LayoffBlog.com

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

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

Yahoo chief executive Carol Bartz has sold millions of dollars worth of company shares in what many see as a sign that she is losing faith in Yahoo’s ability to compete. The move is likely to upset shareholders, and will lower employee morale.

Regulatory filings uncovered by The Guardian show that Bartz sold $830,000 of Yahoo stock in March, and $1.4m in June.

“Two million already cashed out for Bartz is too much, too soon,” Yahoo investor Eric Jackson of Ironfire Capital told The Guardian. “It doesn’t really fit with the ‘I didn’t need this job as I was retired’ image she portrays.”

Source: V3.co.uk

The nation’s jobless rate unexpectedly jumped last month to a 26-year high of 9.7% from 9.4% in July, the government reported today, as employers shed 216,000 jobs over the month. The August job cuts were smaller than the decline of 276,000 in July, continuing a trend of moderating payroll losses since January when employers slashed 741,000 jobs.

Source: Baltimore Sun

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

Private non-farm employers cut 298,000 jobs in August, according to estimates by payroll company ADP, a figure that disappointed analysts’ expectations but still showed a gradual easing of job losses.

Businesses with fewer than 50 employees lost 122,000 jobs in August, the smallest decline since September 2008, according to the report. Mid-size businesses (with between 50 and 500 employees) lost 116,000 jobs, and large companies lost 60,000.

Source: BusinessWeek

Unemployment rates in 372 U.S. metropolitan areas continued their upward climb in July, Labor Department figures released Tuesday show.
Some 19 metros now have unemployment rates above 15%; eight are in California, hard-hit by the real-estate collapse, and five are in Michigan, suffering from the auto industry’s downturn.

Source: WSJ

The number of Americans filing for initial unemployment insurance rose last week, the government said Thursday, surprising economists.

There were 576,000 initial jobless claims filed in the week ended Aug. 15, up from a revised 561,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said in a weekly report.

Source: CNNMoney

The number of people filing first-time claims for unemployment rose by 4,000 in the week ended Aug. 8, to 558,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 554,000, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Florida was among those states with the largest decreases in initial jobless claims, falling 3,358 in the week ended Aug. 1.

Source: TampaBayBizJournal

Employers engaged in 2,994 mass layoffs last quarter, the Labor Department said Wednesday, taking 534,881 workers off the job. That’s more than 70% higher than the 1,756 mass layoff events in the same period last year, as the economy continued to weaken through the end of 2008 and into the beginning of this year.

Source: WSJ

Below is a list of other venture capital-backed companies in alphabetical order that have gone belly up this year, as reported by VentureWire:

Allux Medical Inc., Menlo Park, Calif.
Argolyn Bioscience Inc., Durham, N.C.
Aspen Medtech Inc., Bellevue, Wash.
Autonomic Networks Inc., Mountain View, Calif.
BrightScale Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif.
Cogentus Pharmaceuticals Inc., Menlo Park, Calif.
Coghead Inc., Redwood City, Calif.
Cswitch Inc., Santa Clara, Calif.
DiObex Inc., San Francisco, Calif.
Dynogen Pharmaceuticals Inc., Waltham, Mass.
Elephant Pharmacy Inc., Berkeley, Calif.
Hammerhead Systems Inc., Mountain View, Calif.
Innovative Spinal Technologies Inc., Mansfield, Mass.
Kadoink Inc., San Francisco, Calif.
MetaRAM Inc., San Jose, Calif.
Nanochip Inc., Fremont, Calif.
NebuAd Inc., Redwood City, Calif.
Nevis Networks Inc., Mountain View, Calif.
nTag Interactive Corp., Boston, Mass.
OmniSonics Medical Technologies Inc., Wilmington, Mass.
Ortega InfoSystems Inc., Fremont, Calif.
Pegasus Biologics Inc., St. Paul, Minn.
SafePage Corp., Menlo Park, Calif.
Silicon Navigator Corp., Cupertino, Calif.
Sotto Wireless Inc., Bellevue, Wash.
TallyGenicom LP, Chantilly, Va.
TeachFirst Inc., Seattle, Wash.
TeeBeeDee Inc., San Francisco, Calif.
Trusera Inc., Seattle, Wash.
Ugobe Inc., Eagle, Idaho
Ultreo Inc., Redmond, Wash.
Verified Pass Identity Inc., New York, NY
Yoomba Inc., Menlo Park, Calif.

Source: WSJ

For the first time in decades, General Electric is adding new operations at two of its manufacturing hubs, underlining what the company says is a new commitment to producing in the United States.
G.E. is building a 350-employee plant in Schenectady, N.Y., to make high-density batteries that will turn many locomotives into diesel-electric hybrids.

Source: CNBC, TheNewYorkTimes

~News submitted by upthecreek

First-time filings for state unemployment benefits declined by 38,000 to a seasonally adjusted 550,000 last week, while the number of people who continued to collect regular benefits rose by 69,000 to a seasonally adjusted 6.31 million the prior week, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

Source: MarketWatch

ADP report shows fewer jobs lost in July, but still no hints that employers are ready to start hiring. The monthly employment survey from Automatic Data Processing showed private-sector payrolls trimmed 371,000 jobs, but the improved figure was still worse than economists projected.

Source: Forbes

Employers in the U.S. for a second straight month announced fewer job cuts than a year earlier, according to a private report, marking the first consecutive year-on-year drops since late 2007.

Planned firings in July fell 5.7 percent to 97,373 from 103,312 in July 2008, Chicago-based placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. said today, after a 9 percent year-over- year drop in June. While announcements rose 31 percent from 74,393 in June, the figures aren’t adjusted for seasonal effects so economists focus on changes from a year ago.

Source: Bloomberg

Household income in the U.S. is weakening as the influence of the government’s stimulus plan fades, prompting economists, Federal Reserve officials and a Nobel laureate to warn that consumer spending may stumble.

Source: Bloomberg

Unemployment in the 16 countries using the euro rose to a 10-year high of 9.4 percent in June, according to data released Friday. The increase was less than expected, however, following measures by some governments to combat the economic crisis.

Source: NYTimes

The Labor Department said Thursday that the initial claims for unemployment aid rose by 25,000 to a seasonally adjusted 584,000, above analysts’ estimates. But the figure is below the 617,000 new claims filed in late June, before the numbers began to be distorted by a shift in the timing of temporary auto shutdowns.

Source: GoogleNews, AP