LayoffBlog.com

Yahoo Inc is moving the product development team for one of its key Web properties to Taiwan, the latest change within the Internet company as it moves to cut costs and revamp its online offering.

The product development and operations teams for the Yahoo News division will be based out of Taiwan, said Yahoo spokeswoman Kim Rubey. The types of jobs moving overseas include product management, engineering and user interface design, Rubey said.

Source: Forbes

China’s state-owned enterprises may unilaterally terminate commodities contracts as they try to cut massive losses from financial derivatives, an industry source told Caijing on August 28.

According to the source, China’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) has sent notice to six foreign financial institutions informing them that several state-owned enterprise will reserve the right to default on commodities contracts signed with those institutions.

Most investment banks may “just swallow” any losses arising from canceled contracts, the executive said, adding that any losses are usually made up for with compensating trades.

Source: Caijing.com.cn

Tektronix Inc., formerly Oregon’s largest homegrown tech company, on Wednesday said it will shift some manufacturing operations from Beaverton to its Shanghai plant through next year.

In its last annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission prior to its acquisition, the company said that as of May 26, 2007, it employed 4,541. Of those, 1,746 were located outside the United States. The company laid off 150 workers in November.

Source: PortlandBizJournal

“Chinese stock and property markets have bubbled up again. It was fueled by bank lending and inflation fear. I think that Chinese stocks and properties are 50-100% overvalued. The odds are that both will adjust in the fourth quarter. However, both might flare up again sometime next year. Fluctuating within a long bubble could be the dominant trend for the foreseeable future. The bursting will happen when the US dollar becomes strong again. The catalyst could be serious inflation that forces the Fed to raise interest rate.” - Andy Xie, former Morgan Stanley Analyst

Source: Ritholtz.com, my1510.CN

In the last decade, GE has closed over 15 factories in Ohio and downsized numerous others. Since 1980, employment in GE Lighting has dropped by 68 percent.

A large chunk of that manufacturing has gone to China, and now GE plans to send even more to China in the wake of new clean energy policies.

Source: HuffingtonPost

~News submitted by David

General Motors has reached a preliminary agreement for the sale of its Hummer brand of large sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks to a machinery company in western China with ambitions to become a carmaker.

G.M. said that the deal would save about 3,000 jobs in the United States, including those at its 153 domestic dealerships, and that Hummer would remain based in the United States.

Source: NY Times

Nike Inc will slash 5 percent of its 35,000-strong global workforce in a sweeping overhaul to boost competitiveness. Nike has already halted production at three of its Chinese factories. About 500 positions will be axed at about 500 positions at its HQ, Beaverton, Oregon.

Source: Reuters

Las Vegas Sands Corp., controlled by billionaire Sheldon Adelson, plans to cut as many as 4,000 more jobs in Macau as the casino operator seeks to reduce costs.

Between 3,000 and 4,000 jobs will be eliminated by September, on top of the company’s workforce reduction to 17,500 from “close to 20,000” at its headcount peak in Macau, new Chief Operating Officer Michael Leven said in an interview.

Macau, the only place in China where casinos are legal, is the world’s biggest gambling hub.

Source: Bloomberg

General Motors Corp., shuttering U.S. plants in a bid to avoid bankruptcy, is “likely” to build a new factory in China on surging demand.

“Operations in China are profitable and in the future China can finance its own growth,” Nick Reilly, the company’s Asia-Pacific president, said at the Shanghai auto show today. He didn’t give a timeframe for the new plant.

“We won’t get money out of the U.S. into China,” Reilly said. Still, “we don’t need to because we have a very good balance sheet.”

Source: Bloomberg

Wal-Mart Inc’s plan to eliminate jobs at its China unit has met with resistance from the up to 1,400 workers involved, the U.S. retailer said on Tuesday.

The company, which has 147 outlets in China and employs over 50,000, is removing a layer of management in its stores, leaving affected employees the option of taking a lower position with lower pay, said a company spokesman.

Wal-Mart is offering the employees the option of moving to a new store but for some people it is difficult to move. It is unknown how many people had accepted the company’s offer but a company spokesman said that negotiations had been going on for several months to find a solution.

Source: Reuters

Plantronics Inc. plans to cut about 670 positions and close its manufacturing plant in Suzhou, China to improve profitability of its Bluetooth headset product line, the company said Thursday.

Santa Cruz[,Calif.]-based Plantronics (NYSE: PLT) said it will outsource production of Bluetooth headsets to an existing supplier in China, where most of the job cuts will take place.

Source:Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal

Nike Inc plans to halt its production at three shoe factories in China and one in Vietnam.

Source: CNBC, Reuters
~News submitted by upthecreek

At a time when the federal government is spending billions of stimulus dollars to stem the tide of U.S. layoffs, should that same government put even more Americans out of work by buying cheaper foreign products? In this case, Chinese condoms.

In a move expected to cost 300 American jobs, the government is switching to cheaper off-shore condoms, including some made in China.

Source: The Kansas City Star
~News submitted by upthecreek

According to Reuters: “Lenovo Group, the world’s fourth-largest maker of personal computers, will eliminate 450 jobs in China, a company official said, as it cuts costs in a bid to return to profitability in 2010.”

Motorola is reported to have cut 1,000 jobs from its Chinese R&D facility, leaving only about 100 employees at its Wangjing offices. The company hasn’t confirmed the number of employees that were laid off, although a spokesperson for Motorola announced that there had been job cuts.

The spokesperson noted that, “According to Motorola’s financial results for the fourth quarter of last year, the company dismissed 4,000 employees worldwide, including 3,000 employees from the mobile phone unit. But that is a global figure, and we do not have specific figures for China and other regions.”

Source: Softpedia

According to Bloomberg: “China’s exports fell by the most in almost 13 years as demand dried up in the U.S. and Europe, worsening the outlook for jobs and industrial production in the world’s third-biggest economy.”

“China’s economic slide has already cost the jobs of 20 million migrant workers, adding pressure on the government to boost consumption and expand a 4 trillion yuan ($585 billion) stimulus package. Government researchers have advocated weakening the yuan against the dollar to support exports, a move that could add to trade tensions amid the worst financial crisis since World War II.”

“Imports declined 43.1 percent in January from a year earlier, the biggest decline since Bloomberg data began in 1995, on the nation’s waning demand for raw materials for manufacturing and lower commodity prices.”

“China’s industrial output grew 5.7 percent in December, down from 17.4 percent a year earlier.”

“Taiwan’s shipments to the mainland slumped 64 percent in January because of weaker demand for electronic components.”

“Philippine shipments to China fell 58 percent.”

“India imposed a six-month ban on imports of Chinese toys last month, citing health concerns.”

According to Reuters: “Chipmaker Vishay Intertechnology Inc (VSH.N) posted a fourth-quarter loss, said it was evaluating additional plant closures and expects more job cuts, sending shares to their lowest in over 18 years.

The company, which has already reduced close to 9 percent of its workforce in the fourth quarter, said it had laid off 700 more employees in January.”

• The company employs about 27,900 people across its operations in United States, Europe and Asia.

According to China Daily: “Intel Corp, the world’s leading semiconductor company, announced on Thursday it will shut a Shanghai Pudong plant as part of measures to streamline manufacturing operations in China.”

“The plant’s closure will affect about 2,000 employees, but they will have options, said Zhang. Intel has already promised to provide post transfers for the workers to the Chengdu plant, Intel’s still-under-construction Dalian plant or other Intel China divisions.”

Top 20 Emerging Global Outsourcing Cities in 2008:

1. Cebu, Philippines [Rank in 2007: 4]
2. Shanghai, China [Rank in 2007: 8]
3. Beijing, China [Rank in 2007: 10]
4. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam [Rank in 2007: 16]
5. Krakow, Poland [Rank in 2007: 16]
6. Kolkata, India [Rank in 2007: 5]
7. Cairo, Egypt [Rank in 2007: 11]
8. Sao Paulo, Brazil [Rank in 2007: 15]
9. Buenos Aires, Argentina [Rank in 2007: 14]
10. Shenzhen, China [Rank in 2007: 13]
11. Hanoi, Vietnam [Rank in 2007: 12]
12. Chandigarh, India [Rank in 2007: 9]
13. Curituba, Brazil [Rank in 2007: 17]
14. Prague, Czech Republic [Rank in 2007: 20]
15. Pasig City, Philippines [Rank in 2007: 23]
16. Dalian (Dairen), China [Rank in 2007: 18]
17. Coimbatore, India [Rank in 2007: 21]
18. Santiago, Chile [Rank in 2007: 19]
19. Colombo, Sri Lanka [Rank in 2007: 7]
20. Johannesburg, South Africa [Rank in 2007: 25]

Source: India Times

According to AP, Guardian: “A world manufacturing slump eased in January but data showed the global economic downturn, which Beijing said had already cost as many as 20 million jobs, was still in full swing.” [...]

“Chen Xiwen, director of China’s Office of the Central Rural Work Leading Group, said a recent survey showed 15.3 percent of the 130 million migrants moving from villages to cities and factories had returned jobless to the countryside.
That, combined with this year’s 6 million to 7 million new entrants in the rural labor market, would leave China with about 25 million jobless and potentially restive rural unemployed this year, Chen said. “