Tag Archives: Job Cuts

Prepare for layoffs: 50% of employers anticipate a reduction

Revelations 18:2 ‘’For the merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.

Important Takeaways:

  • 50% of employers expect job cuts, survey finds. Here’s how to prepare for a potential layoff
  • Best Buy, Ford Motor, HBO Max, Peloton, Shopify, Re/Max, Walmart and Wayfair are among the firms that have announced layoffs in recent weeks.
  • 50% of firms anticipate a reduction in overall headcount in the next six to 12 months, according to a PwC survey.
  • There are some steps workers worried about job cuts can do to prepare, according to employment and financial experts.
  • “They’re focusing on what they can control,” Sethi said of employers. “They’re dealing with geopolitics, supply-chain issues, inflation, war in Ukraine, all these factors for which they have to determine what their strategies are.”

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Airline CEOs plead with White House to avert looming U.S. job cuts

By Jeff Mason and David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows met with major airline chief executives on Thursday as the industry braces for thousands of job cuts in two weeks, and urged lawmakers to embrace a $1.5 trillion coronavirus aid package proposed by a bipartisan congressional group and endorsed by President Donald Trump.

Meadows told reporters said that if House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi was willing to move a bill that would support airline workers and prevent layoffs, Trump would support it, noting the looming layoffs of thousands of workers set for Oct 1.

American Airlines Chief Executive Doug Parker said airlines would also be working with Pelosi.

​Meadows said the administration had examined executive action options, all of them less than ideal.

Airlines did not offer a new proposal but again made the case that helping avert airline job cuts was one good reason to pass a broad coronavirus relief bill.

After the meeting with Meadows, Parker said it was “not fair” that thousands of airline workers were about to be laid off. “We’re just here to plead with everyone involved to get to a quarterly package before October 1.”

Southwest Airlines Chief Executive Gary Kelly said the initial payroll support plan “didn’t go far enough and long enough.”

American has said it plans to end service to 15 small communities without additional government assistance.

At the end of this month the $25 billion in federal payroll assistance airlines received when the coronavirus first began spreading around the world is set to expire.

Congress also set aside another $25 billion in government loans for airlines, but many have opted not to tap that funding source.

Companies such as American are now pleading for a six-month extension while they simultaneously negotiate with employees to minimize thousands of job cuts that are expected without another round of aid.

Air travel has plummeted over the last six months as the coronavirus pandemic has claimed nearly 196,000 American lives and prompted many to avoid airports and planes, seriously depressing airline revenues.

(Reporting by Lisa Lambert, David Shepardson and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Jonathan Oatis)

LinkedIn cuts 960 jobs as pandemic puts the brakes on corporate hiring

By Supantha Mukherjee

(Reuters) – Microsoft Corp’s professional networking site LinkedIn said on Tuesday it would cut about 960 jobs, or 6% of its global workforce, as the coronavirus pandemic is having a sustained impact on demand for its recruitment products.

California-based LinkedIn helps employers assess a candidate’s suitability for a role and employees use the platform to find a new job.

Jobs will be cut across sales and hiring divisions of the group globally. Announcing the plan in a message posted on LinkedIn’s website, Chief Executive Ryan Roslansky said the company would provide at least 10 weeks of severance pay as well as health insurance for a year for U.S. employees, and will hire for newly-created roles from laid-off staff.

“I want you to know these are the only layoffs we are planning,” Roslansky said in his message. Affected staff, who have not yet been told, would be able to keep company-issued cell phones, laptops, and recently purchased equipment to help them work from home while making career transitions, he said.

As lockdowns to contain the coronavirus have hit businesses around the world, LinkedIn’s business has been hit as companies lay off staff or sharply curtail hiring.

LinkedIn said employees affected by its job cuts will be informed this week and they will start receiving invitations in the next few hours to meetings to learn more about next steps.

“If you don’t receive a meeting invite, you are not directly impacted by this change,” Roslansky said.

(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee; Editing by Susan Fenton)

From drinks to drugs to cars: Global business hit by EU vote

AstraZeneca sign

By Ben Hirschler and Martinne Geller

LONDON (Reuters) – Chief executives from Tokyo to Denver prepared for long-term disruption, job cuts and lower profits on Friday after Britain’s vote to leave the European Union raised widespread fears over economic growth and sent share prices spinning.

In Britain itself, businesses including aerospace, housebuilders and drugmakers fear a range of difficulties from slumping demand to new regulatory hurdles as the pound plunged to its lowest level since 1985.

British Airways owner IAG <ICAG.L> warned that it would no longer meet its annual profit target and car manufacturers including Ford <F.N>, which employs around 14,000 people in the United Kingdom, indicated that it could ultimately lead to job cuts.

“Ford will take whatever action is needed to ensure that our European business remains competitive,” the company said, adding that it had not changed its investment plans yet.

World stocks headed for one the biggest slumps on record as investors predicted the impact of the narrow 52 vs 48 percent vote for Britain to leave the European Union would damage economic confidence across the globe.

The president of Japan’s Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal <5401.T>, the world’s second-largest steelmaker, said the vote was extremely disappointing.

“We are greatly concerned for the negative impact this will have, not only on Britain and the EU but also on the global economy,” said Kosei Shindo.

Those who campaigned for Britain to leave had said a weaker pound could help UK exports, but it will also reduce the value of foreign companies’ UK earnings and raise questions about access to the EU market.

“This decision will create tremendous uncertainty, which will slow economic activity and decision making,” said Martin Sorrell, the boss of the world’s biggest advertising group WPP <WPP.L>.

Jaguar Land Rover, Britain’s biggest carmaker, has estimated its annual profit could shrink by 1 billion pounds ($1.4 billion) by 2020 if Britain returns to World Trade Organization rules for trade with Europe.

Shares in the company’s owner, India’s Tata Motors <TAMO.NS>, fell 8 percent.

IMMEDIATE STEPS

Some businesses signaled an intention to push for a settlement between the UK and the EU that would minimize damage to their business, while others took immediate steps.

“This is a lose-lose ‎result for both Britain and Europe,” said Airbus <AIR.PA> CEO Thomas Enders. “We will review our UK investment strategy, like everybody else will.”

Volkmar Denner, CEO of Bosch, said its investment plans would not change, for now, but it was preparing for a weaker British currency: “We have significantly raised our hedging ratios in order to counteract a possible depreciation of the British pound.”

The German appliances maker plans to invest 25 million euros in Britain this year.

Randstad <RAND.AS>, the world’s second-largest employment services company, said it might need to restructure, as in did during the financial crisis in 2009, to cope with disruption to the jobs market.

Prime Minister David Cameron, who campaigned for Britain to remain in, said he would resign and leaders in Scotland, which voted strongly to stay in Europe, said they would consider holding a referendum to leave the United Kingdom.

Makers of Scotch whisky, who export more than 90 percent of what they produce, fear market access could be jeopardized.

“There are serious issues to resolve in areas of major importance to our industry and which require urgent attention, notably the nature of future trade arrangements with both the single (European) market and the wider world,” said David Frost, chief executive of the Scotch Whisky Association.

Some investors warned of a coming British or even global recession as sterling collapsed to lowest since 1985.

Housebuilders Taylor Wimpey <TW.L>, Barratt Developments <BDEV.L> and Persimmon <PSN.L> saw their market values slump by more than a fifth on fears of a sharp economic downturn.

Bank shares such as Barclays <BARC.L> and Credit Suisse <CSGN.S> also tumbled, as well as domestic retailers like Sports Direct <SPD.L> and Marks & Spencers <MKS.L>. Meanwhile safer-haven sectors, like gold miners and tobacco, outperformed.

STERLING HEADACHE

Big swings in sterling will be a headache for some international companies, with a fall in the currency hitting profits earned in Britain.

International companies with sizeable sterling exposure include Denver-based Molson Coors <TAP.N>, owner of Carling beer, which is heavily reliant on the UK.

But for multinationals reporting in sterling, there will be a short-term boost to profits, when expressed in pounds.

Aside from market access, streamlining of regulations within the EU has made life simpler.

Pharmaceutical companies, for example, enjoy a one-stop shop in the form of the London-based European Medicines Agency, which approves new drugs for all EU countries, while the EU’s open airspace deals have fostered a surge in air travel and common policies on agriculture and food safety have allowed for smoother supply chains.

Companies in those sectors have fretted that Britain outside the bloc would disrupt the regulatory landscape.

Ahead of the vote, some British-based multinationals such as Diageo <DGE.L>, Unilever <ULVR.L> and Rolls-Royce <RR.L> had expressed their support for “Remain” directly to employees, although most stopped short of this.

Rolls-Royce said on Friday the medium and long-term impact would depend on the relationships struck by Britain with the EU and the rest of the world.

Government figures show 12.6 percent of Britain’s economic output is linked to exports to the EU’s 27 other members, for whom only 3.1 percent of output is linked to exports to Britain. And 80 percent of British businesses trading overseas do so with the EU.

The Confederation of British Industry has estimated there could be between 550,000 and 950,000 fewer jobs by 2020 in the event of Brexit.

For banks, a huge concern has been the threat that financial institutions based in London could lose their EU “passports”, or the automatic right to sell services across the bloc under single low-cost system. That has made bank shares particularly volatile in the run-up to the referendum.

Brexit uncertainty has also helped push British merger and acquisition activity this year at its lowest as a proportion of global activity since records began in 1980.

It could also impact large deals already in process, such as Anheuser-Busch InBev’s <ABI.BR> $100 billion-plus takeover of SABMiller <SAB.L> and the $30 billion merger of London Stock Exchange Group <LSE.L> and Deutsche Boerse <DB1Gn.DE>.

(Additional reporting by Kate Holton, Ritsuko Ando, Yuka Obayashi and Laurence Frost; editing by Keith Weir and Philippa Fletcher)

Sprint slashes 2,500 jobs to cut costs

(Reuters) – Sprint Corp has axed at least 2,500 jobs across six customer care centers and its Kansas headquarters as part of its plan to cut $2.5 billion in costs, a company spokeswoman said on Monday.

The job cuts, mostly in customer service, also include 574 positions at Sprint’s headquarters at Overland Park, Kansas, Sprint spokeswoman Michelle Boyd said.

Sprint, the fourth-largest U.S wireless carrier, has shut down call centers in Virginia, New Mexico, Tennessee and Texas and cut back jobs at its Colorado and Overland Park call centers, Boyd added.

The telecom company, which has kick started a turnaround plan, said last year it is looking at areas such as labor costs, network expenses, information technology and administrative expenses to reduce costs to the tune of $2.5 billion.

Investors have been concerned that the company, which is majority-owned by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp, is burning cash at an alarming rate to acquire users and upgrade its network.

Sprint notified employees last week about the job cuts and severance benefits through email, Boyd said.

As of Jan. 1, Sprint’s workforce totaled 33,000 employees. The company has said that it planned to give layoff notices to employees before Jan. 30 as its severance package would be reduced after that date.

Sprint subscribers are increasingly using the Sprint Zone app and going online for their customer care needs and the jobs cuts were made in response to that trend, Boyd said.

Sprint said in November 2014 that it would fire 2,000 employees. In October 2014, the company launched a previous round of layoffs and shed about 1,700 jobs.

Boyd declined to comment on whether the company plans to slash more jobs in coming weeks.

The Kansas City Star first reported news of the job cuts on Monday.

Shares in Sprint, which have fallen about 21 percent this year, were down about 10 percent at $2.59 in afternoon trading.

(Reporting by Malathi Nayak in New York and Abhirup Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza, Alistair Bell and Meredith Mazzilli)