The following future closings and permanent mass layoffs were reported in California.
· Bank of the West is laying off 46 employees on Jan. 31 at 1977 Saturn St. in Monterey Park.
· Cadence Design Systems Inc. is laying off 84 employees on Feb. 4 at 2655 Seely Ave. in San Jose.
· Centinela Freeman Regional Medical Center is laying off 202 employees on Jan. 31 at 333 No. Prairie in Inglewood.
· Construction Metals Inc. is closing down and laying off 102 employees on Feb. 8 at 12968 Santa Ana Ave. in Fontana.
· Countrywide is laying off 73 employees on Feb. 3 at 8501 and 8511 Fallbrook Ave. in Canoga Park.
· Fresno Bee is laying off 58 employees on Jan. 21 at 1626 E. St. in Fresno.
· Giant Merchandising Inc. is closing down and laying off 120 employees on Feb. 5 at 5655 Union Pacific Ave. in East Los Angeles.
· IAP World Services Inc. started laying off 248 employees on Jan. 18 at 7000 East Ave. in Livermore.
· Kmart Corp. is closing down and laying off 90 employees on Jan. 17 at 1739 S. Victoria Ave. in Ventura.
· Lasco Bathware is laying off 149 employees on Jan. 11 at 3261 and 3255 E. Miraloma Ave in Anaheim.
· Lawrence Livermore National Security LLC started laying off 248 employees on Jan. 18 at 7000 East Ave. in Livermore.
· Long Beach Acceptance Corp. is laying off 135 employees on Feb. 1 at 500 North State College Blvd., Suite 350 in Orange.
· Marvell Semiconductor Inc is laying off 4 employees on Jan. 27 at 890 Glenn Dr. in Folsom, another 4 at 10955 Vista Sorrento Parkway, Suite 200, in San Diego, another 10 at 26880 Aliso Viejo Parkway, Suite 100 in Aliso Viejo, and 51 employees at 5488 Marvell Lane in Santa Clara.
· Oldcastle Precast Inc. is closing down and laying off 33 employees on Jan. 23 at 1495 8th St. in Colton.
· Optical Communication Products Inc. is closing down and laying off 130 employees on Jan. 29 at 6101 Variel Ave. in Woodland Hills.
· Option One Mortgage is laying off 157 employees on Feb. 2 at 6501 Irvine Center Dr. in Irvine and another 160 at 3 Ada in Irvine.
· Reliant Manufacturing LLC is closing down and started laying off 54 employees on Jan. 14 at 7390 Lincoln Way in Garden Grove.
· Resmae Mortgage Corp. started laying off 182 employees on Jan. 5 at 6 Point Dr. in Brea.
· SBMC Mortgage is closing down and laying off 46 employees on Feb. 7 at 14761 Califa St. in Van Nuys.
· Scan Health Plan started laying off 33 employees on Jan. 18 at 1770 Iowa Ave., Suite 110 in Riverside, another 33 employees at 2401 E. Katella Ave., #125 in Anaheim, another 41 at 2501 Cherry Ave., #200 in Los Angeles, another 51 at 3800 Kilroy Airport Way, #100 in Long Beach, and 33 at 500 N. Central Ave., #350 in Glendale.
· Sierra Cedar Products LLC is closing down and laying off 66 employees on Feb. 3 at 1401 Melody Road in Olivehurst.
· Target is closing down and laying off 133 employees on Feb. 2 at 1363 West Henderson Ave. in Porterville.
· The Vons Companies Inc. is closing down and laying off 74 employees on Jan. 27 at 2100 White Lane in Bakersfield.
· Veolia Transportation Services Inc. is laying off 82 employees on Jan. 31 at 14663 Keswick St. in Van Nuys.
· Veolia Transportation Services Inc. is closing down and laying off 82 employees on Jan. 31 at 5733 Sheila St. in Commerce.

The following future closings and permanent mass layoffs were reported in Indiana.
· Atwood is closing down and laying off 152 employees in Elkhart in late February or mid March.
· Colgate Palmolive is closing down and laying off 40 employees at 1410 S. Clark Blvd. in Jeffersonville Feb. 29.
· Hurst Manufacturing is laying off 55 employees at 1551 W. Broadway St. in Princeton on March 3.
· International Automotive Components is laying off 233 employees at 200,000-square-foot at 600 S. Kyle St. in Edinburgh on March 17.
· Macy’s-Washington Square Mall is laying off 103 employees at 10202 E. Washington St., # 300, in Indianapolis on March 1.
· Superior Sample Company, Inc. is closing down and laying off 31 employees at 1225 North State Road 25 in Rochester on March 10.
· Trinity Health is closing down and laying off 158 employees at its Our Lady of Holy Cross Care Center at 7520 S. US Highway 421 in San Pierre on Feb. 29.

The following future closings and permanent mass layoffs were reported in Maryland.
· Chestertown Foods Inc. is laying off 143 employees on Feb. 29 at 27030 Morgnec Road in Chestertown.
· Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. is laying off 49 employees on March 30 at 1705 N. Market St. in Frederick.
· Genco is laying off 100 employees on March 31 at 8901 Snowden River Parkway - Gateway Commerce Center 20 in Columbia.
· MV Transportation is closing down and laying off 178 employees on March 1 at 4925 Nicholson Court in Kensington.

The following future closings and permanent mass layoffs were reported in Ohio.
· Meijer Stores is closing its stores at 5800 N. Chantry Drive and 775 Georgesville Road in Columbus and 2741 Harshman Road in Dayton laying off 662 employees starting March 11 and concluding by April 26.
· RadioShack will permanently close its distribution center at 4343 Williams Road in Groveport, laying off 69 employees by May 30.
· Toys R Us is closing its distribution center at 375 Distribution Circle in Fairfield, laying off 68 employees by March 21.

Merix Corp. plans to close its leased manufacturing facility in Wood Village, OR, and transition production to its facility in Forest Grove, OR. Merix expects to fully shutdown operations by March 1, with full closure of its Wood Village facility by the summer of 2008. The closure of the facility and other restructuring actions will result in the elimination of approximately 180 positions.

The following future closings and permanent mass layoffs were reported in Texas.
· Goodyear Tire & Rubber is stopping most non-mix functions at its plant at 13701 State Highway 31 West in Tyler with most layoffs being completed by the end of this month.
· Integrated Logistics Inc. is losing its contract with Wal-Mart and will have to layoff 780 employees at its distribution facility at 4554 E. Greenwood Drive in Baytown by the end of next month.

HouseValues Inc. terminated its 36,134-square-foot lease with Chinook Business Park LLC for the entire office/warehouse building at 1700 N. 6th St. in Yakima, WA. The lease was set to run through October 2010 and it has been paying approximately $19,000/month in rent. It assigned its purchase option and leasehold improvements to an unnamed third party for $1.4 million.

The following future closings and permanent mass layoffs were reported in Washington, DC.
· MVM, Inc. at 425 I St. NW is closing down laying off 51 employees by the end of this month.
· Resources for Human Development, Inc. is laying off 20 employees in the District by the end of this month.

In recent weeks, Salem has attracted widespread attention because of a budget crisis that resulted in a $4.7 million midyear shortfall, prompting the layoff of dozens of teachers.

Although no other local community is taking such drastic steps, next year’s outlook may include more bad news for teachers. Governor Deval Patrick is proposing a $223 million increase in state school spending for next year - a 6 percent increase - and it can’t come soon enough.

Market conditions will force worker layoffs at Winnebago Industries, company spokeswoman Sheila Davis said Wednesday.
She said the number of employees to be laid off is unavailable, as officials at the motor home manufacturer are “still evaluating current labor requirements and future forecasted needs.”

Winnebago Industries is North Iowa’s largest employer, with a total of 3,300 workers at plants in Forest City, Charles City and Hampton.

Yesterday, we had another round of layoffs at work. This was the second one in the past 4 months and the third overall since SV Probe, Inc. acquired Kulicke & Soffa in November 2006.

“As a result of continuing softness in order rates in the second quarter and a difficult outlook in the months ahead, the company today has completed a reduction in force in our Santa Clara manufacturing operations. While regrettable, this action was necessary to further align our operations with the market requirements for our standard cantilever and vertical products.”

The second is the result of the company’s direction to move the majority of the manufacturing overseas to our Vietnam facility. With this change in philosophy, all the layoffs yesterday were from the manufacturing department. I heard that a total of 21 people were released. Considering our facility has only about 60-70 people, the reduction in force was very significant.

Caliber Auto Transfer, which operates the center at 3101 N. TR 47, reportedly has notified some of its employees of their pending termination Feb. 20.

If the Police Department is forced to adhere to the Finance Committee’s guidelines for next year’s budget, two layoffs appear inevitable, Police Chief Thomas Lambert told selectmen this week.

“The budget cuts are going to involve deep public safety issues,” selectmen Chairman Andrew Porter said before the chief’s budget presentation Monday night.

Faced with a potential budget deficit of nearly $1.9 billion, Gov. Ted Strickland on Wednesday said he asked agency directors to “find ways to save money” and wouldn’t rule out layoffs or closing state institutions.

No single economic indicator was blamed for the projected slow growth. The same reasons behind the national slowdown — a declining housing market, higher unemployment, higher energy prices, the slide in the stock market — are in play here, but states like Ohio and Michigan get rocked further because of a recession in the auto industry.

Companies are taking a cautious approach to adding jobs, and in some cases adopting hiring freezes, as they try to figure out how to deal with economic uncertainty without big layoffs.

But Department of Labor figures dating from November show the number of
workers affected by layoffs involving 50 or more employees is largely
unchanged.

GlaxoSmithKline will begin laying off workers at its pharmaceutical plant here in April, a company official said Tuesday.

The company plans to lay off all 236 people currently employed at its industrial park facility, then cease operations. Layoffs are scheduled to begin April 7 and be completed by Oct. 31, 2009, according to the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification form filed with the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

Presque Isle Downs & Casino is feeling the financial pinch of a slow winter season — and now so are some of its employees.

About 200 employees, including 150 full-time workers, are getting fewer hours per week during what casino Chief Executive Richard Knight called a slow time for the industry. The casino employs about 800 people.

Half of DeKalb’s 230 employees jammed council chambers last Monday, after receiving notice late last week of 10-20 “permanent layoffs.”

At a news conference before the meeting, City Manager Mark Biernacki, and assistant city manager, Rudy Espiritu, noted there is a half million dollar shortfall in the budget this year, and the figure is projected to be $1.5 million in next year’s budget. Espiritu said the budget is being held together now by dipping into the city’s Reserve Fund.

A DHL told the German newspaper Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung the carrier is considering the cutbacks in its express operation.

DHL may lay off up to 200 workers in Germany because cell phone manufacturer Nokia is closing a plant in the country.

Finland-based Nokia, the world’s largest mobile phone company, says it plans to close the plant in Bochum, Germany, by the middle of the year, eliminating some 2,300 jobs. That prompted protests in Germany, but Nokia is cutting back there as it is expanding production at a new factory in Romania, which became part of the European Union a year ago.

From Fox news. 

“Government jobs are pretty solid, as is the healthcare industry, but healthcare is always undergoing change,” he said. Regardless of the occupation you choose, Klingshirn said, “You don’t work for a company, you work for yourself. You ought to be asking yourself what you can do to tighten your belt strap and take responsibility for what is going on.”

When the worst does happen, many people file for unemployment until they can get back on their feet. Requirements vary from state to state, with some offering individuals the opportunity to file online, requiring proof of employment, and a government-issued ID.

In most states, an individual must prove they are unemployed (through no fault of their own) and actively seeking work. Wait time between applying for benefits and receiving the first check is typically three weeks, according to the Department of Labor.

In 2006, the average number of weeks unemployed individuals received unemployment was 16.8, ten weeks shy of the maximum 26 weeks someone can collect unemployment. The amount of unemployment received is typically 50% the amount earned while the individual was employed full time.

Bank of America is planning further layoffs in its corporate and investment-banking unit, its chief financial officer said during the bank’s earnings conference call Tuesday.

Last week, the bank announced 650 new job reductions in the wake of a strategic review. Since October, the company has announced 3,650 layoffs, but CFO Joe Price said more are to come in BofA’s capital markets and advisory group, which has been hit hardest by the credit crunch.

National Semiconductor, which is based in Santa Clara, Calif., and employs 500 in South Portland, yesterday said it would eliminate 200 positions at its manufacturing facilities in a bid to modernize its systems, according to a press release.

Most of the job cuts will be at the company’s facilities in Texas and Scotland, but “a small number of positions” will be cut in South Portland, the release said. A spokesperson from National Semiconductor was not immediately available for comment.

BCBS of Kansas is a month away from its largest layoff in company history.

About 350 employees are losing their jobs by Feb. 29 because BCBS lost a contract for handling Medicare claims for the federal government. The longtime Topeka employer is losing 20 percent of its 1,700-member work force.

Chevron Corp. will lay off 76 employees in the East Bay following the sale of two proprietary credit card businesses.

The departures will begin next month.

In August, the San Ramon oil company said its subsidiaries Chevron U.S.A. Inc. and Chevron Credit Bank N.A. agreed to sell their respective proprietary credit card businesses to GE Money Bank NA, a unit of General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) and FleetCor Technologies Operating Co. LLC., which processes fuel card transactions.

Mashable confirms 100’s of layoffs per the New York Times. CEO Yang is considering a potential 100 to 2500 layoffs.

PaidContent: NYT expands on upcoming Yahoo layoffs (which we reported on over): it cites sources and says will be “hundreds of employees” out of a total of about 14,000. It says company executives are still trying to determine exactly which areas will be cut and a few variations of a plan would be submitted to the company’s board at a coming meeting.

WSJ also weighs in with a story: Yahoo expects to finish 2008 with about the same number of workers as it had at the end of 2007 while planning to add staff in some areas deemed priorities.

Maybe a reverse immigration trend in the offing?

Long thrashed by swings in the U.S. economy, Mexico now boasts a thriving housing sector whose record growth leads Latin America - a sign of increased economic stability, and an outlet for investors looking to escape the U.S. downturn.

Giants including the California Public Employees Retirement System, the largest U.S. public pension fund, are already bankrolling projects in Mexico, where they see “more bang for the buck,” said Clark McKinley, spokesman for CalPERS, which has invested more than $300 million in Mexican real estate funds.

The trend could even slow emigration from Mexico, by generating millions in jobs and personal savings as a fresh supply of loans gives many their first chance to own a house.

President Felipe Calderon has set a national goal of a million new mortgages a year by 2010. On Monday, he unveils a set of measures to ensure growth continues, with plans to boost Mexico’s small resale market and combat the urban sprawl that has begun to carpet valleys with hundreds of thousands of matchbox rowhomes.

Behind the boom are six years of economic growth and stability, and a national shortage of 6 million dwellings. While interest rates are falling, just 6 percent of Mexico’s 25.7 million homes are financed with mortgages - compared to about 67 percent in the U.S. Most Mexicans still inherit their homes, buy them with cash, or build them by hand.

Last year, there were 153,105 financial sector job cuts announced, according to Challenger, compared to 50,327 in 2006.

“In all my years in financial services, I have never seen it this bad,” one high-powered securities industry lawyer told The Post. “I have owners of small firms calling me up saying their liabilities now exceed their assets, which means by law they are required to close down.”

The lawyer said he had two 50-something Wall Street guys call him this week, who, he said, “had lost hope, crying on the phone.”

“It is call after call after call like these,” he said.

Last week was the fourth weekly decline in the widely watched Dow Jones industrial average, which closed Friday at 12,099, dragging it down 8.7 percent so far this year.

John Challenger, CEO of outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, predicts more layoffs in the financial services sector in the coming weeks unless Wall Street activity picks up soon.