Incomplete list of publicly announced layoffs & shutdowns:
Alaska: Maxine’s Firewood Bistro shutdown, an unnamed employee said the owners were moving to a new location.
California: Florida owned San Mateo based 11 Main internet selling site eliminating about 150 jobs! 11 main was once owned by China’s Alibaba, who sold it to Harris Corporation’s OpenSky last month. Unnamed 11 Main employees report that the San Mateo HQ is shutting down. Prior to the Alibaba sale of 11 Main to OpenSky, Alibaba laid off dozens of people at 11 Main as well as U.S. subsidiaries Auctiva and Vendio. San Diego County has decided to shutdown its child prison known as the Juvenile Ranch Facility in Campo. The good news is that administrators blame a lack of child prisoners (but really they’re trying to save $700-thousand USD per year in operating costs). In Napa, Fagiani’s Bar and The Thomas Restaurant shutdown to make room for a New York based property developer’s bigger restaurant. In Half Moon Bay, after 40 years the Bay Book store shutdown.
Connecticut: After two years the owner of S&S Sweet Treats shutting down her Torrington ice cream shop in September: “Essentially there is a lack of support for small businesses and a small business simply cannot exist without its community’s support.”-Tina Pesillo
Florida: Triangle Service of South Florida apparently lost their trash contract with the Tampa International Airport, they issued a WARN saying 249 jobs will be lost by the end of September! The Red Cross shutting down their West Bradenton ops and consolidating to Lakewood Ranch. In Sarasota, for the second time in as many years the Oriental Buffet shutdown for failing health inspections. Florida has had a spat of restaurant shutdowns due to health code violations. Vero Beach based Piper Aircraft announced “As a direct result of the slowdown in sales, Piper Aircraft….will require that the current workforce be reduced. While the total number of impacted employees is not yet confirmed, the company expects that the reduction will involve approximately 15 percent to 20 percent of the current workforce.”
Hawaii: After eight years Hank’s Haute Dogs will shutdown in August.
Idaho: Boise based micro chip maker Micron is about to be sold-off. The potential buyer is China’s Tsinghua Unigroup, which is offering $23-billion for the troubled company. If Micron agrees the deal must be accepted by the Committee on Foreign Investment. In Meridian, after 26 years Miss Tami’s restaurant shutting down. The owner said the economy is forcing them to scale down to a catering/drive thru operation only. Payette County administrators have a plan to take advantage of neighboring Oregon’s new legalized marijuana; instead of jailing pot heads that cross the border into Idaho they simply fine them. They save money by not packing their county jail full of weedies, and they’ll make money off the thousands of fines they expect to collect.
Iowa: Interstate Power and Light-Alliant Energy could shutdown five coal fired electricity generating power plants, hundreds of jobs lost! Iowa’s second largest electricity maker must also spend $7-million in pollution controls on other coal plants, or switching to natural gas. It’s the result of being fined by the U.S. EPA and Department of Justice for violating pollution regulations.
Kansas: Wichita State University shutting down their 35 years old Lake Afton Public Observatory in August, due to lack of funding. Also, the number of people who look to the stars has crashed by 50% compared to public attendance when it first opened in 1981.
Louisiana: News reports say that presidential hopeful gov’na Bobby Jindal killed 8,442 state classified jobs since he became gov’na in 2008! That number does not include unclassified positions that were also eliminated.
Maine: After 28 years Videoport shutting down, owner Bill Duggan said “We can’t raise prices anymore, because of competition, so it’s hard to keep up with costs.”
Michigan: What auto industry recovery? Despite reporting profits Ford is threatening to shutdown its massive factory in Wayne and move production of C-Max trucks and Focus cars to Mexico, 4-thousand jobs could be lost!
Minnesota: South African based Sappi Fine Paper shutting down their Cloquet paper mill for a one week furlough “Due to global market conditions…”. In 2014 Sappi eliminated 110 U.S. jobs!
Missouri: Canadian news reports revealed that Kansas City based Kansas City Southern Railway will layoff at least 110 people! Women’s homeless shelter Shalom House shutting down and being sold-off after 47 years. Administrators blame crashing donations for forcing them to abandon 4-hundred women!
Nebraska: Canadian news reports revealed that Omaha based Union Pacific Railroad will furlough at least 1-thousand employees! Union Pacific is the largest U.S. railroad operator by sales. The Canadian news reports said it wasn’t just Union Pacific but several railroad companies across North America will be eliminating jobs due to crashing sales caused by the oil and agricultural industries: “The whole market is surprised at the rapid plunge, especially in coal volumes. The challenge is trying to align the size of the network in real time with demand that’s shifting in surprising ways.”-Keith Schoonmaker, Morningstar railroad analyst
Nevada: In Reno, clothiers Gap and Ann Taylor shutting down in The Summit Mall. The Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority eliminating 45 jobs as it switches to contractors to do the work, in an attempt to close a $1.8-million shortfall.
New Jersey: God refuses to stop ‘his’ 54 years old Mount Laurel Monastery from shutting down. Monks say it’s due to lack of work, however, local journalists discovered the property has been zoned for residential use and valued at $1.3-million, and church administrators had conducted an audit of assets on the property. Sounds like the false christians are about to sell their souls, I mean property for money. Food flavor additive maker Frutarom shutting down their North Bergen operations by August, 50 jobs lost. It’s blamed on the millions of dollars spent taking over British empire United Kingdom company FoodBlenders and Belgian company Taiga International. Sears Holdings announced the Vineland Kmart will shutdown in October, 74 jobs lost. In the land of presidential candidate gov’na Chris Christie, the state Supreme Court revealed it is truly an economically Failed State and gave local governments the go-ahead to eliminate union jobs at will: “….municipalities acted for reasons of economy based on municipal fiscal distress existing at the time, rendering the management choice to use a temporary or permanent layoff solution one that constituted a managerial prerogative not subject to negotiation.”-Jaynee LaVecchia, Supreme Court judge
New York: NYC based drugs pusher Pfizer is shutting down their 50 years old drugs factory in Navi Mumbai/Thane, India. Company administrators revealed they halted drugs production at the factory back in 2013, affecting at least 212 jobs! Reports reveal that the computer crash at the New York Stock Exchange might have been caused by the mass layoffs made by the new owner of the NYSE. In 2012 InterContinental Exchange (ICE) took over the NYSE, and some reports say as many as 8-hundred people were laid off, including many techies! NYC based IBT Media owned Newsweek will end its European hard copy publication just 18 months after it started! Newsweek’s Europe/Middle East/Africa edition will apparently be edited in NYC instead of London, U.K.: “We felt that this was an important moment to create a more unified editorial platform…”-IBT Media
North Carolina: ObamaCare forcing Winston-Salem based Novant Health to layoff 4-hundred people! Administrators said Novant Health is “financially healthy and strong today” but that ongoing “declining reimbursements and many other challenges” caused by ObamaCare are forcing them to re-organize.
North Dakota: In Fargo, Metro Drugs shutting down by the end of the month, blaming crashing sales despite the recent oil boom that skyrocketed the population.
Ohio: Yet another Mitt Romney wunderkind Staples store shutting down, this time in Moraine. It’s preparation for the pending merger of Staples and Office Depot. Staples will shutdown a total of 225 stores while Office Depot will shutdown 135, by the end of the year!
Texas: Canadian news reports revealed that Forth Worth based Warren Buffet owned BNSF Railway laid off an undisclosed number of employees, due to crashing sales caused by the oil and agricultural industries. BNSF is the second largest U.S. rail operator by sales.
Utah: In Logan, the World’s biggest maker of fitness equipment Icon Fitness & Health will layoff 4-hundred people by October! Administrators blame competition and crashing profits. Local news reports say local police were called to the factory before the announcement was made, as part of factory production was suddenly shutdown.
Virginia: In Portsmouth, the civil war between the Sheriff and the Courthouse is ramping up. A few months ago the Sheriff was reprimanded for trying to hoist the U.S. flag on the Courthouse property. Then the Sheriff was forced to layoff 25 deputies, so he chose those deputies who specifically handle Courthouse security. The result is long lines of citizens trying to get into the Courthouse to conduct legal business.
Washington: So much for legalized pot! The city of Seattle has created new licensing laws that will result in dozens of marijuana shops being shutdown! It sounds likes city administrators aren’t happy with the explosion of new ganja shops since 2013, and neither are the owners of several ganja shops that opened prior to 2013 (guess they can’t handle the competition). On top of that, King County administrators revealed they’ve shutdown 15 marijuana shops in the past few weeks!
Wisconsin: In Milwaukee, after two years the now bankrupt Blue Jacket restaurant shutting down in ten days, their chef already quit. In Sturgeon Bay, God refuses to stop ‘his’ United Methodist Church’s addict recovery Kimberly House from shutting down. It’s blamed on crashing donations, and crashing funding from United Way. The city of Madison warned of mass layoffs due to a shortfall of $7.9-million: “Unfortunately because of the situation we’re in, it’s really going to be incumbent upon people to focus on what they want to retain in terms of city services and city programs rather than exploring new areas.”-Paul Soglin, mayor
14 July 2015: “I sold the land…to put food on the table.”
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.”