December 2008 Layoffs List

1. AMD (nyse: AMD), Layoff announced: 12/29/08, Employees affected: 100
2. Johnson Controls (nyse: JCI), Layoff announced: 12/23/08, Employees affected: 125
3. Las Vegas Sands (nyse: LVS), Layoff announced: 12/23/08, Location: Macau, Employees affected: 500
4. Parker-Hannifin (nyse: PH), Layoff announced: 12/22/08, Employees affected: 405
5. Eaton (nyse: ETN), Layoff announced: 12/22/08, Employees affected: 331
6. Genworth Financial (nyse: GNW), Layoff announced: 12/19/08, Location: worldwide, Employees affected: 1,000
7. Electronic Arts (nasdaq: ERTS), Layoff announced: 12/19/08, Employees affected: 1,000
8. Sovereign Bancorp (nyse: SOV), Layoff announced: 12/19/08, Employees affected: 1,000
9. Omnicom Group (nyse: OMC), Layoff announced: 12/18/08, Employees affected: 3,000
10. Caterpillar (nyse: CAT), Layoff announced: 12/18/08, Employees affected: 814
11. Ryder System (nyse: R), Layoff announced: 12/17/08, Location: South America, Employees affected: 3,100
12. Western Digital (nyse: WDC), Layoff announced: 12/17/08, Employees affected: 2,500
13. Aetna (nyse: AET), Layoff announced: 12/17/08, Employees affected: 1,000
14. Bristol-Myers Squibb (nyse: BMY), Layoff announced: 12/17/08, Employees affected: 3,700 (in addition to 10% cut in back in July)
15. CBS Corp (nyse: CBS), Layoff announced: 12/16/08, Employees affected: 30
16. Merrill Lynch (nyse: MER), Layoff announced: 12/15/08, Employees affected: 400 (amateur brokers-in-training)
17. Charles Schwab (nasdaq: SCHW), Layoff announced: 12/15/08, Employees affected: 100
18. Union Tank Car Company (majority owned by Berkshire Hathaway (nyse: BRK.A)), Layoff announced: 12/13/08, Employees affected: 130
19. Masco (nyse: MAS), Layoff announced: 12/12/08, Employees affected: 500
20. International Paper (nyse: IP), Layoff announced: 12/12/08, Employees affected: 1,500
21. Las Vegas Sands (nyse: LVS), Layoff announced: 12/12/08, Location: Las Vegas area, Employees affected: 216
22. Bank of America (nyse: BAC), Layoff announced: 12/11/08, Employees affected: 35,000 (over three years)
23. Whirlpool (nyse: WHR), Layoff announced: 12/11/08, Employees affected: 150
24. Dal-Tile (owned by Mohawk Industries (nyse: MHK)), Layoff announced: 12/10/08, Location: Gettysburg, Pa, Employees affected: 105
25. Procter & Gamble (nyse: PG), Layoff announced: 12/10/08, Closure of Clairol plant, Employees affected: 320
26. Praxair (nyse: PX), Layoff announced: 12/9/08, Employees affected: 1,600
27. Anheuser-Busch (nyse: BUD), Layoff announced: 12/8/08, Location: US nationwide, Employees affected: 1,400; Contractors affected: 415
28. 3M (nyse: MMM), Layoff announced: 12/8/08, Employees affected: 2,300
29. Wyndham Worldwide (nyse: WYN), Layoff announced: 12/8/08, Employees affected: 4,000
30. Dow Chemical (nyse: DOW), Layoff announced: 12/8/08, Closure of 20 plants, Employees affected: 5,000 (11% of staff)
31. Legg Mason (nyse: LM), Layoff announced: 12/5/08, Employees affected: 200 (8% of staff)
32. Newsday (owned by Cablevision (nyse: CVC)), Layoff announced: 12/5/08, Employees affected: 100
33. Staples (nasdaq: SPLS), Layoff announced: 12/19/08, Employees affected: 140
34. General Motors (nyse: GM), Layoff announced: 12/5/08, Employees affected: additional 2,000
35. Steel Dynamics (nasdaq: STLD), Layoff announced: 12/4/08, Employees affected: 65
36. Cummins (nyse: CMI), Layoff announced: 12/5/08, Employees affected: 500
37. Windstream (nyse: WIN), Layoff announced: 12/4/08, Employees affected: 170
38. NBC Universal, Layoff announced: 12/4/08, Employees affected: 500 (3% of workforce)
39. DuPont (nyse: DD), Layoff announced: 12/4/08, Employees affected: 2,500
40. AT&T (nyse: T), Layoff announced: 12/4/08, Employees affected: 12,000 (4% of workforce)
41. Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (nyse: FCX), Layoff announced: 12/3/08, Location: New Mexico mine, Employees affected: 600
42. Pratt & Whitney (owned by United Technologies (nyse: UTX)), Layoff announced: 12/3/08, Employees affected: 350
43. Gannett (nyse: GCI), Layoff announced: 12/3/08, Employees affected: 2,000
44. Adobe Systems (nasdaq: ADBE), Layoff announced: 12/3/08, Employees affected: 600
45. Jefferies Group (nyse: JEF), Layoff announced: 12/3/08, Employees affected: 300 (13% of workforce)
46. Viacom (nyse: VIA), Layoff announced: 12/3/08, Employees affected: 850
47. United States Steel (nyse: X), Layoff announced: 12/2/08, Employees affected: 3,500
48. JPMorgan Chase (nyse: JPM), Layoff announced: 12/1/08, Employees affected: 9,200 (21% of WaMu staff)
49. PepsiCo (nyse: PEP), Layoff announced: 12/1/08, Location: Oklahoma Gatorade plant, Employees affected: 87

US Private Job Losses Mount

Job losses and plans to lay off workers hammered the struggling U.S. economy in the final month of 2008, according to private reports that could foreshadow surprisingly grim labor market data from the government on Friday.

U.S. private employers shed 693,000 jobs in December, up sharply from the revised 476,000 jobs lost in November and far more than economists estimated, a report by ADP Employer Services said on Wednesday.

The data comes two days ahead of the government's more comprehensive non-farm payrolls report, which unlike the ADP numbers includes public sector jobs as well.

Analysts said there was reason to expect a worse outcome in non-farm payrolls than their original projection of 500,000 jobs lost for the economy in December, which was the median of economists' forecasts in an earlier Reuters poll.

"This is shockingly awful," said Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics in Valhalla, New York.

"If the recent relationship between the ADP numbers -- after their recent revisions -- and the official payroll data holds, then we should expect a number of about minus -700,000 on Friday, the biggest drop in 59 years."

Most analysts noted Wednesday's ADP report was the first released under a new methodology, warning of uncertainty over its forecasting power. Still, the new system was designed to more closely mirror the government's monthly payrolls results.

Separate data showed planned layoffs at U.S. firms eased in December from the previous month's seven-year high but were up an astounding 275 percent annually as the year-old recession cut a huge swathe of destruction through job market.

The economic slump, which is likely to be the longest since the Great Depression of the 1930s, also produced the worst year of layoffs since 2003, outplacement company Challenger, Gray & Christmas added in its monthly report on U.S. job cuts.

The grim data helped push U.S. stocks lower. Government bond prices, which generally benefit from signs of economic weakness, pared their losses in the immediate wake of the ADP release but later went back on the slide.

Underlining the bleak outlook, the Congressional Budget Office said in new forecasts released on Wednesday that it expected the U.S. economy to contract 2.2 percent in 2009 before recovering in 2010 to grow 1.5 percent.

MORE PESSIMISTIC NOW

The ADP December job losses were the biggest since the survey's launch in 2001.

"Expectations for Friday's nonfarm payroll release will be more pessimistic than they were before this morning's data round," said Christopher Low, chief economist at FTN Financial in New York.

"For now, the consensus is minus-500,000, but we have to assume people are thinking minus-600,000 or more is possible."

Indeed, Scott Anderson, senior economist at Wells Fargo Economics in Minneapolis, said he raised his forecast to "at least 600,000" December job losses from an earlier projection of 500,000.

Anderson also raised his forecast for the unemployment rate to 7.1 percent from 7.0 percent before. The median forecast for unemployment in the Reuters poll was a rise to 7.0 percent from November's 6.7 percent.

Analysts at RDQ Economics also said they raised their expectations to 600,000 job losses from their earlier projection of 500,000.

Shepherdson, at High Frequency Economics, said even the best case scenario implied a payrolls drop of 568,000.

Joel Prakken, chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers, which jointly developed the ADP report, said the ADP data was consistent with a loss of about 670,000 jobs in the payrolls report, assuming some 20,000 government jobs would be added.

Worse yet, he said he still expected a little more than 2 million U.S. job losses over the next year.

He added that the U.S. economy probably contracted at a 5.5 percent annualized rate in the fourth quarter and would shrink 3.5 percent in the first quarter of this year.

"After that economic growth is going to depend on the size and timing of the fiscal package that is being discussed in Washington right now," Prakken said.

The Challenger report said heavy job-cutting could continue through at least the first half of 2009.

Job cuts announced in December totaled 166,348, down 8.4 percent from November's 181,671, Challenger, Gray & Christmas said. Despite the monthly decline, layoffs were up from just 44,416 in the year-ago period.

Unemployment Rate Hits 7.2%

Some 2.6 million Americans lost their jobs in 2008, the worst toll since the end of World War Two, data showed on Friday, and industrial output plunged across Europe as the global economic crisis bit deeper.

The U.S. unemployment rate jumped to 7.2 percent in December and 524,000 people lost their jobs that month, U.S. surveys showed.

"The job situation is ugly and is going to get uglier," said Richard Yamarone, chief economist with Argus Research in New York. "There's no reason to expect hiring any time in the next three to six months. We are not going to see any hiring until the government steps in and acts. Talk doesn't work."

The unemployment rate, which jumped from 6.8 percent in November, was the highest level since January 1993. Companies are cutting jobs across the world because of the stranglehold on consumer and corporate funding since a credit boom went bust a year and a half ago.

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama said the U.S. economy could stay mired in recession for years without bold action.

"I don't believe it's too late to change course, but it will be if we don't take dramatic action as soon as possible," Obama said in a speech in Fairfax, Virginia on Thursday. "If nothing is done, this recession could linger for years."

"When we look at where companies are, in the conversations they're having, we anticipate continued job losses for at least a couple quarters," said Jeff Joerres, chief executive of Manpower Inc, one of the world's largest staffing and outplacement firms.

The North American chief of rival Adecco SA said a decline in overtime and total hours worked suggests more job losses ahead, since employers typically cut hours before they eliminate jobs.

"We have 150,000 clients in the U.S., and I can tell you one company after another is convinced this recession is not going away," Adecco's Tig Gilliam said. He predicts January and February payroll data will show cuts as deep as those seen in the quarter just ended.

"We're in an accelerating job-loss mode," he said.

Adecco is the third largest U.S. employer, behind Wal-Mart Stores and the postal service. Overall, U.S. staffing companies employ almost 3 million people a day and hire some 11 million temporary and contract workers a year, according to the American Staffing Association.

A further negative sign is that professional job categories are losing jobs, said Scot Melland, chief executive of Dice Holdings, which runs specialized job sites focused on areas like finance and technology.

Meanwhile, worker supply is rising, as more people reenter the work force and those anxious about their jobs start to test the waters. Job applications in the latest quarter were up 20 percent versus a year ago, Dice Holdings said.

STIMULUS HOPES

The U.S. job market typically lags the wider economy by three to six months, and so far efforts to stabilize the financial system have not a had a visible effect, Melland said. That underscores the need for a government stimulus that would target consumer spending.

"People who have jobs today don't have the confidence to spend," Adecco's Gilliam said.

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, who takes office January 20, is seeking approval by mid-February of his plan for tax cuts and public-works spending that could total up to $800 billion.

"I think the infrastructure investment is important and needed, but it's also not sufficient," Gilliam said. Friday's jobs report "clearly puts emphasis on the need for Congress and the President to not talk about job growth but to stop the job loss first."

Key to any Obama strategy -- both short- and long-term -- will have to be a focus on education, Gilliam said, citing areas like finance, information technology and medical skills.

BRIGHT SPOTS

Such high-skilled jobs offer a bright spot in the current labor market. The unemployment rate for college-educated workers is 3.9 percent, compared to 10.9 percent among those who never finished high school.

Unemployment in technology is less than half the national average, and IT specialists remain in demand in part because tech investment can help companies cut costs during a downturn, said Dice's Melland.

Also, some parts of the country -- such as Boston; Washington, D.C.; and Milwaukee -- have jobless rates well below the national average, in stark contrast with areas like Detroit, Las Vegas and Los Angeles, according to Adecco.

One trend to watch is whether job losses among temporary workers slow in coming months. This part of the labor market has seen disproportionate job cuts in recent months, said Manpower's Joerres.

"The precipitous drop we've seen in temp help numbers ... will now start to go more in lockstep, because you can only take so much out on the temporary side," Joerres said.

The percentage of temporary workers in the labor force, at 1.54 percent, is the lowest since May 1996, BMO Capital Markets analyst Jeffrey Silber said in a research note.

"The bottoming of this metric typically correlates to the end of a recession," he said. "Unfortunately, we're not there yet."

January 2009 Layoff Lists in the total World

This is a list of the total announced layoffs at America's 500 largest public companies as measured by a composite ranking of sales, profits, assets and market value during January 2009.

Total Announced Layoffs: 151,352

January 5th

Cigna: reduces workforce by 4% (1,100 jobs).
United States Steel: cuts 50 jobs as it closes production lines in Texas.

January 6th

Alcoa: starts global salary and hiring freeze, plans sale of four non-core businesses and cuts workforce by 13% (13,500 jobs).
Aqua Glass (Masco): pink-slips 30 employees.

January 7th

EMC: fires 2,400 as it reduces 2009 expenses by $350 million.

January 8th

Union Pacific: pink-slips 230 as company struggles; stock down 22% year-to-date.
Bath Iron Works (General Dynamics): dismisses 179 employees.
Eaton: 78 laid off in Iowa.
Walgreen: cuts 1,000 (roughly 9%) from corporate and field manager ranks.

January 9th

Oracle: cuts 500 from U.S. sales and consulting businesses.
Boeing: cuts 4,500 and returns workforce size to what it was in early 2008.
Freeport-McMoRan: cuts workforce in half at Arizona mine; 1,550 workers let go.
Smitfield Foods (Butterball): Fires 75 at Missouri plant.

January 12th

Mosaic: 1,000 employees in Saskatchewan.
Aircraft maker and Textron (Cessna): 2,000 employees fired.
Best Buy: 12.5% of its headquarters staff with 500-employee layoff.
Precision Castparts: dismisses 40 as airline industry continues to struggle.

January 13th

Cummins: freezes salaries for the rest of the year and lets 800 go.
Pfizer: cuts 800 researchers as it lowers cost in the face of poor performance and coming patent losses.

January 14th

Ecolab: restructures and reduces workforce by 4% (1,000 jobs).
Delta Air Lines: gives 2,000 early retirements as part of 8% capacity reduction.
Motorola: lays off 4,000 following a 3,000-worker layoff last year; savings of $700 million a year.
Google: fires 100 hirers cutting back on contract workers and temporary employees.

January 15th

Xerox: cuts 275 jobs in New York region.
MeadWestvaco: fires 2,000 and plans closings or restructurings at up to 14 plants.
Autodesk: expects loss from 2008 fourth quarter; pink-slips 750 (10% of workforce).
Marshall & Ilsley: cuts 8% of staff (830) in ongoing cost-cutting.
General Electric: jet-engine group cuts 1,000 white-collar jobs.

January 16th

ConocoPhillips: trims capital spending by 18%, writes off $34 billion and reduces workforce by 4% (1,300 jobs).
Hertz Global Holdings: sets out for worldwide restructuring in first quarter of 2009; cuts 4,000 jobs.
WellPoint: reduces workforce by 600 and removes 900 open positions.
Advanced Micro Devices: reduces global workforce by 9% (1,100 jobs).

January 20th

Clear Channel Communications: reduces workforce by 9% accounting for 1,850 job losses.
Deere & Company: dismisses 120 at Iowa plant.

January 21st

Burlington Santa Fe: cuts 2,500 workers (5% of workforce).
UAL: fires 1,000 to cut overhead costs.
SPX: attempts to sell a business unit and cuts 400 employees to help endure the downturn.
Intel: closes five manufacturing plants and pink slips 5,000.
Walt Disney: offers voluntary buyouts to 600 theme park executives on poor attendance.
Wynn Resorts: wraps up construction on Las Vegas Strip casino with 53-worker layoff in design and construction affiliate.
Eaton: total workforce reduction since the beginning of last year to 10% with 5,200-worker cut.
Warner Bros. Entertainment (Time Warner): cuts 10% (800) of its jobs.

January 22nd

Microsoft: has first mass layoff in 34-year history; pink slips 5,000.
Huntsman: reduces workforce by 9%; cutting 1,175 regular workers and 490 full-time contractors.

January 23rd

Deere & Company: subsidiary lays off 502 employees.
Abercrombie & Fitch: cuts 50 from headquarters as company leans expenses.
Harley-Davidson: sees 60% drop in profits in fourth quarter of 2008; fires 1,100 (10% of workforce).

January 26th

Lincoln National: posts five quarterly declines in profit; cuts 540 (5% of workforce).
Caterpillar: announces quarterly profit plunge of 32%; fires 20,000.
Pfizer: closes five factories and cuts 15% of total workforce (19,000 workers).
Sprint Nextel: pink-slips 8,000 workers--recording more than $300 million in severance charges but saving $1.2 billion a year in labor costs.
Home Depot: closes high-end home design shops and slims ranks at headquarters; dismisses 7,000.
General Motors: cuts production at several plants and fires 2,000 in Michigan and Ohio.
Texas Instruments: pink-slips 3,400 (12% of workforce).
IBM: selects 2,800 to participate in its “current resource reduction action.”

January 27th

AOL (Time Warner): reduces workforce by 10% (700 workers) as it fights declining ad revenue.
Merillat (Masco): cuts 20% of workforce (70 workers).

January 28th

Starbucks: organizes closings at 900 stores worldwide and fires 6,700 in the process.
Target: cuts 400 open positions and 600 employees on sagging sales.