According to CNN Money: “Bankruptcy filings by American consumers increased nearly a third in 2008, according to a new report.
The American Bankruptcy Institute said overall consumer filings rose to 1.06 million in 2008, compared with 801,840 during 2007. The ABI based its study on data from the National Bankruptcy Research Center.”
According to California EDD WARN statistics, the following layoffs are scheduled for January – February 2009 in hi-tech companies with number of employees greater than 50:
ADOBE SYSTEMS INCORPORATED, Location: SAN FRANCISCO, Layoff date: 2/3/09, Employees affected: 75
CADENCE DESIGN SYSTEMS, INC, Location: SAN JOSE, Layoff date: 1/4/09, Employees affected: 245
NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR CORPORATION, Location: SANTA CLARA, Layoff date: 1/13/09, Employees affected: 151
PALM, INC, Location: SUNNYVALE, Layoff date: 1/19/09, Employees affected: 107
SANDISK CORPORATION, Location: MILPITAS, Layoff date: 1/11/09, Employees affected: 96
SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY LLC, Location: MILPITAS, Layoff date: 1/3/09, Employees affected: 48
SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY LLC, Location: MILPITAS, Layoff date: 4/3/09, Employees affected: 43
SHUTTERFLY, INC, Location: HAYWARD, Layoff date: 1/16/09, Employees affected: 70
SIEMENS, Location: LOS ANGELES, Layoff date: 1/30/09, Employees affected: 6
SIEMENS MEDICAL SOLUTIONS, Location: MOUNTAIN VIEW, Layoff date: 1/5/09, Employees affected: 2
SUN MICROSYSTEMS, INC:
Location: SACRAMENTO, Layoff date: 1/5/09, Employees affected: 3
Location: SACRAMENTO, Layoff date: 1/18/09, Employees affected: 2
Location: EL SEGUNDO, Layoff date: 1/5/09, Employees affected: 1
Location: EL SEGUNDO, Layoff date: 1/18/09, Employees affected: 1
Location: IRVINE, Layoff date: 1/5/09, Employees affected: 4
Location: IRVINE, Layoff date: 1/18/09, Employees affected: 3
Location: MENLO PARK, Layoff date: 1/5/09, Employees affected: 19
Location: MENLO PARK, Layoff date: 1/18/09, Employees affected: 6
Location: PLEASANTON, Layoff date: 1/5/09, Employees affected: 5
Location: PLEASANTON, Layoff date: 1/18/09, Employees affected: 7
Location: SAN DIEGO, Layoff date: 1/5/09, Employees affected: 2
Location: SAN DIEGO, Layoff date: 1/18/09, Employees affected: 2
Location: SAN FRANCISCO, Layoff date: 1/18/09, Employees affected: 4
Location: UNIVERSAL CITY, Layoff date: 1/18/09, Employees affected: 1
SYMANTEC:
Location: CUPERTINO, Layoff date: 1/19/09, Employees affected: 55
Location: MOUNTAIN VIEW, Layoff date: 1/13/09, Employees affected: 38
VISHAY SILICONIX, Location: SANTA CLARA, Layoff date: 2/6/09, Employees affected: 97
VIRGIN MOBILE USA, Location: WALNUT CREEK, Layoff date: 1/1/09, Employees affected: 192
THE BOEING COMPANY:
Location: ANAHEIM, Layoff date: 1/1/09, Employees affected: 5
Location: ANAHEIM, Layoff date: 1/22/09, Employees affected: 2
Location: EL SEGUNDO, Layoff date: 1/1/09, Employees affected: 8
Location: EL SEGUNDO, Layoff date: 1/22/09, Employees affected: 3
Location: HUNTINGTON BEACH, Layoff date: 1/1/09, Employees affected: 19
Location: HUNTINGTON BEACH, Layoff date: 1/22/09, Employees affected: 42
Location: LONG BEACH, Layoff date: 1/1/09, Employees affected: 50
Source: California EDD WARN
According to AP: “New jobless claims fell more than expected last week from a 16-year high, the government said Wednesday, though they remain at elevated levels due to the slowing economy.
The Labor Department reported that initial requests for unemployment benefits fell to a seasonally adjusted 529,000 from the previous week’s upwardly revised figure of 543,000. That is lower than analysts’ expectations of 537,000.”
According to WSJ: “The World Bank cut its forecasts for China’s economic growth because of weaker housing demand and softer private investment and consumption as well as the global downturn.
In its latest China Quarterly Update, the World Bank said China’s economy will likely grow 9.4% this year, slower than 11.9% in 2007 and its earlier projection of 9.8%.
The bank cut its growth forecast for 2009 to 7.5% from 9.2% earlier.”
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 Bloomberg: “New York may lose as many as 225,000 jobs and $6.5 billion in securities industry-related tax revenue over the two-year period ending in October 2009, state Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli said.
In a report published today, he predicted financial- industry job losses may total 38,000 by October, with 10,000 more jobs lost in banking, insurance and real estate. Those losses could spread throughout the private sector, taking out as many as 225,000 positions statewide, he said. “
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 NBC12: “Workers with Henrico’s Qimonda company headed into work yesterday, not knowing if they’d have a job come December. On Monday, the memory-chip company announced cuts to nearly half its Sandston-based workforce.
The plant that employs 3,000 people will soon be trimming its workforce nearly in half. Beginning in December, 1,200 employees at Qimonda will be laid off.”
According to WSJ: “Russians have begun to feel the chill of the financial crisis, as it triggers layoffs and wage-payment delays reminiscent of the economic collapse in the late 1990s.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin promised new measures, including lower corporate taxes and higher unemployment payments, in addition to an existing bailout package.
Government data show that wage arrears jumped in October to over four billion rubles ($145 million), their highest level in a year, and that firms owe back pay to 300,000 people. Economists say the real figures are likely to be higher, though far below those seen in the 1990s, when tens of millions of people were affected. Then, workers went without salaries for months on end, sparking nationwide protests.”
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.”
According to CNNMoney: “As the faltering economy forces companies to cut back, employee perks are among the first things to go. And along with free coffee in the break room, the next thing your employer might axe is its contribution to your retirement savings plan.
About 84% of companies in the U.S. offered employees a 401(k) match as of last year according to Watson Wyatt, a benefits consulting firm.”
According to San Jose Mercury News: “The number of people looking for work in Silicon Valley was up sharply in October, sending the unemployment rate to 6.9 percent — still far below California’s jobless rate of 8.2 percent.“
According to The Daily News: “The University of Texas Medical Branch campus, where a chorus of ambulance sirens once was constant and thousands of workers conducted the daily business of keeping a 550-bed hospital running, was somber and quiet Tuesday as the first of 3,000 people learned they no longer had jobs.
Most had worked at John Sealy Hospital, where workers will take the brunt of the massive cut.
Many had never worked any place except the medical branch.
Some who had held out hope their jobs would be spared sat in disbelief at the news. Others, minutes after being dismissed, attended classes to brush up their job-seeking skills.
Then, there were those who didn’t yet know. They waited in dread to enter rooms where their supervisors would deliver the news.
The University of Texas System regents last week authorized cutting up to 3,800 full-time equivalent positions after Hurricane Ike devastated the island campus that had employed 8,000 people.”
According to ITExaminer: “AMD’s Indian employees can rest easy, as the company has no plans to follow up layoffs in the US with similar cuts in India.
AMD India managing director, Dasaradha Gude. said, “This is a global impact of economic slowdown, and AMD hopes to come back hard. It will affect India as well, but we are also at the hiring spree.” He added, “There are no such plans to have similar lay-offs in India.”
According to Reuters: “The governor of a Chinese province sat down with protesters after they fought pitched battles with police, a rare concession by a leader and a sign of government concerns about stability as the economy slows.
Xu Shousheng held a meeting with 10 representatives in Wudu in the poverty-stricken northwestern province of Gansu two days after the riot in which dozens were injured, state media said.”
Riots in China
Photo: Reuters
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