Economy is on the march! Time for the FRIDAY LAYOFF REPORT

[Bluebear]

This is your reporter, Bluebear. (Hell, if "you know who" can be a reporter, so can I.) Bush's economy is on the march! Let bankruptcy reign! Here is your weekly roundup of real people who have lost real jobs this week.



NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc. on Friday said it is cutting jobs in its corporate and investment bank to save money, and a person familiar with the decision said more than 1,000 positions may be lost.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=568&ncid=749&e=1&u=/nm/20050211/bs_nm/financial_citigroup_dc
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ILLINOIS: "We have to make do with what we have, and we're trying to get by until the economy gets better," (Illinois Department of Natural Resources) director Joel Brunsvold says, noting that all state agencies have had to tighten their belts. "It takes a certain period of time to spiral down. It will take the same period of time to spiral up."

In private, though, DNR officials have acknowledged some serious concerns. According to a recent internal memo, first obtained by the (Carbondale) Southern Illinoisan, recent layoffs and proposed budget cuts "seriously jeopardize" critical Department of Natural Resources programs.... "the quality, timeliness and diversity of services to the public will undoubtedly suffer from additional cuts of this proportion."

Since October, the department has sent layoff notices to more than 120 DNR staffers....

http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/news/10865276.htm

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SOUTH CAROLINA: Officials with Santee Print Works in Sumter have confirmed the layoff of 55 workers. Officials on Wednesday said increasing competition from foreign imports and a weak economy prompted the decision.

Company President Martin Barocas says China has used unfair trade practices to gain a monopoly share of the textile and apparel market.

http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2927826
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OHIO: GALION -- Galion City Schools officials may return to voters in May to get $38 million from the Ohio School Facilities Commission.

In the meantime, tight finances may force the layoff of as many as 33 classified district employees. The board of education will meet tonight to discuss both issues....."You have to operate on the money you have," he said. "You never want to cut anything. I would like to be adding things, not taking away."

http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/news/stories/20050210/localnews/1975222.html
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NORTH CAROLINA: CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc.'s turnaround efforts began in earnest Tuesday with the layoff of about 125 workers, or 25 percent of the work force, at its corporate headquarters and other key facilities.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050209/ap_on_bi_ge/krispy_kreme_job_cuts_6
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MISSOURI: A steady stream of Rubbermaid employees filed into a job fair Thursday afternoon in the basement of the University of Missouri extension office in Jackson.

In the coming weeks, 40 to 60 employees will lose their jobs in the second mass layoff at the local plant in the past several months. In August 2004, the Jackson plant laid off about 120 workers.
http://www.semissourian.com/story.html$rec=156190

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GEORGIA: Top U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. said it could be forced to begin laying off workers at its Marietta, Georgia plant and elsewhere, if Congress approves the fiscal 2006 budget proposed by President Bush on Monday.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050207/us_nm/budget_lockheed_dc_3
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IOWA: NEWTON, Iowa More layoffs are in store for Maytag workers in Newton.
A company spokeswoman says the layoffs are needed because the appliance maker plans to reduce production of some product lines to avoid building up inventories. Karen Lynn calls it a "rebalancing."

She says for competitive reasons, Maytag isn't saying how many workers will be affected or which product lines are involved. Maytag has laid off about 330 production workers in Newton in the past year, trimming the hourly work force to about 14-hundred people. Two years ago, the work force was around 22-hundred.

http://www.whotv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2915774
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TENNESSEE: DENVER - Wasting no time in trying to cut costs, the fledgling Molson Coors Brewing Co. said Friday it plans to close a Tennessee plant in early 2007 in a move expected to cost 410 people their jobs.

The Memphis plant, which has a brewing capacity of 3 million barrels a year, produces Coors Light for export, plus Zima XXX, Keystone Light and Blue Moon.

"I thank the Memphis community and its leaders for their support of our company over the last 15 years," CEO Leo Kiely said in a prepared statement. "Most important, I thank our employees in Memphis for their dedication and hard work."

But he added, "The beer business today is incredibly competitive and, unfortunately, tough decisions like this one must be made to compete and grow."

http://www.sunherald.com/mld/thesunherald/10877993.htm
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OHIO: The NASA Glenn Research Center will lose 700 of its 1,900 jobs by the end of 2006 as the space agency cuts back on aeronautics research, the center's director said yesterday.

President Bush's goal of exploration of the moon and Mars is forcing cuts in aircraft research, a field the Cleveland center was built upon, NASA Glenn director Julian Earls said while discussing the president's budget proposal.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13910872&BRD=1699&PAG=461&dept_id=46371&rfi=6
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Meanwhile:

Reflecting a robust economy, a whopping 74,075 jobs are expected to be created in India by over 2,000 companies during the January-March period, according to the findings of a survey...
It said IT and IT-enabled services were expected to provide more job opportunities while other sectors such as pharmaceuticals, textiles and garments, automobiles and auto ancillaries, retail and manufacturing sectors were also on the growth path.

http://www.rediff.com/money/2005/feb/11jobs1.htm
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DES MOINES (AP) - More than 700 manufacturing jobs left Iowa in 2004 and were sent to Mexico, where wages are much lower, according to the state's first study attempting to track such outsourcing.

Iowa Workforce Development, the state's unemployment agency, last year began asking companies that lay off more than 20 workers to report whether their jobs were being sent to another country. The move came as Iowans were increasingly worried that service jobs, especially in the state's large insurance industry, would be headed to low-wage countries such as India.

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u_pg=46&u_sid=1333827
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NEW DELHI: This seems to be the second wave of outsourcing jobs to India. In a bid to bring down production costs, aircraft making biggies, Boeing and Airbus, are increasingly offshoring software development and engineering jobs to Indian IT firms.

Boeing on Tuesday announced a multi-year, multi-million dollar agreement with HCL Technologies to develop software for its new 787 Dreamliner.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1015356.cms
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[Touchdown]

1. I was on the list last month.

One of AT&T's 14,000.

[Bluebear]

3. All the best to you TD. And my, so many red state layoffs!

:shrug:

[Pacifist Patriot]

2. Add thousands of Pfizer sales reps...

http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-pfizer0210.artfeb10,0,4825576.story?coll=hc-headlines-local

[KissMeKate]

4. Journalist Bluebear, you rock.

putting our heads in the sand about the economy being in the shitter isnt helping the jobless.

[Bluebear]

6. Cheers KMK

:smooch:

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

5. Lots of "red states" made the list, I see. nt

[beyurslf]

7. Bank of America... 200 in Wichita