky: Lexington based printer maker Lexmark eliminated 320 jobs “to reduce our costs to be more in line with our revenues”!
Massachusetts: Israel based medical rehab ReWalk Robotics warned of layoffs in Marlborough because of revenue loss caused by ObamaCare’s (ACA’s) “…national insurance reimbursement policies for all eligible spinal cord injury exoskeleton users and device development for stroke victims.”
Michigan: In Detroit, Android Robotics Glue laid off 120 people who were recently hired! It’s blamed on the cut-backs in the automotive industry.
New Jersey: France based driverless vehicle developer Transdev will kill 64 jobs in Union, by March. Comcast Cable issued a WARN for its West Deptford ops, 88 jobs gone by June. Internet based printer Zoo Printing eliminating 65 West Deptford jobs due to being shutdown. Virginia based news media giant Gannett killed an additional 130 jobs at The Record, just two months after killing 141 jobs! It’s the result of Gannett’s massive takeover of smaller news operations back in Summer 2016.
New York: General Electric (GE) issued a shutdown WARN for their Industrial Automation Systems Department in Albany, 75 jobs lost between March and May. GE also shutting down its Current Powered Storage Unit in Schenectady, 41 jobs gone by mid-April. Local news media also reported that GE laid off an undisclosed number of people at its Niskayuna Global Research Center. VaynerMedia suddenly laid off about 30 NYC employees, apparently in connection with its takeover of pro-female sexist digital media company PureWow. Instant messenger service VSCO shutdown its NYC office as it consolidates ops to California. In NYC, now bankrupt internet based auctioneer Paddle8 issued a layoff WARN, 24 people out-of-work by March. Knowledge Systems issued a layoff WARN for their Syracuse call center, 60 jobs lost by mid-April due an increase in people refusing to take part in phone surveys. In Brooklyn-NYC, US Mobile Phones issued a shutdown WARN, as many as 121 jobs affected as the company moves its distribution ops to New Jersey! Optoelectronic company Meopta issued a shutdown WARN for their Hauppauge ops, 42 jobs moving to Florida by mid-April. NYC based Wall Street Journal warning of massive layoffs at its European and Asian ops, due to crashing advertising revenues. New York Times warned employees of yet more layoffs because “The world is changing really rapidly”. In Utica, Alorica eliminated 2-hundred call center jobs as part of its plan to consolidate ops!
North Carolina: Info-Tech company Pomeroy shutting down its Charlotte ops, 85 jobs lost by June due to the merger with Tolt creating “redundancies”. California based Facebook forced its now former security contractor SIS to layoff 96 people in Forest City. Facebook is now using the evil British empire founded torture specialists G4S! Ohio based Ameridial lost their Spindale call center contract, 160 jobs gone by March! Cloud based ‘document outsourcer’ Novitex suddenly lost its contract and will eliminate 51 jobs in Charlotte.
Oregon: California based Facebook forced its now former security contractor SIS to layoff 85 people in Prineville. Facebook is now using the evil British empire founded torture specialists G4S!
Pennsylvania: Technicolor Home Entertainment eliminating 96 jobs in Olyphant, by March. Philadelphia Magazine suddenly shutdown a supposedly popular section on their website and laid off employees saying they’re “ceasing publication of new material on Birds 24/7, effective today” and blaming too much “competition and now there is a glut of coverage.”
Texas: Grapevine based GameStop shutdown all 50 brick-n-mortar Simply Mac stores! GameStop-Simply Mac store managers gave a variety of reasons to local news media, from corporate restructuring to crashing revenues to even blaming Apple for canceling the contract with GameStop. Apple denied the last explanation. CompuCom turns out to be a liar as it issued a WARN saying 144 Texans will soon become unemployed! A month prior CompuCom revealed it was moving its Dallas HQ to South Carolina, but promised the move would not affect its jobs count in Texas! Austin based on-demand delivery service Favor killed service in five U.S. states, and Canada, and is focusing on The Lone Star State only! Favor CEO Jag Bath said it was all about “profitability while still maintaining an impressive rate of growth” (Bath must’ve gone to the Orwellian school of public relations because drastically cutting back on service is not an impressive growth rate, unless the growth rate is all on paper and about profits only). Austin based National Instruments warning that it must cut back on labor costs after crashing earnings due mainly to the strong USD reducing international sales. San Antonio based Mission Solar conducted more layoffs due to “current market conditions.” They didn’t say how many people were laid off, but four months ago they laid off 87 workers.
Utah: Endurance International Group eliminating 440 Bluehost jobs as it shuts down its operations in Orem! Bluehost ops are being consolidated to Arizona.
Virginia: Internet based Relay Foods shutting down two distribution centers due to merger with a competitor. Local news media were only able to confirm that more than 48 people will lose their jobs. McLean
Washington: Redmond based Microsoft suddenly laid off 7-hundred people as part of their plan to kill more than 2-thousand jobs by the end of the year! Redwood City based digital advertising company Rocket Fuel warned it must layoff 93 of its employees as part of its plan to shift to ‘the cloud’. Bellevue based digital advertising company AudienceScience warned it must eliminate 25% of its jobs to “…reflect our increasing shift towards better serving the agency side of the advertising business”. Mobile game developer Glu Mobile issued a layoff WARN for Bellevue, 58 jobs lost in March. Also in Bellevue, Voicebox suddenly laid off 115 people! Seattle based environmental website Grist laid off 90% of its full-time writers, shifting to cheaper freelance writers. Local news media reporting that Seattle Times eliminated 23 jobs. Sinclair Broadcasting Group (SBG) suddenly laid off ten KOMO newsroom employees, despite advertising that they’re hiring. SBG admin would only say that they needed to restructure, a unnamed KOMO employee told local news media “I feel like we are being bled.”
Washington DC: 21st Century Fox owned National Geographic conducting more layoffs due to an “evolving media environment”.
Tech/Communications shutdown December 2016: “…IS GRINCH MAKING THESE DECISIONS OR HUMAN BEINGS…?”