What opened the layoff floodgates?

[Kelvin Mace]

Headlines in just the last few days:

Cox Communications and Sony Electronics cutting 900 local jobs
Best Buy to lay off 2,000 U.S. managers
IBM Union Expects Mass Layoff to Hit Workers (15,000 possible jobs gone)
Layoff Bells Toll at JPMorgan Again (8,000 jobs)
Teachers, students protest potential layoff of 1,000 educators at meeting
Indiana Limestone Co. to close, lay off 166 workers
Boise call center to lay off 1,600 workers in April
What will KentuckyOne layoffs mean for patient care?
Poland's Alior Bank to lay off 4% of staff (Poland, but still)
Westside manufacturer to lay off 133 workers
Sikorsky announces 600 layoffs over next several weeks
PHH Mortgage to lay off 135 workers in Amherst
Cenveo to lay off 133 in Jacksonville
U.S. Steel announces layoffs at Lorain Tubular Operations
GenCorp to lay off 61 in Rancho Cordova
City layoffs loom in Poughkeepsie (25 jobs)
Budapest Transport Company To Lay Off Over 900 Bus Drivers
City of Lebanon to layoff employees (10 jobs)
Endomines to lay off 18 employees
PepsiCo in Abilene to Lay Off Workers

Layoffs from earlier this month:

UNO to lay off as many as 30 employee
Deere to lay off 120 in East Moline
Mass layoff at Kaiser Permanente Hawaii (100 jobs)
Windstream to lay off 67 in Arkansas, 400 nationwide
Falling enrollment for online classes leads Everest to lay off 105 in Colorado Springs
Novartis to lay off 92 from East Hanover office, among hundreds nationwide
Eastern Michigan University layoffs: Majority of full-time education lecturers get notices
Disney Interactive expected to begin layoffs
Layoffs could happen at Detroit Metro as Delta switches work contractors
Challenger Report: Layoff Announcements Soared 47 Percent in January
Rumor Has It Dell Is Planning To Lay Off 15,000 Employees (Some layoffs, but probably not that high but Dell won't say)
OfficeMax, Specialty Foods (Nathan's Hot Dogs), and many more announce layoffs (1,000+ jobs)
Sony to sell PC business, reform TV arm, layoff 5,000 employees
Sprint to lay off 91 in Bellevue, Kirkland
500 layoffs expected today at Time Inc.
East Cleveland, on notice to cut spending, sends police layoff notices
Kodak to lay off 35 employees (Yes, I was amazed that Kodak was still in business too)
Barclays Stock Hammered, Bank Will Lay Off 820 Managers

Maybe it is just me, but this does not sound like a healthy economy. In fact, the fact that no one in government is commenting on this torrent of layoffs is VERY scary

[cherokeeprogressive]

1. Shhhhhh! Source? Better be an APPROVED one! n/t

[Kelvin Mace]

4. I am just quoting headlines from the news

Hell, LBN has about five stories on layoffs, including one I missed:

Wells Fargo cuts 700 jobs, including 203 in Twin Cities

[cherokeeprogressive]

6. Repeat after me: The Economy is in FULL ON RECOVERY.

After you say that out loud, begin echoing "shovel ready", "stimulus", "ACA", "God's work"...

It'll all be ok after that and you'll stand a much lesser chance of being called a racist or being accused of suffering from ODS.

[Kelvin Mace]

9. Yeah, been there done that, and have the scars (some still bleeding)

But fuck 'em if they can't handle reality.

[Skittles]

12. ODS does exist

it afflicts the very same people who scream about it

[Jesus Malverde]

2. Interesting observation.

Thanks!

[30cal]

3. They are the protected class , they get their check every two weeks.

" the fact that no one in government is commenting on this torrent of layoff is VERY scary"




They have NO clue what it's like to be living in the real America.

[tritsofme]

5. These anecdotes are not indicative of anything.

You can find meaningful statistics here:
www.bls.gov

[El_Johns]

7. Not any more.

BLS 2013 Sequestration Information

On March 1, 2013, President Obama ordered into effect the across-the-board spending cuts (commonly referred to as sequestration) required by the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act, as amended. Under the order, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) must cut its current budget by more than $30 million, 5 percent of the current 2013 appropriation, by September 30, 2013. In order to achieve these savings and protect core programs, the BLS is taking the steps listed below:


1.Eliminate the Measuring Green Jobs products.
The BLS produces data on employment by industry and occupation for businesses that produce green goods and services. The BLS also conducts special employer surveys to provide data on the occupations and wages of jobs related to green technologies and practices, as well as develops and disseminates career information related to green jobs.

2.Eliminate the Mass Layoff Statistics program.
The Mass Layoff Statistics program provides information that identifies, describes, and tracks the effects of major job cutbacks in the economy.

3.Eliminate the International Labor Comparisons program.
The International Labor Comparisons (ILC) program adjusts foreign data to a common framework of concepts, definitions, and classifications to facilitate data comparisons between the United States and other countries. ILC data are used to assess United States economic performance relative to other countries, as well as to evaluate the competitive position of the United States in international markets.

4.Freeze hiring and curtail spending.
The quality and quantity of some BLS data likely will be diminished, as fewer resources are available to collect and review data or to perform data analysis. This may result in lower response rates, fewer published estimates, and a loss of detail in some data series. The reduced funding level also may result in a decline in customer service, as fewer Federal and State staff will be accessible to respond to data inquiries from the public, other Federal government agencies, and Congress.

Through these measures, the BLS expects to preserve to the extent possible the quality of its remaining products; however, the actions described above will reduce somewhat the ability of the BLS to supply timely and accurate information on the economy and labor market, and halt implementation of critical data improvements that were planned for this year.

http://www.bls.gov/bls/sequester_info.htm


Last Modified Date: March 4, 2013

[Egalitarian Thug]

8. Nothing to see here, move along now, rest assured that the adults are in charge.

They've been spewing this bullshit for decades and it's just not working as well as it once did.

[Kelvin Mace]

10. BLS is not going to have Feb numbers for a while

I am looking at the news in just the last few days.

I do not claim that my observation is scientifically rigorous, but it is my observation. My question is meant as a query to DU at large to see if they see the same thing I do.

I follow the news daily, especially layoff news and the last few weeks I keep hearing about layoffs. Could be a cluster, a statistical fluke, but could be something else.

Government spending has been in decline and the social safety net is shredded. Billions of dollars have been pulled out of the economy in lost unemployment benefits and food stamps cuts. Even Wal-Mart is bitching about slumping sales.

[rafeh1]

11. tesla looking to hire 5k

At its new lithium battery plant.

[Kelvin Mace]

17. Nice to hear

for about a number of reasons.

A rough count of the announced layoffs I found was 30,000+, so I hope more of those things are on the horizon.

[El_Johns]

15. Note: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics discontinued the Mass Layoffs Statistics Program effective

June 30, 2013.

https://www.maine.gov/labor/cwri/mls.html

BLS 2013 Sequestration Information

On March 1, 2013, President Obama ordered into effect the across-the-board spending cuts (commonly referred to as sequestration) required by the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act, as amended. Under the order, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) must cut its current budget by more than $30 million, 5 percent of the current 2013 appropriation, by September 30, 2013. In order to achieve these savings and protect core programs, the BLS is taking the steps listed below...

2.Eliminate the Mass Layoff Statistics program.
The Mass Layoff Statistics program provides information that identifies, describes, and tracks the effects of major job cutbacks in the economy.


http://www.bls.gov/bls/sequester_info.htm

[ChisolmTrailDem]

30. You confidently convey your information, which is wrong. nt

[tritsofme]

63. Yes, you make so much sense.

The BLS is garbage, but scanning random Google News articles is....significant...or something.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

65. Read post #7. I remember when the BLS cuts were made. It's obvious why, too. nt

[Yo_Mama]

69. Meaningful official statistics coming right up!

As official as you can get them, from St. Louis Fed Fred:


This means that the people losing jobs permanently has fallen only to what is a normal recession PEAK, and is apparently now rising.

When you look at the broader picture, the stomach turns over:


Full-time jobs never recovered from the last recession:


No, it's not because they want to work part-time:


I'd say it's time to get worried.

Since the recession's end, 1.8 million of jobs gained have been in the "retired" population:


This is one of the basic stats I watch, because it accurately reflects the strength of the Main Street economy (note how in the 2000s it didn't rise, indicating trouble ahead):

[Egalitarian Thug]

13. The floodgates are what the media chooses to focus on at any given moment. The layoffs have been

consistent and inexorable for going on three generations now. It is the hollowing out of what was once America.

It sounds tired to my ears because I've been saying it for over 30 years now but, wake up America, it is far later than you want to pretend it is.

[Kelvin Mace]

19. I work in an industry

that actually still MAKES things and the trend has been worrying for some time. I have been posting about it since I came on DU (2002), but my views are dismissed by some as "anecdotal", even as I began noting massive job losses and an increase in the number of half-empty trucks showing up at my dock (both independent truckers and truck lines) back in 2007.

[Egalitarian Thug]

36. Sometimes a front row seat kind of sucks. n/t

[Recursion]

14. What's the normal rate of layoffs in February?

Why do you think this is unusual?

[Fumesucker]

18. Mass layoffs would seem unusual in a recovering economy

[Recursion]

24. Do they? I remember layoff notices just about every day in the 1990s

Those weren't exactly slump times.

[Kelvin Mace]

20. Challenger, Gray Christmas

a firm that tracks layoffs said that January layoffs were up 50% in January over December, but up 12% over January 2013. You expect a surge in layoffs in January due to seasonal employment, but the CGC report showed layoffs higher than the previous January, not good.

We won't know the February stats until Mid-March.

[Kelvin Mace]

42. As I pointed out in other posts

Challenger, Gray & Christmas, who track layoffs, had a report that January layoffs were up 12% over January 2013. It will be interesting to see if Feb's numbers are worse than last year as well.

I follow the news everyday and layoff news is showing up more often.

YMMV

[Octafish]

21. Austerity and Offshoring.

"We can hire an engineer with an MBA from Michigan for $80,000 per year or get one with a PhD from India for less than a fifth of that to do the work." -- quote from a sickening discussion at cocktail party over the holidays.

Austerity kicks us in the arse longterm, as there's no money for jobs, housing, education, infrastructure, etc. in all the investments that return more wealth than was required to start the process.

Of course, it takes a little sacrifice from those who have wealth in the current time. Or, you can have The Fed print more money and hand it over to the People instead of the banksters.

[pnwmom]

22. Don't forget Boeing -- up to 1200 research jobs in the Seattle area.

New people will be hired instead at sites in non-union states.

[Kelvin Mace]

41. Yes, but I am not seeing very many of those announcements

and that is what worries me.

[pnwmom]

53. They handled the publicity brilliantly. The announcement was made

at the same time that they announced the positive vote of the much bigger machinists union (for building the airplanes here.) So the media didn't pay much attention.

It's going to cost a lot of money to shut down the facilities here and open them up in several other states. There is no economic reason for doing this except for breaking the union. None. And many of these weren't even union jobs, but they're all being sacrificed anyway, as they pretend that shifting the jobs away from here makes economic sense.

[dembotoz]

23. customer asked me on tuesday what the hell is going on

He--handles it for a smaller regional bank. I work almost entirely with mom and pa businesses.
what he sees--his it assistant moved on to a different job and he is looking to hire--He is seeing astonishing resumes coming thru his door. folks out of work willing to take a huge paycut--maybe 50 k to work as an assistant.
not much lending going on--as we leave he looks around the lobby and says to me--look this place is empty-no customers.
His bank has a reputation for being VERY healthy

the mas and pas not doing real well--but that is not a secret

[n2doc]

25. Perhaps something along these lines

More than a year-long downturn in sales trend

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024495931

[ChisolmTrailDem]

33. Am I the only one who has seen this post? That separation at the end of your graph

pretty much tells the story, doesn't it. The economic 'recovery' has failed and we're now in a whole new paradigm.

Notice that there is no other separation of consumer spending from retail employment on that graph.

[Kelvin Mace]

43. I caught it

and was struck by the divergence at the very end of the graph and what it must portend:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4574084

[ChisolmTrailDem]

45. Here, everyone needs to let that pic sink in:

Because in all likelihood, and considering the mysterious suicides and "suicides" epidemic we are currently seeing in the financial sector, this is exactly what that graph portends...



That consumer spending line will continue to go down too as people are removed from UI benefits and when the 2 million already off since Dec 28 show up on that graph. And, so will the retail line continue to trend upwards.

Seeing that separation as an anomaly on that graph is quite disconcerting. Are we headed towards another economic crash? Hints abound that we are. Time will surely tell.

[Kelvin Mace]

40. Interesting how close they track

until recently. Seems that retail employment has reached a Wile E. Coyote apex moment.

[mikeysnot]

26. Most big companies

layoff less than 50 at a time so they don't have to announce them...

My wife's company has been showing the door to people for two years now, but you don't hear about them.

Her department went from over 80 to three, but still expects the same amount of work to be done...

[Kelvin Mace]

39. So many ways to game the system

to circumvent what little regulation is in place.

[jwirr]

27. I thought about that also. Some of it could be the usual after holidays layoff but many of those

companies do not fit that model. I hope they are not just reacting to the prospect of a minimum-wage increase. Or playing the hurt Obama game just before the election.

[meanit]

28. It's just the latest move

in the greed chess game that is destroying the working and middle class in this country. And it will go on until it is stopped by laws / legislation.

[Savannahmann]

29. What is going on?

We are living in the age of propaganda. We talk about new jobs created, and ignore the jobs lost. We have a fundamental problem in our economy, and our solution is band aids on a patient that is bleeding out.

I know, someone here will accuse me of RW Talking points. Baloney. Most of the falling unemployment number has nothing to do with improving economy, it has far more to do with despair. People are just giving up after months of frustration trying to find a job.

http://bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t11.htm

Permanent Job Losers in January 2014. 3,341,000. Three and a third million permanent job losers.

http://bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t16.htm

Total not in the workforce? That is people we should consider unemployed, but we don't because they are not "Actively" seeking employment. 55 Million. Let me spell that out for you. 55,000,000 people are not in the workforce.

Minimum wage is a band aid. We have 3.4 million people who hold multiple jobs. These are people who are working themselves to death trying to provide for their families.

We have a fundamental problem with our economy, but we celebrate raising stock prices, while ignoring those who are not actively seeking employment. We have given up on them because they are inconvenient. If we recognize them, we have to admit that we are not doing well by a massive portion of our population. These are kids living with parents, parents who have moved in with their children. Brothers who are living with siblings. These are people who are homeless, hopeless, and forgotten by our political establishment.

There is a fundamental flaw in our economy, because we are determined to ignore the bad news, it might give our political opponents some sort of advantage. But what about those 55 million people we are ignoring? People living in storm drains in our cities.

I feel sick when I read celebratory posts on sites like this, cheering the "low unemployment" numbers as proof we're doing the right thing and we're awesome. Our unemployment numbers are down, but not because more people are working, but because more have surrendered to the despair and the depression.

So what is going on? Everyone in the economy is holding on waiting for someone else to do something that turns the fucking thing around. Money is not being invested in new jobs, it's being put into the stock market where it continues to hold itself high based upon psychology. People want to believe the good news, so the reports are great for the nation and the world.

We have a fundamental problem with our economy. The solution is not job killing trade agreements. The solution is not more band aid fixes and ways to fiddle with the numbers so it looks good. Look at those who are employed, in thousands. http://bls.gov/web/empsit/ceseeb1a.htm

We have more people in Government than we do in health care. 17.8 million working in health and social services. 21 million working in Government. Are you telling me that of those 21 million people working for the Government that none of them realizes how bad it is out here among us? Do they read the stories of homeless in storm drains? Do they realize that 55 million people have just given up?

America has been great in the past based upon the drive and determination of our people. We all strove to get to the moon. Everyone felt like a part of that drive. We all strove to win World War II. Everyone was a part of that effort. If we could get one more plane, one more tank, one more ship into the war, that was our duty. Even if we weren't building them, we planted gardens to grow our own food to make more available to those fighting because they needed it desperately.

Now, we have another war. The war of our economy. We denounce those who shout that things are fucked up. We ignore 1/6th of our population, and cheer when more of them give up and surrender to despair. That drives the unemployment numbers down.

[Kelvin Mace]

38. Thank you for taking the time

to bring up these points.

People keep forgetting that issuing press releases and commissioning polls is NOT governing.

[KoKo]

46. Recommend..

[woo me with science]

47. Superb post.

Thank you.

[Yo_Mama]

60. Yep

This is not an ideological problem - it's an informational problem. Media, government, and top economists live in a bubble that is deeply disconnected with the lives of average people.

There is one and only one graph that really tells the tale:


The tale it tells is one that the winners in this economy don't grasp, in part because they can't stand to grasp it.

We can't live in an economy in which so many people can't even find full-time jobs:


Raising minimum wage might help, but it really is a bandaid on a severed artery. The economy is quietly bleeding out.

[Savannahmann]

62. It really is disturbing.

When you read the numbers knowing that each individual number is a family in pain. The thought of all those good people surrendering to despair is heartbreaking. But all that matters is getting the good news put there. The unemployment numbers dropped. I want to cry, because I look and see that even more people have just given up. The numbers go up on the tally of the discouraged. We celebrate the drop and take a victory lap.

55 million is more than any single state population. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_population

That isn't a few slipping through the cracks. That is a hole in our social economic theory large enough to drive California through.

[Yo_Mama]

66. That is WELL SAID

I too fear we are normalizing economic despair.

I do think the minimum wage should be raised, but until we can generate full-time jobs for workers who want them, it's not going to do much good.

The younger generation, especially, needs to learn that this is not normal and is an aberration in our history that can be corrected if we take it seriously. Right now, we don't even see anyone taking it seriously. We don't even see anyone TALKING about it.

[Samantha]

64. You might want to start a separate thread with this post

It deserves wider exposure, and I believe many other DU'ers would appreciate reading and commenting. Thank you for posting it.

Sam

[Rex]

31. Corporate downsizing. The neighbors have a fifth yacht

so now there is a NEED.

[Vinnie From Indy]

32. These tens of thousands of laid off workers will have on average 26 weeks to find a new job

before their UI benefits expire and they start to have to sell everything and raid their retirement accounts to pay the rent and other bills.

[Kelvin Mace]

37. So, no hurry

on fixing the economy guys.



We are governed by the 1%.

[NM_Birder]

49. Not to worry. Unemplyment is under 7% right ?

[democratisphere]

34. The real economy of most people never recovered, except in some politicians minds. AND....

wall street investors want growth, so in a REAL lousy economy many jobs are and will be lost to satisfy investor's greed. It is also a midterm election year where NOTHING is REAL!

[marions ghost]

35. K&R

Thanx for info not surprising tho

[KoKo]

44. Thanks for this...

Recommend.

[FarCenter]

48. New 2014 budgets kick in and companies implementing 2014 business plans

Mass layoffs come this time of year as companies exit businesses or trim back businesses.

Companies fire in groups but hire one-by-one. So firings are much more newsworthy than hirings.

In banking, a lot of the mortgage foreclosures have been processed already, the mortgage refinancing volume is way off due to constant or increasing interest rates, and online banking is decreasing the need for staff in branches.

[Kelvin Mace]

50. Again,

it has been noted that January layoffs were 12% above last January's. So, the year has started off worse. We will know if February continues the trend around mid-March.

[FarCenter]

56. 12% may or may not be statistically significant

There are also some very specific reasons for layoffs at IBM, Dell, Best Buy, JPMC, Wells, etc. IBM and Dell are caught up in the restructuring of the IT business with cloud changing the need for their consulting services. Best Buy is being hammered by online. JPMC and Wells Fargo are both big in the mortgage business.

Layoffs don't necessarily mean that a company is in trouble. In fact, layoffs as part of business restructuring are often done when a company has money to spend on the restructuring. IIRC, the IBM layoffs will cost IBM around $1 billion.

[Kelvin Mace]

58. I doubt many of these companies are trouble

(though I will bet you a sawbuck Kodak isn't around in 5 years).

The point of layoffs is to spike profits and drive down wages. The problem is at some point the whole economy enters a death spiral because you are taking too many consumers out of the buying market because they don't have any more money.

Once that event horizon is crossed, things go very bad, very fast.

[FarCenter]

68. A dollar added to dividends instead of spent on wages may well be spent by the recipient

[Kelvin Mace]

71. Not likely.

Stocks are disproportionately owned by the top 10%, who hoard the money. Pension funds own tones of stock, but dividend money is used to fund pensions, which means no new spending as pensioners are leery of any profligate spending in a bad economy.

[hedgehog]

51. Walking through the thread, I agree that the economy is in trouble, but -

1. President Obama is pointing out the problem with the wage freezes most of us have faced in recent years- you may have noticed he's pushing to increase minimum wage?

2. He actually mentioned the concentration of wealth as a real problem.

3. He pushed through stimulus spending that was cut short.

4. He's pointed out the problem with laying off state and local government employees while private employment is slowly recovering.

5. He has stated that the Federal budget is in good shape and we need to spend money to get the economy going.

So - aside from the fact that he forgot to bring his magic wand with him to DC, how is this Obama's fault? Even FDR had problems in 1938 when the Republicans cut back New Deal initiatives. Put the blame where it belongs and maybe something will change!

[Kelvin Mace]

54. Hmmm...

While there are a few folk who are pointing the finger at Obama for a few reasons (some justified, some not) the gist of the thread is not. I apologize for not being more specific, but when I talked about the "government", I was referring to the aggregate, not the specific.

Yes, Obama, to his credit, has made these points. But then again, he contributed to the problem by pushing "grand bargains" and talking up the need for "austerity" measures and the need for deficit reduction. He has sought to "compromise", "reach across the aisle", and all that BS. This was a waste of time and it cost us dearly since he pissed away his leverage in Congress in 2009-2010, and handed the House back to the GOP for the foreseeable future.

His shedding of his bipartisan fetish is fairly recent.

[Demo_Chris]

72. Six years to finally spot a few problems...

His solution will, no doubt, involve handing trillions more to his corporate pals, and a trade deal to finish working people off.

[Warpy]

52. Lower demand, lower sales, and an election year

They're hoping to improve their profits, goose their stock prices, and put the screws to workers so they'll gather around the big daddy Republicans to bring back the economy where everybody felt richer because they could leverage endless debt.

There are always layoffs after inventory season in January.

This will be reversed only when the minimum wage is jacked up to a living level.

[hedgehog]

55. Getting the minimum wage up should be out first priority!

[idendoit]

57. You are correct.

I believe that all the talk of doing just that is causing a backlash among the greedy rich.

[Yo_Mama]

59. u-s-retail-chains-seeing-first-profit-decline-since-recession

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-27/u-s-retail-chains-seeing-first-profit-decline-since-recession.html

This is partly the result of the FICA payroll tax increase last year. Partly food prices.

There hasn't been wage appreciation enough to make it easy for consumers to spend, and lower income people are really feeling the pressure of needs inflation that far outstrips headline CPI.

Now this year many households are going to be hit again by much higher heating costs for a bad winter, which also pulls out of discretionary income.

Car sales seem to have topped out.

First half growth will be below 2%. I was watching Yellen's testimony today and snickering. TPTB are extraordinarily out of touch with the bulk of the American people.

[Kelvin Mace]

70. Seems that any time profits "decline"

The knives come out to cut jobs until profits return to previous levels.

The problem is they are approaching the point where they make one cut too many, and retails sales enter a death spiral.

[Yo_Mama]

74. Yes

Of course everyone is driven by stock prices, but without workers having money to shop, everyone's profits decline!!!

[KoKo]

61. Recommend...

[littlewolf]

67. K & R nt

[Demo_Chris]

73. And our choice is between the christian corporatist party and the vanilla corporatist party. nt