A Sign of the Times

Headlines seen since the first of the year:

• 1/5/2009 Cigna to Cut 1,100 Jobs
• 1/6/2009 Alcoa to Cut 13,500 Jobs
• 1/6/2009 Logitech International will cut 500 of its non-manufacturing jobs and may reduce factory jobs as well
• 1/9/2009 Union Pacific to Lay Off 230
• 1/9/2009 Bloomberg: Employers in U.S. Cut 524,000 jobs in December
• 1/9/2009 Boeing to Cut 4,500 Jobs
• 1/9/2009 Schlumberger to cut 5,000 Houston jobs
• 1/10/2009 Salary.com has reduced its staff by 100 employees
• 1/12/2009 Cessna to Cut 2,000 More Jobs
• 1/14/2009 Random House Confirms Additional Layoffs
• 1/14/2009 Motorola to Cut 4,000 Jobs. These job cuts are in addition to the 3,000 announced last year
• 1/14/2009 Report: Oracle cuts 500 jobs
• 1/14/2009 General Electric will eliminate 1,000 jobs this year in the GE Aviation division
• 1/15/2009 Google will reduce its full-time recruiting staff by 100
• 1/15/2009 Upscale clothier Saks will reduce its workforce by about 9 percent (1,100 jobs)
• 1/16/2009 AMD to cut 900 more jobs; reduce pay
• 1/16/2009 According to Bloomberg, GE (GE) may layoff as many as 11,000 people at its financial unit.
• 1/18/2009 Circuit City is liquidating, which could put 30,000 people out of work
• 1/18/2009 Hertz (HTZ) is firing 4,000 people and Wellpoint (WLP) laying off 1,500
• 1/21/2009 BHP Billiton to Shed 6,000 Jobs
• 1/21/2009 Bose Corp. to Cut 1,000 Jobs, 10% of Staff
• 1/21/2009 Rohm & Haas Cuts 900 Jobs
• 1/21/2009 Bank of America could cut another 4,000 jobs
• 1/21/2009 Clear Channel cuts 1,850 jobs in radio, outdoor units
• 1/21/2009 Eaton Reportedly Cutting 5,200 More Jobs
• 1/21/2009 Ericsson to Cut 5,000 Jobs as Profit Falls
• 1/21/2009 Intel to Cut Up to 6,000 Jobs
• 1/22/2009 United Airlines parent posts $1.3B loss, will cut 1,000 jobs
• 1/22/2009 Huntsman Cuts 1,175 Jobs, Closes Plant
• 1/22/2009 Sun eliminates 1,300 jobs as part of larger layoff plan
• 1/22/2009 Rumor: Yahoo! (YHOO) Will Cut 3,000 Jobs
• 1/23/2009 The Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft (MSFT) will cut 5,000 jobs
• 1/25/2009 Another big round of layoffs is expected at Starbucks, possibly 1,000 people
• 1/26/2009 Pfizer lays off 19,000 (10% reduction)
• 1/26/2009 Caterpillar Plans to Cut 20,000 Jobs
• 1/26/2009 Sprint Nextel Cutting 8,000 Jobs, 14% of Workforce, as Recession Deepens
• 1/26/2009 Barclays Says It Won't Need More Capital as ING Cuts Jobs, Replaces Chief
• 1/26/2009 Home Depot will cut 7,000 jobs and close its Expo design business.
• 1/26/2009 Texas Instruments cuts 3,400 jobs
• 1/26/2009 Philips cuts 6,000 jobs
• 1/26/2009 In the U.S., the firings brought the number of job eliminations this month to at least 150,500, according to Chicago-based executive search firm Challenger Gray & Christmas
• 1/27/2009 Baker Hughes cutting 1,500 jobs, or about 4% of its workforce.
• 1/27/2009 Target to Cut 1,100 Jobs
• 1/27/2009 Panasonic to Cut Jobs, Close Plants in Asia
• 1/28/2009 Starbucks to close another 300 stores, Cut 7,000 Jobs
• 1/28/2009 Boeing to Cut 10,000 Jobs
• 1/28/2009 Reader's Digest Cutting 280 Jobs
• 1/29/2009 First National Bank To Cut 350 Jobs
• 1/29/2009 Kodak to Cut Up to 4500 Jobs
• 1/29/2009 Ford Motor Credit announced Wednesday it will cut 1,200 jobs, or 20% of its workforce
• 1/29/2009 Allstate Corp. said it would be cutting 1,000 jobs over the next two years
• 1/29/2009 AOL intends to cut 700 jobs, according to an internal memo
• 1/29/2009 Abbott Laboratories said it would be cutting 200 positions
• 1/29/2009 Jabil Circuit announced plans to eliminate 3,000 jobs on a global basis
• 1/29/2009 Japanese automaker Nissan said it would be cutting 110 U.S. jobs
• 1/29/2009 Computer maker Dell Inc. said it would be reducing the size of its workforce, but did not specify by how much
• 1/29/2009 AstraZeneca said it would cut an additional 6,000 jobs worldwide
• 1/29/2009 Oshkosh announced 1,050 new job cuts, in addition to reductions announced last year.
• 1/29/2009 IBM last week cut some 2,800 workers from its software, sales and distribution units
• 1/29/2009 Tuesday (Jan. 25), IBM slashed 1,200 more jobs within its Systems and Technology Group worldwide
• 1/29/2009 Anslogic cutting 128 jobs in Massachusetts
• 1/29/2009 New Jersey hospital system cutting 180 jobs
• 1/29/2009 Black & Decker cuts 1200 jobs
• 1/29/2009 Drugmaker Sepracor cuts 530 jobs to lower costs
• 1/29/2009 Cabot announced it would slash 500 jobs, or 12 percent of its work force
• 1/29/2009 New York City schools could slash as many as 15,000 jobs - mostly teachers - in the next year due to budget cuts
• 1/29/2009 Corning to Cut 3500 Jobs After Profit, Sales Plunge
• 1/29/2009 NC governor proposes cutting 1300 state jobs
• 1/30/2009 Caterpillar Will Fire Additional 2,110 Workers on Top of 20,000 Job Cuts

Economics and politics are the governing powers of life today, and that's why everything is so screwy. -Joseph Campbell