Canada Day (French: Fête du Canada), formerly Dominion Day (French: Le Jour de la Confédération), is Canada’s national day, a federal statutory holiday celebrating the anniversary of the 1 July 1867 enactment of the British North America Act, which united Canada as a single country, which was in turn composed of four provinces. Canada Day observances take place throughout Canada as well as internationally.
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. mortgage applications plunged to a seven-month low last week as demand for home refinancing loans tumbled 30 percent, data from an industry group showed on Wednesday.
The drop does not bode well for the hard-hit U.S. housing market, which has been showing some signs of stabilization, with sales rising and home price declines moderating in many regions of the country.
The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage applications, which includes both purchase and refinance loans, for the week ended June 26 decreased 18.9 percent to 444.8, the lowest reading since the week ended November 21, 2008.
via U.S. mortgage applications fall to 7-month low – Yahoo! Finance.
(Reuters) – Citigroup Inc has increased interest rates on up to 15 million U.S. credit card accounts just months before curbs on such rises come into effect, the Financial Times reported citing people close to the situation.
Citigroup had upped rates on 13 million to 15 million credit cards it co-brands with retailers such as Sears, the paper said.
via Citi raises rates on millions of credit cards: report – Yahoo! News.
Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009
Drew Sheneman
- Another Big Round of Layoffs is Imminent at Gannett
- Dow Chemical to close 3 La. plants, cuts ethylene production
- Budget signed: 950 state (NH) workers could lose jobs
- Briggs & Stratton to close Jefferson, Watertown plants; 430 jobs lost
- Construction spending falls more than expected
- Monster Employment Index Edges Down Slightly in June
- Ford US Sales Top Expectations, Chrysler Down 42%
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Microsoft/Google/IBM and other Rumors/News
General Economic News
Government Layoff News
US and some Canada Layoff News
International Layoff News
Hiring News and News You Can Use
– Microsoft/Google/IBM and other Rumors & News –
– The Gannett Company, owner of the nation’s largest newspaper chain, will go through another round of layoffs soon, with an announcement possible in the next few days, executives said Tuesday.
via Another Big Round of Layoffs is Imminent at Gannett – Media Decoder Blog – NYTimes.com.
– Gannett Co. Inc., the publisher of The Courier-Journal, plans to eliminate more than 1,000 jobs, according to a report Tuesday on The Wall Street Journal’s Web site.
June 2009 Index Highlights:
Index fell by one point reflecting seasonal lull in U.S. online recruitment activity
Year-over-year growth rate showed slight improvement from previous two months
Real estate, rental and leasing registered strongest monthly rise in online job availability among industries amid signs of stabilization in the housing market
Among occupations, legal and protective services led all categories in June while demand eased further for technically skilled professionals
![[Report]](http://bloomberg.econoday.com/images/bloomberg/byreport_butt_new.gif)
7:30 AM ETIt was the first time since last September that the monthly total was less than 100,000 and it was the lowest job-cut count since 53,579 job cuts were announced in March 2008.
It was also nine percent lower than the same month a year ago, making it the first year-over-year decline since February 2008, Challenger added.
via U.S. planned layoffs fall to 15-month low in June | Markets | Hot Stocks | Reuters .
![[djStar]](http://bloomberg.econoday.com/images/bloomberg/djstar.gif)
8:15 AM ETWASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Companies in the U.S. private sector shed 473,000 jobs in June, according to the ADP employment report released Wednesday………..
The decline in employment was close to the consensus forecast of Wall Street economists surveyed by MarketWatch for a decline of 498,000.
via Private sector shed 473,000 jobs in June: ADP – MarketWatch.
Lisa Benson
The Commerce Department said Wednesday that construction spending dropped 0.9 percent in May, nearly double the 0.5 percent decline that economists expected. Adding to the signs of weakness, activity in the past two months was revised lower.
Construction rose 0.6 percent in April, down from the 0.8 percent increase originally reported. A March increase of 0.4 percent was replaced with a decline of the same amount. That left the April gain as the only increase in the past eight months.
via Construction spending falls more than expected – Yahoo! Finance.
Mike: Some areas are already seeing Depression type unemployment:
– Martinsville’s unemployment rate rose in May to 21.9 percent, once again the highest rate in Virginia, statistics show.
via BREAKING NEWS: City unemployment rate hits 21.9 percent – Martinsville Bulletin.
– Ford Motor Co. (F) reported a smaller-than-expected 11% drop in U.S. sales for June, while rival Chrysler Group LLC posted a steeper-than-expected decline of 42%.
But Chrysler’s results were caused in part by a 95% tumble in fleet sales, with the auto maker’s retail market share up 1 percentage point to 9%.
Meanwhile, Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) continued to struggle, reporting a 32% drop as the company sold fewer vehicles domestically than Ford for the third-straight month.
via UPDATE: Ford US Sales Top Expectations, Chrysler Down 42%.
– SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Legislators in more than a half-dozen states, their revenues evaporating in the recession, frantically worked to stave off government shutdowns and devastating service cuts. California failed to meet a midnight deadline and now may need to issue IOUs instead of paying bills.
Across the country, lawmakers were feeling the heat as their legislatures began the new fiscal year without a budget in place.
via California, other states face tough budget choices – Yahoo! News.
– The budget cuts the state workforce by 5 percent, with 200 layoffs and another 400 vacant positions being eliminated.
Lynch said contract talks continue with the State Employees Association. He said he prefers worker furloughs to layoffs as a way to make $25 million in personnel savings the budget requires. But he said a voluntary furloughs system won’t be enough. Up to 950 layoffs will be needed if a deal can’t be reached on specific, predictable cutbacks.
– The president of the commission, Bettye Fine Collins, said officials will immediately start laying off several hundred of the county’s 3,600 employees. That number could reach 1,000 in the county’s budget year that starts Oct. 1.
via Ala. County Begins Mass Layoffs After Budget Cuts – Court Alabama Tax Birmingham – WKRG.com.
– The first round of Chicago Public Schools layoffs is set to begin Wednesday when more than 550 administrative employees will be fired as part of a cost-cutting plan, district sources said.
– Five Bridgewater police officers have been laid off to balance the town budget.
via Bridgewater lays off five cops – Brockton, MA – The Enterprise.
– The transportation agency says it has laid off 14 employees, including a marketing director. Without a marketing director, officials say they chose to suspend all marketing and advertising campaigns for an undisclosed length of time.
– The total layoffs could range from 16 to 24 employees, depending on whether employee unions will agree to reductions in health care benefits and holiday pay.
via The Wenatchee World Online – Chelan County will cut 16-24 employees.
– State agencies have eliminated seven employee positions, the state personnel director said Tuesday.
via JournalStar.com – Lincoln, Nebraska – News – Local.
– These reductions include 17 full-time equivalents (FTE) in teacher staff reductions, including district staff, and reductions of seven FTE for education assistants, 2.5 FTE for school clerical staff and 0.6 FTE for principals and vice-principals.
– US and some Canada Layoff News –
-Briggs & Stratton Corp. on Wednesday announced a plan to close its Jefferson and Watertown factories in fiscal 2010, leading to the loss of at least 430 jobs.
The plants, which are run by Wauwatosa-based Briggs & Stratton’s power products division, currently manufacture all portable generator, home standby generator and pressure washer products marketed and sold by the company.
– A 3M manufacturing plant in Southbridge that makes safety goggles and ear plugs will be shuttered next year, putting 200 factory employees out of work
via 200 to lose jobs as 3M closes plant – BostonHerald.com.
– The approximately 100 people who work at the plants will be offered jobs elsewhere, Dow said.
– RACINE, Wis. — Johnson Outdoors Inc., which makes kayaks, dive equipment and tents, said Tuesday it is closing a plant in Ferndale, Wash., eliminating 90 jobs.
via Johnson Outdoors closing Washington state plant – Forbes.com.
– The maker of high-density stainless and iron alloy powder metal parts for the auto industry currently employs about 70 workers.
via Hazen Auto Parts Maker Closing Plant, Putting 70 Out of Work – ArkansasBusiness.com .
– Cosma International, owner of the Benco Manufacturing in Belle Plaine, on Thursday informed its employees of plans to close the plant by December. Benco, which manufactures parts for a variety of domestic and foreign automakers, employed as many as 160 before orders declined in recent months.
via Belle Plaine auto parts plant closing by December | GazetteOnline.com – Cedar Rapids, Iowa City.
– The slump in the automobile industry has prompted job cuts at a Wells Fargo servicing center for auto financing, with about 50 people losing their jobs.
Separately, the San Francisco-based banking giant has trimmed a handful of jobs in Oakland in a move related to Wells Fargo’s purchase of Wachovia Corp. But the number of job cuts in Oakland is fewer than 10, the bank said.
via Wells Fargo makes more job cuts – Inside Bay Area .
– To earn the $300,000 of incentives promised by the county, Sparton Corp. agreed to add 100 more jobs during the next two years.
Now it must add 114.
The company confirmed Tuesday afternoon it had eliminated 14 assembly and manufacturing support jobs at the Brooksville facility.
via Sparton lays off 14 employees in Brooksville.
– Squamish – At least two dozen workers were informed they’d lost their job today as the downtown Skye development site stopped construction.
via Dozens lose jobs as Skye construction stops | Local News | Squamish Chief.
– Citing the uncertain economy, Loveland Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Brian Willms announced Tuesday his office is laying off two full-time employees and one part-time employee.
via 3 laid off at Loveland Chamber | coloradoan.com | The Coloradoan,.
– In an effort to balance its budget for fiscal year 2009-2010, the financially strapped Overture Center laid off two full-time staffers this week, including a management position, the arts organization said Tuesday.
via 77 Square: Arts: Theater: Overture Center lays off 2 more staffers.
– Vibe Media Group Chief Financial Officer Angela Zucconi confirmed the closing and said most of the company’s 50 or so employees will be laid off.
via Vibe Magazine To Cease Publication – Entertainment News Story – KMBC Kansas City.
– As of Aug. 1, Sutter Solano will eliminate 34 full- or part-time positions, plus another six empty nursing positions will not be filled, said hospital spokesman Russell Neilson.
via Layoffs at Sutter Solano Medical Center – Vallejo Times Herald .
– Maryland’s Blue Omega Entertainment, the studio behind the Codemasters-published Xbox 360, PS3, and PC game Damnation, has laid off its entire staff following the game’s completion, according to reports.
via Gamasutra – News – Report: Damnation Developer Lays Off Entire Staff.
– The Harvard Kennedy School has laid off 18 employees to help it close a $2 million budget gap that persisted after less drastic spending cuts, Dean David T. Ellwood ’75 announced in a letter to the School’s faculty and staff last Tuesday.
via The Harvard Crimson :: News :: HKS Cuts 18 Staffers To Close Budget Gap .
– Today, we are reducing our production workforce by 31 people across some departments. These cuts represent a mix of job eliminations, layoffs and reorganizations in creative, casting and physical production, as well as the Paramount Vantage label.
via Despite Transformers 2, Paramount makes deep cuts, shuts down Paramount Vantage.
– University officials are continuing to cut Harvard’s subcontracted janitorial staff despite a string of protests in Cambridge and at the Medical School campus this past spring, according to union organizers.
via The Harvard Crimson :: News :: Cutbacks to Subcontracted Janitorial Staff Continue .
– A casino closure near Onawa, Iowa, means 185 workers — many members of the Omaha Tribe — will lose their jobs.
via 185 Workers Lose Jobs In Casino Closure – Omaha News Story – KETV Omaha.
– The employees said they weren’t sure how many were laid off. One employee said the layoffs could have been up to 100 people in Westport, with fewer in Hoquiam.
via The Daily World.
– The positions, three considered back room jobs, should have minimal impact on the retail end of business, he added.
via Oculina Bank lays off some staff : Treasure Coast : TCPalm .
– Last week, the Monadnock Humane Society laid off three employees as part of a restructuring move, according to Carol L. Armer, chief executive officer. The changes won’t affect the organization’s services in 44 Monadnock Region communities, Armer said.
via SentinelSource.com |Monadnock Humane Society lays off staffers.
– CUNA is eliminating the jobs of 18 people in its Madison, Wis. office as part of previously announced cost-cutting program, the association announced today
via CUNA Lays Off 18 More Staffers .
– OLIVE TOWNSHIP–Auto parts manufacturer BBi Enterprises Group has all but shut the lights off and locked the doors of its manufacturing plant at 13370 Barry St.
– GAZ Group is laying off about 6,500 people from its main production site in Nizhny Novgorod, a GAZ spokeswoman said Tuesday.
– LONDON – Diageo PLC, the world’s biggest spirits maker, said Wednesday it is cutting 900 jobs as it shutters a 199 year-old distillery and packaging plant as part of a cost-cutting restructure of operations in Scotland.
Diageo, which makes brands including Guinness stout, Smirnoff vodka and Johnnie Walker whisky, said that the restructuring will trim costs by some 40 million pounds ($66 million) in 2012.
via Diageo cuts 900 jobs, closes distillery – News Wires – CNBC.com.
– The wine group Foster’s will ask 50 workers at the Karadoc Lindemans winery, near Mildura in north-west Victoria, to take voluntary redundancy packages.
via ABC Western Victoria – Winery workers face voluntary redundancy.
– American hotelier Hilton Hotels Corporation has announced that it has made around 100 full-time staff redundant at its international headquarters in Watford. An undisclosed number of contract staff will also lose their jobs.
via Hilton makes 100 redundancies at its Watford office – BigHospitality.
-The academy is cutting seven teaching posts from its staff to deal with a ‘significant budget deficit’ it inherited when it took over the former Sherwood Hall School last September.
via Some Samorth Academy staff to be made redundant – Mansfield Chad .
– The college said the announcement would affect 12 posts.
via BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | Tayside and Central | Anger over college staff job cuts.
– Fifty positions are being eliminated from the Moss plant in Belfast. The company said on Tuesday that it is consolidating its operations and closing part of its facility there.
via Job Cuts at Belfast Plant – WABI TV5.
– Clothing manufacturer Pacific Brands will close its Palmerston North factory next month with the loss of 50 jobs after efforts to sell the factory failed.
via 50 jobs lost as factory sale fails – National – NZ Herald News.
– CORUS’ Engineering Steels last week announced that 379 Stocksbridge employees are to be made redundant in a fresh wave of job cuts.
– Finnish government-owned distiller Altia said Tuesday it had wrapped up a round of statutory cooperation procedure talks, adding 14 people would have to go.
via NewsRoom Finland.
– Smurfit Kappa is to cut 140 jobs from its 173-strong workforce at its paper converting factory in Co Cork.
Staff were briefed by management on the job losses this morning.
via Smurfit Kappa to cut 140 Cork jobs – The Irish Times – Wed, Jul 01, 2009.
– Telecoms giant Nortel has laid off another 150 staff across the UK without redundancy pay.
via BBC NEWS | UK | England | Berkshire | More jobs cut at telecoms giant.
– Siemens is slashing 300 jobs at its IT services operation in the UK.
The company told staff in an internal memo, seen by The Register, that it planned to cut loose 100 ops division roles, 160 project management and consultancy jobs, and 40 finance and head office staff.
via Siemens axes 300 UK at tech services arm • Channel Register.
– Financial services group ING is to merge all its insurance operations under the Nationale Nederlanden flag, meaning long-established names such as RVS will disappear.
The reorganisation will cost 800 jobs over the next three years but ING said it hopes to largely avoid compulsory redundancies.
via DutchNews.nl – ING to merge insurance, cut 800 jobs.
– The owner of Gala Coral who owns Coral bookmakers and Gala bingo and casino is cutting 300 jobs as a result of shutting another 5 bingo clubs! The company has reorganised itself and increased its efficiency meaning over 180 administrative jobs have been cut which includes both finance and marketing positions.
via Gala cut 300 jobs! : Gaming Alerts.
– Up to 600 jobs at Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic airline are under threat as the airline cuts back on its services this winter – just as arch-rival BA seeks to axe 4,000 jobs.
via 600 jobs to go at Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic as BA seeks to axe 4,000 | Mail Online.
– Trinity Mirror (LSE: TNI) has revealed plans to shut 12 newspapers in the Midlands, axe “approximately” 94 jobs and shut two offices as part of the company’s plans to save £25 million this year.
– Hiring News and News You Can Use–
– The Oshkosh Corp., will get up to $12 billion to make thousands of armored vehicles which the Pentagon urgently needs in Afghanistan.
Oshkosh out-bid three competitors to build the Army and Marine Corps’ MRAP all-terrain vehicles.
– CHICAGO (Reuters.com) — In the past five years, roughly half the new hires at manufacturer Handi-Ramp have been recruited from the online city networking site Craigslist. For those battling to contain costs, it’s becoming an increasingly popular way to recruit staff.
via Help wanted: Recruiting on Craigslist – 5WPR.
– USIS, a provider of security investigations to the federal government, is hoping to hire 200 field investigators in the next three months.
via USIS hiring 200 investigators – Washington Business Journal: .
– Atlanta – H&R Block, the company known for its tax preparation services, announced Wednesday that it is hiring for several positions in the Atlanta area.
Mike: That’s it for today and it was a much busier day that I expected with the July 4 holiday weekend almost upon us. Tomorrow brings us the weekly Jobless Claims report and the monthly Employment Situation report. Till then………………….
Tom Toles
Tags: cut jobs, economic, employment, factory closing, firing, hiring, job loss, jobs cut, laid off, layoffs, plant closing, positions eliminated, redundancies, staff cuts, unemployment, workforce reduction
