According to Bloomberg: “Companies in the U.S. cut an estimated 522,000 jobs in January as the economy weakened at the start of the year, a private report based on payroll data showed today.
The drop in the ADP Employer Services gauge was less than economists forecast and followed a revised cut of 659,000 for the prior month”
SpiegelOnLine reports: “According to a report released on Wednesday by the Federal Labor Agency, which tracks German unemployment statistics, the number of jobless rose by 114,000 in December, bringing the total to 3.102 million or 7.4 percent.”
“On average, the total number of unemployed last year was 508,000 lower than in 2007. Analysts, though, anticipate that 2009 will see increased job losses in Germany.”
According to Bloomberg: “The share of consumers who said jobs are plentiful fell to 6.2 percent, the lowest level in 16 years, from 8.7 percent last month, today’s report showed. The proportion of people who said jobs are hard to get increased to 42 percent from 37.1 percent.”
“That wasn’t enough to overcome the damage from the loss of 1.9 million jobs and a slump in household wealth after the collapse of home and stock prices.”
“The jobless rate could reach 8.2 percent at the end of next year compared with last month’s 15-year high of 6.7 percent, according to the survey.”
“President-elect Barack Obama has expanded his economic stimulus goals and called for creating or saving 3 million jobs over the next two years. Vice President-elect Joe Biden said Dec. 23 the incoming administration and congressional leaders are nearing an agreement on the broad principles of a stimulus policy.”
According to CNNMoney: “In a report released Monday, executive outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. predicted that more than 1 million jobs would be cut in 2009.
Last week, consulting firm Watson Wyatt said that 23% of companies surveyed in early December plan layoffs in the next year.
The report also said that 39% had already cut their work force – up from 19% in October.”
According to MarketWatch: “California’s unemployment rate climbed to 8.4 percent in November, the third-highest rate in the nation, federal officials said Friday.
The jobless rate announced by the U.S. Department of Labor was up from 5.7 percent a year earlier, and 8.2 percent in October. Only Michigan and Rhode Island posted higher jobless rates than California.
The agency said California shed 41,700 jobs last month, bringing the total jobs lost over the past year to 136,000. Florida and North Carolina were the only states to lose more jobs in November.
The U.S. unemployment rate rose to 6.7 percent in November — a 15-year high. The nation lost 533,000 jobs last month, the largest monthly job loss in 34 years.”
According to AP: “Staring at 533,000 lost jobs, economists were anything but hopeful. Since the start of the recession last December, the economy has shed 1.9 million jobs, and the number of unemployed people has increased by 2.7 million — to 10.3 million now out of work.
Some analysts predict 3 million more jobs will be lost between now and the spring of 2010 — and that the once-humming U.S. economy could stagger backward at a shocking 6 percent rate for the current three-month quarter.”
According to Reuters: “The U.S. economy hemorrhaged more than half a million jobs in November, data showed on Friday, sending stocks lower on both sides of the Atlantic and hammering currencies from Europe to Latin America.
Canada also absorbed more job losses last month than at any time since 1982, while Germany approved a stimulus package aimed at helping Europe’s biggest economy weather what some fear may be its worst recession since World War II.
The biggest blow, though, came from the United States, where employers last month axed 533,000 jobs, the most for any month since 1974 and nearly 200,000 more than economists expected. The jobless rate hit 6.7 percent, the highest since 1993.”
According to CNNMoney: “Payrolls shrink by 533,000, bringing 11-month decline to 1.9 million. Unemployment soars to 6.7%”.
“The economy shed 533,000 jobs in November, according to a government report Friday – bringing the year’s total job losses to 1.9 million.
November had the largest monthly job loss total since December 1974.”
According to Bloomberg: “Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., the world’s largest publicly traded copper producer, plans to reduce its workforce in North America by about 20 percent because of lower metal prices.
The job cuts will be undertaken “aggressively in the near term,” Chief Executive Officer Richard Adkerson said today in an interview in New York.
Employment at Freeport’s mines in Arizona and New Mexico doubled in the past five years as metal prices rose, Adkerson said. Now the company has cut contractors’ jobs and is offering voluntary severance and early retirement packages to its 9,000 U.S. workers, he said.”
According to Washington Business Journal: “The ADP National Employment Report said that the U.S. job market shows weakness, with losses in the manufacturing, services and construction sectors.
The ADP report found that construction lost 44,000 jobs, manufacturing 118,000 jobs and services 92,000 positions during October.
Manufacturing has lost jobs in the U.S. for 27 straight months and the construction sector has sacked 521,000 workers since August 2006, according to the payroll company’s employment study.”
According to Reuters and Guardian: “U.S. private employers slashed an unexpectedly high 250,000 jobs in November, the biggest cut in seven years, while the service sector, which powers most of the economy, posted its worst slump on record.
Wednesday’s reports were the latest signs that the job market is nowhere near bottom and suggested Friday’s government payrolls report could exceed current expectations for 320,000 job losses in November.”
Silicon Alley Insider came up with ‘How To Lay Off Employees (And Not Get Sued)’ article.
In a few words: “Bone up on employment laws; Pay out severance according to title and length of service. Only;
Don’t treat laid off employees like criminals; Don’t set layoff traps ;Be clear to blame the economy, not the employee.”
According to Technorati company blog: “Technorati just announced on its official blog that the company has decided to lay off six employees as the result of generally poor economic conditions. Management is also taking a 10-15% pay cut, while all other surviving employees are getting their paychecks cut down by 10%. Two of the six departures are from management positions, although no names have been released yet. CEO Richard Jalichandra described those who have been laid off as “high performers who have worked long hours to get us where we are now. They’re also friends, and we’re very sad to see them go.”
According to San Francisco Business Times: “With the pace of Bay Area layoffs increasing, particularly in the East Bay, workforce retraining efforts are also gathering steam.
Large-scale job cuts have accelerated with the closure of department store chain Mervyns’ Hayward corporate office and eight East Bay locations, and the acquisition of Longs Drug Stores Corp. by CVS Caremark Corp., with the loss of 800 Longs corporate jobs. This week, electronics retailer Circuit City Inc. said it would close 155 stores nationally, including six in the East Bay.
These are among the region’s biggest layoffs since last year, when job losses were focused on the home lending industry. Roy Bertuccelli, a program financial specialist at the Alameda County Workforce Investment Board in Hayward, said the last three weeks have been “extremely unusual. … All sectors of the economy are slowing down.”
Meanwhile, green industries, health care and biotech continue to hire. Bertuccelli is seeking to retrain workers to match up with continued demand from “sunrise” industries.”
According to NYTimes: “Sezmi, the company with a bold plan to reinvent television for the Internet age, laid off 20 percent of its staff today, or around 20 employees, in what its president and chairman Phil Wiser described as an acknowledgment of tough economic times.
Once a secretive start-up called Building B, Sezmi is aiming to build a comprehensive television service it can provide to mid-tier telephone companies that need to offer their customers a television option. The company has built a set-top box with an integrated DVR and a unique interface that combines Internet channels with regular programming. It has also designed a hybrid distribution network that involves sending high-definition television over spectrum it licenses from local television broadcasters.”
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