HP Chopped 22,700 Employees Last Year; thousands more to come

HP is slicing jobs at a faster-than-expected rate. The company has axed 27,700 people from its workforce, out of the the 29,000 it plans to cut, it said Monday in an SEC filing.

HP originally announced the layoff plan in May 2012, saying it would cut 27,000 (about 8% of its workforce) and then, in September, said it would cut 29,000. HP also said the layoffs would happen very slowly, over about two years, ending at the close of its fiscal 2014 which is October, 2014.

Six months ago, in February, CEO Meg Whitman said HP had axed 15,000 employees, or was about half way done. But HP has also been warning investors in its SEC documents that the cuts could vary by 15% as it tries to find $3 billion in savings from its workforce. Read more >>

Employers announced 50,462 layoffs last month

The number of planned layoffs at U.S. firms surged in August to their highest in half a year, with industrial goods manufacturers the hardest hit, a report on Thursday showed.

Employers announced 50,462 layoffs last month, up 33.8 percent from 37,701 in July, according to the report from consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

The August job cuts were up 57 percent from the same time a year ago. For 2013 so far, employers have announced 347,095 job losses, close to the 352,185 that were seen in the first eight months of last year.

Industrial goods manufacturers saw the biggest layoffs, cutting 22,162 employees, the largest total for the sector since January 2009.

"Heavy job cuts in the industrial goods sector are never a good thing, as they can be indicative of widening cracks in the economy's foundation," said John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

"However, the August surge in industrial goods job cuts was driven largely by falling global demand for mining equipment," he said. Read more >>

Tech layoffs more than doubled in 2nd quarter

Layoffs announced by U.S. employees in the technology sector more than doubled in the second quarter, reaching the highest level in a year, according to new data from consulting firm Challenger Gray & Christmas Inc.

During the period, the computer, electronics and telecommunications industries announced plans to cut a combined 20,491 positions, up from 8,392 during the first quarter, but down from 39,164 a year earlier.

The second quarter included layoff plans from tech giant International Business Machines Corp. IBM -0.08%  , which is expected to cut as many as 8,000 workers after the company posted disappointing first-quarter earnings, according to Challenger.

Computer firms reported the highest number of planned job cuts--at 16,404--up sharply from 3,526 during the first quarter. Cuts by electronics firms surged 68% to 2,344 from the previous quarter. However, planned telecom cuts were down by half at 1,743. Read more >>

Nothing says economic recovery like mass layoffs

Nothing says economic recovery like one of the most profitable and prestigious law firms in  the nation announcing mass layoffs for the first time in 82 years.  Yep, four years after the so-called “recovery” began, things are so good that Weil, Gotshal & Manges has decided to cut 7% of its associates and slash annual compensation for 10% of its partners by hundreds of thousands of dollars.

As the article below notes, there is still massive overcapacity in the legal profession and this announcement is likely to spark a wave of layoffs in the industry.  Not to worry though, Blackstone will continue to place all cash bids on empty homes in Nevada and Arizona.  From the New York Times’ Dealbook:

One of the country’s most prestigious and profitable law firms is laying off a large number of lawyers and support staff, as well as reducing the pay of some of its partners, a surprising move that underscores the financial difficulties facing the legal profession.

Sixty junior lawyers, known in law firms as associates, will lose their jobs. That amounts to roughly 7 percent of Weil’s associates. Roughly 30 of the firm’s 300 partners are having their annual compensation reduced, in many cases by hundreds of thousands of dollars. And 110 staff employees – roughly half of them legal secretaries – are being let go. Read more >>

Job Insecurity High as Layoffs Show Huge Surge

The number of planned layoffs at U.S. firms fell in March but downsizing by retail companies still helped the first quarter rack up the largest amount of cuts in over a year, a report showed on Thursday. Employers announced 49,255 planned job cuts last month, down 11 percent from 55,356 in February, according to the report from consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

But March's layoffs were still up 30 percent from the same time a year ago, the fourth time in the last six months that monthly job cuts have been higher than the year before. For the quarter, there were 145,041 workers let go, up 5.6 percent from the fourth quarter of last year. It was the worst quarter for layoffs since the third quarter of 2011.

Retailers cut the most employees in March, announcing 16,445 layoffs, up from 2,279 in February. In the first three months of the year, retail firms have cut 25,400 jobs, second only to the financial sector's 33,819 for 2013 so far. Read more >>

The Layoff Kings Of 2012

If you have a job, be thankful, because more than 1 million American workers were laid off during the first three quarters of the year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's better than the same period last year, but not by much, and some companies handed out especially large numbers of layoff notices.

Check out some of this year's layoff kings. Read more >>

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Layoff Kings Of 2012

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Planned layoffs rise for third month

Planned layoffs at U.S. firms rose for the third month in a row in November, partly driven by the bankruptcy of Hostess Brands, a report showed on Thursday.

Employers announced 57,081 job cuts last month, the highest level since May and up nearly 20 percent from 47,724 in October, according to the report from consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.

November's job cuts were also up 34.4 percent from the 42,474 seen a year ago.

Still, 2012 is shaping up to be a better year than last year. With one month to go, employers have announced 490,806 cuts in 2012, lower than 2011's total of 606,082 layoffs.

The bankruptcy of Twinkies maker Hostess in November accounted for 18,500 of the jobs lost. The computer industry, which has led layoffs for the year, cut 3,313 jobs last month.

"Job cuts this year have really been driven by a handful of large-scale cuts," Rick Cobb, executive vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in a statement. Read more >>

Banking job cuts near 160,000

Banks worldwide are shedding jobs as stricter regulations and euro zone worries take their toll on trading income and investment banking units. Many began outlining layoffs plans 18 months ago and are now cutting more deeply as they reassess their entire business to cope with tougher capital rules, while some are cutting because of acquisitions or mergers they are involved in.

Switzerland's UBS in October added 10,000 job cuts to the 3,500 it had earmarked last year, after deciding to exit most of the rates and debt trading. Staff cuts announced since mid-2011 or reported to be in the works at major banks have now reached 158,000.

Below are aggregates of various redundancy rounds. They are likely to be conservative figures, as not all banks have announced lay-offs publicly, and the number does not take into account smaller investment banks, boutiques and brokers. Read more >>

Layoffs rise as more companies are downsizing

Just when it looked as if the economy was upsizing, more companies are downsizing. A mounting number of companies, including many tech firms, have been announcing layoffs, prompting some to worry about the proliferation of pink slips amid third-quarter earnings reports showing nearly zero growth.

"We've seen a spate of bad earnings announcements," says John Challenger of outplacement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas. "Companies often take fast action," which results in job cuts.

Colgate-Palmolive was the most recent example Thursday, with plans to cut 2,300 jobs. But that announcement just piled on top of similar revelations from firms such as online game company Zynga, heavy equipment maker Caterpillar, computer chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices and chemical firm DuPont in recent weeks.

Early data point to a disturbing rise in layoffs, as seen by:

-- Recent uptick in layoffs. Companies in North America announced plans to cut more than 62,000 jobs since Sept. 1, says Bloomberg News. That's the biggest two-month slashing of jobs since the beginning of 2010. Read more >>

The BLS has become a total farce

When we reported on the surge in last week's initial claims from 342K to 388K, we made one simple forecast: "Remember: this number will be revised to 391K next week." We were off: it was revised to 392K.

In other words, the data charlatainism at the DOL continues unabated. And of course, today's Initial Claims number which magically "beat" expectations by 1K, printing at 369K, on expectations of 370K, will be revised to a miss of 372K next week. The BLS has become a total farce. In other manipulated news, the BLS reported the culprit for last week's surge in Claims: it was California, which saw a +26,935 jump in initial claims, due to "Layoffs across all sectors, with the largest share from the service industry."

This somehow is supposed to offset the -4,979 claims drop from the week before, when all those plunges and jumps in claims took place. Elsewhere, the number of Americans on extended claims and EUCs dropped to 2.1 million, down 1.4 million from a year earlier. Read more >>

AMD could slash up to 30 percent of its workforce

AllThingsD and CNET are reporting that 30 percent of AMD's workforce could be laid off, though one of several unnamed sources notes the cuts could be as low as 10 percent. If these reports hold true, this would be the second round of layoffs for AMD within a year's time.

The reductions will reportedly affect the firm's engineering and sales employees, and may be serious enough to cause a paring back of product lines.

The silicon giant could potentially reveal its plans as early as next week, which would coincide with the announcement of its third quarter financial results. With the company expecting a ten percent revenue drop in Q3, it looks like the latest figures will continue the trend of less than ideal results.

Source:

More Bank Layoffs Coming: 'Bad as I've Seen It': Whitney

Banks have been behind the curve in terms of downsizing, with their employees paying for it now through a rash of furloughs, analyst Meredith Whitney told CNBC.

The industry has seen a recent spate of big layoff announcements, including 16,000 from Bank of America alone. Though banks already have jettisoned about half a million workers since the beginning of the financial crisis in 2008, Whitney said more are to come as the shrinking big institutions struggle to compete.

"The banks have been overstaffed for a really long time. If you think about all of the other industries that have gotten more competitive, more profitable, the banking sector and the insurance sector have been laggards behind it, and they employ a lot of people," Whitney said on "Closing Bell."

New banking regulations, particularly the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill, have seen the banks shrinking in order to avoid the too-big-to-fail syndrome that caused the industry to push the country into recession. Read more >>

Jobs harder to get after layoffs

The U.S. economic recovery hasn't felt much like one even for people who managed to find new jobs after being laid off. Most of them have had to settle for less pay.

Only 56 percent of Americans laid off from January 2009 through December 2011 had found jobs by the start of this year, the Labor Department said Friday. More than half of them took jobs with lower pay. One-third took pay cuts of 20 percent or more.

The figures would be even lower if people who could find only part-time jobs were included in the total. The report provides an illustration of the job market's persistent weakness well after the Great Recession officially ended in June 2009. It also documents that while the economy has added nearly 3 million jobs since the recovery began, many pay less than those that were lost. Read more >>

Public Workers Face Continued Layoffs

In California, the governor is threatening to eliminate 15,000 state jobs. When school begins in Cleveland this fall, more than 500 teachers probably will be out of work. And in Trenton — which has already cut a third of its police force, hundreds of school district employees and at least 150 other public workers — the only way the city will forestall the loss of 60 more firefighters is if a federal grant comes through.

Government payrolls grew in the early part of the recovery, largely because of federal stimulus measures. But since its postrecession peak in April 2009 (not counting temporary Census hiring), the public sector has shrunk by 657,000 jobs. The losses appeared to be tapering off earlier this year, but have accelerated for the last three months, creating the single biggest drag on the recovery in many areas. 

Fourteen states plan to resolve their budget gaps by reducing aid to local governments, according to a report by the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers.  Read more >>

Challenger - planned job cuts surged to a 16-month high in July

The number of planned job cuts surged to a 16-month high in July -- rising 60% in July to 66,414 from June's 41,432, according to outplacement consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

The firm characterized it as a "sudden and unexpected burst" in downsizing.
Job killing companies

The data was hardly a surprise though, given a flurry of mass layoffs announced in the last few weeks by Cisco Systems, Merck & Co., Borders, Lockheed Martin and Boston Scientific. Those five companies alone accounted for 38,100 planned cuts in July.

"What may be most worrisome about the July surge is that the heaviest layoffs occurred in industries that, until now, have enjoyed relatively low job-cut levels, including pharmaceuticals, computer and retail," John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas said in a statement.

Employers have now announced a total of 312,220 planned job cuts this year -- down 8% from 339,353 cuts announced in the first seven months of 2010. More...

Laid-off workers threaten to blow up French plant

Image via Wikipedia

By Agence France-Presse
CREPY-EN-VALOIS, France -- Workers at a French car accessories plant north of Paris threatened Friday to blow up their factory unless they were given better layoff compensation.

Employees at the Sodimatex plant placed petrol bombs near a large gas tank and were threatening to set them on fire.

"The plant is going to go up in smoke, if that's what they want," said one worker.

Managers sat down with union leaders and labour mediators at the town hall in Crepy-en-Valois in a bid to defuse tensions at the plant, where 92 jobs will be shed.

"The workers have high expectations about this meeting. There has to be a concrete result or else anything could happen. They are very determined," said Eric Lemoine, a union activist.

"Even if we tell them not to do it, some of them might not listen," said another union leader, Gerard Decleir.

Staff set fire to pieces of plastic and rolls of carpet at the factory, sending billowing black smoke into the sky as police deployed outside the plant's gates.

Industry Minister Christian Estrosi condemned the workers' action as "unacceptable" and called on them to settle the row with management through talks.

Workers are demanding compensation of 21,000 euros (28,000 dollars) each, much more than the 15,000 euros on offer from the owners. France has its highest unemployment rate in a decade, at 10 percent, with the car industry among the hardest-hit by the global slowdown.

The sector employs 10 percent of the total French workforce.

Last year, French workers hit by a wave of layoffs carried out a series of "bossnappings" to press demands for better redundancy packages, but the radical action has subsided over past months.

President Nicolas Sarkozy spoke out against the detentions, saying they were illegal, and vowed to take action.

In his appeal to the workers, the industry minister said "only dialogue can lead to results for the workers facing a painful situation with the closure of their plant. Violence and threats will only lead to a dead-end."

Sodimatex, which produces car carpets, announced last April that it planned to shut down its plant in Crepy-en-Valois and began talks on compensation. But months of negotiations hit an impasse and workers on Thursday decided to occupy the plant after police used tear gas to disperse a protest they were holding near the factory.

About 40 workers spent the night at the plant, sleeping on the factory's just-produced carpets.

Union activists contend they are seeking the same package as Sodimatex employees from another plant who were given 21,000 euros each when their factory was shut down in 2006.

Six Unemployed For Every Job

According to MarketWatch:
The number of open U.S. jobs fell 50% over the past two years to a seasonally adjusted 2.4 million in July, the lowest in the brief history of the data, the Labor Department reported Wednesday.

The job-opening rate fell to a record-low 1.8% in July.

Job openings track the demand for labor, the flipside of the unemployment rate, which measures the supply of labor. Read the full government report.

In July, there were 6.05 unemployed people for every job opening, according to the most recent data on labor turnover. In December 2007, when the recession began, there were 1.72 unemployed people for every job opening.

The number of workers hired in July was little changed at 4.06 million, while the number of workers separated from their jobs was little changed at 4.29 million. The hires rate rose to 3.1%, while the separations rate remained at a series-low 3.3%.

In the past 12 months, hires have fallen 13.9%, while separations are down 12.8%.

Layoffs were little changed in July at 2.3 million, while 1.7 million people quit their job. Layoffs have increased 15% in the past year, while quits are down 32%.

In the 12 months ending in July, hires totaled 51.3 million, and separations totaled 56.6 million, with a net job loss of 5.3 million.