LayoffBlog.com

Hip clothing maker American Apparel Inc. will lay off more than a quarter of its factory work force in Los Angeles amid a probe by U.S. immigration authorities.

In early July, the company announced that it had been notified by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, that 1,600 of it is 5,600 factory employees, who are largely Hispanic immigrants, might be in the U.S. illegally. An American Apparel spokeswoman said that about 1,500 workers would be terminated in coming weeks.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

The Peterbilt truck plant in Madison[,TN], which has been shut down since employees were locked out in a labor dispute in June 2008, will close permanently as of Dec. 1, the company said Monday. About 390 workers will lose their jobs, said plant manager Larry Vessels.

Source: The Tenessean

OAO AvtoVAZ, Russia’s biggest carmaker, said it may eliminate 27,600 jobs, or about a quarter of its workforce, as it slashes production to cope with plunging domestic sales.

AvtoVAZ, 25 percent owned by Renault SA, said today it’s operating at 65 percent of capacity. The automaker’s share of the Russian market may decline to 17 percent in 2015 from 25 percent this year as foreign automakers ramp up production in Russia, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said in a report this week.

Source: Bloomberg

Swiss bank UBS AG, which suffered massive client withdrawals after a high-profile U.S. tax fraud probe, has cut around 200 jobs at its U.S. wealth management arm, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Source: Reuters

Sony DADC announced it will lay off 35 workers from its Terre Haute, Indiana plant. The business currently employs more than 1,400 workers. The layoffs are scheduled to go into effect on Oct. 1.

Source: WTHITV

More than 15,000 people took to the streets of Zaragoza in northeastern Spain Saturday to protest feared job cuts at the Opel auto plant by Canadian car parts maker Magna.

With Magna expected to cut 10,000 jobs, there are concerns throughout Europe over where the axe would fall.

Source: AFP

Rockefeller & Co’s CEO committed suicide: report
(Reuters) – James McDonald, chief executive officer of investment management firm Rockefeller & Co, committed suicide on Sunday in Massachusetts, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter. – Source: Reuters

Newport Beach financier Danny Pang dies at 42
(LATimes) – Newport Beach financier Danny Pang died early Saturday at a local hospital, according to the Orange County coroner’s office. The cause of death has not been determined and an autopsy is planned for Sunday, said Larry Esslinger, supervising deputy coroner. – Source: LATimes

Financier Finn Casperson dead in apparent suicide
(Inquisitr) – Ex-CEO of Beneficial Corp. Finn H.W. Casperson was found dead in an apparent suicide behind an office building in Westerly, Rhode Island. – Source: TheInquisitr

Dying Blagojevich fundraiser said he overdosed, mayor says
(CNN) – Police are investigating the death of the former chief fundraiser for ex-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich as a “death-suicide,” an Illinois mayor said Sunday. – Source: CNN

Source: Infowars

Unemployment in the San Francisco metropolitan area rose slightly to 9.5 percent in August from 9.4 percent in July, the state Employment Development Department reported Friday. The region, which includes San Francisco, Marin and San Mateo counties, had 5.4 percent unemployment in August. 2008.

Silicon Valley unemployment rose to 12 percent in August from 11.8 percent in July and 6.4 percent in August 2008.

Source: SFBusinessTimes

Five states posted jobless rates above 12% in August, according to federal data released Friday:

• Michigan: 15.2%
• Nevada: 13.2%
• Rhode Island: 12.8%
• California: 12.2%
• Oregon: 12.2%

Source: CNNMoney

Five staffers in the Chronicle’s classified advertising department, four of them Guild members, agreed to job buyouts last week, according to the union, and “at least one voluntary layoff has been accepted in editorial.

Source: San Francisco Business Times

St. Louis-based Monsanto, one of the world’s largest agricultural companies, plans to slash 8 percent of its total staff - a hefty amount of job cuts that is twice what the company projected in June. The cuts could come to about 1,800 members of its 21,700-person workforce.

Source: Costar.com

The University of North Carolina system has eliminated more than 900 positions across its 16 campuses in recent months to offset lower state funding, officials said Thursday.

More than 95 percent of the cuts – 866 positions – were administrative jobs, officials said. About 40 faculty jobs also were cut.

Source: WRAL.com

ConAgra Foods will lay off 300 hourly employees in Garner as a result of diminished production following the June explosion that killed three and injured dozens of others, the company told workers in a meeting Wednesday evening.

The layoffs will take effect in mid-November. In addition to the layoff of 300 workers, the company will also eliminate the jobs of 21 salaried employees. The facility currently employs about 750.

Source: TriangleBusinessJournal

Layoff notices were set to go out Friday to nearly 3,000 Philadelphia city workers, including hundreds of police officers and firefighters, as the cash-strapped city struggles to close a massive budget gap.

Source: Philly.com

The number of Americans filing first-time claims for jobless benefits fell unexpectedly last week, a sign the labor market is deteriorating at a slower pace as the economy pulls out of the recession.

Applications dropped by 12,000 to 545,000 in the week ended Sept. 12, from a revised 557,000 the week before, Labor Department data showed today in Washington. The total number of people collecting unemployment insurance rose the prior week, to 6.23 million.

Source: Bloomberg

Mercedes-Benz plans to cut an additional 200 jobs at its Alabama auto assembly plant by the end of this year, part of the latest effort to bring production in line with slumping global demand.

Source: TheBirminghamNews

• Oracle layoff news
  
  • Oracle layoff discussion thread [updated daily, (Hot)]
  • Oracle-Sun Deal [Update 04-20-2009, discussion thread]
  • Oracle plans to lay off up to 1,000 in Europe [Update 07-02-2009]
    

• Sun Microsystems: Supermassive layoff (up to 10,000) possible [Update 04-03-2009]

• Cisco layoff news
  • [07-16-2009] (New), Cisco lays off hundreds of workers at San Jose HQ
  • [07-10-2009] (New), Cisco cutting up to 2,000 jobs
  • Rumor: Cisco Systems to lay off IT contractors [updated daily, (Hot) discussion thread]
  • [Update 02-25-2009] Rumor: “1800 More just got laid off at Cisco”; Layoff in progress at San Jose, CA, Austin, TX - [confirmed]
    
  • Rumor: Cisco could announce a 10% headcount reduction [updated daily, discussion thread]

• Microsoft layoff news
  • Microsoft layoffs today [2-10-2009 update: Next layoff round: 872 in March]
    
  • [2-23-2009 update:] Microsoft: Laid-off can keep extra pay after all
  • [5-5-2009] Microsoft sends second wave of layoff notices to 3000

• Yahoo layoff news
  • (New) [09-08-2009] Yahoo morale plummets as Bartz sells shares

• H1B layoff news
  • U.S. announces arrests in several states alleging H1B visa fraud [Discussion thread]
  • Indian Firms, Microsoft Top H-1B List [Discussion thread]
• IBM layoff news, discussion
  • Mass Layoffs at IBM in January 2009 [1-26-2009 update: More possible layoffs reported]
  • [Update 03-25-2009] IBM to Cut 5,000 U.S. Jobs, Shifting Work to India, [ discussion ]

Tags: Oracle | IBM | Microsoft | Cisco | AIG | Apple | H1B | Facebook | Sun Microsystems

Japan Airlines (JAL) said on Tuesday that it would slash 6,800 jobs and pursue a tie-up with a foreign carrier in a bid to return to profit in the face of severe turbulence unleashed by the global recession.

Source: AFP

Blockbuster Inc. plans to close 810 to 960 stores by the end of next year, including 280 to 300 normal closures and 300 to 385 accelerated closures this year.

Source: WSJ

Some employees at BusinessWeek magazine were surprised to hear about layoffs proposed in the first quarter of this year — they said they hadn’t heard a thing about it.

According to the information memorandum, 55 of 217 positions are supposed to be eliminated. Of sales, 9 of 69. Of marketing, 6 of 26. Of technology, 8 of 33. Of circulation, just one of 19. And in the “other” category, 6 of 57. That’s a total of 85 eliminations among 421 jobs - about 20 percent - leaving 336 BusinessWeek employees.

Source: NYTimes