First Quarter 2016 Hiring, Firings, Layoffs, Resignations

2016 may go down as the sequel movie to the Great Recession circa December 2007 to June 2009.

January 2016 had 42% higher job cuts than January 2015.

The 2015 holiday buying season that is kicked off by Black Friday was a complete disaster for traditional brick and mortar stores  as they were thoroughly crushed by the at home ease and cheap prices by Amazon.com.  Bloomberg has a report showing just how bad sales were.

Retailers have been announcing their store closings, and therefore jobs that likely never return:

Macy’s – is closing 40 stores, and closing a St. Louis call center cutting 750 jobs.  Macy’s locations announced to close:

• Irvine Spectrum, Irvine, Calif.
• Country Club Plaza, Sacramento, Calif.
• Westfield Century City, Los Angeles (This store will be closed in January 2016 and replaced with a new, larger store to open in this same shopping center in spring 2017)
• Enfield Square main store, Enfield, Conn.
• Enfield Square furniture/home/men’s store, Enfield, Conn.
• North DeKalb Mall, Decatur, Ga.
• Kailua, Hawaii
• Palouse Mall, Moscow, Idaho
• Northwoods Mall, Peoria, Ill.
• Cortana Mall, Baton Rouge, La.
• Valley Mall, Hagerstown, Md.
• Berkshire Mall, Lanesborough, Mass.
• Eastfield Mall, Springfield, Mass.
• The Shoppes at Stadium, Columbia, Mo.
• Middlesex Mall, South Plainfield, N.J.
• McKinley Mall main store, Buffalo, N.Y.
• McKinley Mall home store, Buffalo, N.Y.
• Arnot Mall, Horsehead, N.Y.
• Hudson Valley Mall, Kingston, N.Y.
• Eastern Hills Mall, Williamsville, N.Y.
• Cary Towne Center, Cary, N.C.
• Chapel Hill Mall, Akron, Ohio
• Midway Mall, Elyria, Ohio
• Quail Springs Mall, Oklahoma City, Okla.
• Pony Village Mall, North Bend, Ore.
• Roseburg Valley Mall, Roseburg, Ore.
• Suburban Square, Ardmore, Pa.
• Century III Mall, West Mifflin, Pa.
• Ridgmar Mall, Ft. Worth, Texas
• Chesapeake Square, Chesapeake, Va.
• Virginia Center Commons, Glen Allen, Va.
• Peninsula Town Center, Hampton, Va.
• Military Circle Mall, Norfolk, Va.
• Regency Square main store, Richmond, Va.
• Regency Square furniture/home/men’s store, Richmond, Va.
• Downtown Spokane, Spokane, Wash.

Macy’s, Probably doing a lot less hiring.

Sears Holdings – Now more than ever considered to be on death watch. Two stores to close in Michigan in the Spring.

Walmart – Hey remember that time they gave their employees a raise, and then in 2016 closed 154 stores in the United States?

Yahoo! – About 15% of the workforce or 1,700 layoffs.

Dematic – The Grand Rapids based union workforce of about 300 production staff announced they would not even submit a job offer to compete with Mexican labor rate of $1.50.  Those positions are going to be outsourced to Mexico.

Manufacturing jobs:

Manufacturing job cuts and layoffs have also been off to a strong start in 2016 as the lower price of a barrel of oil has hurt a labor intensive industry that created many other cottage industries catering to this boom and very bust industry.  The real story to watch however is the central banking policies around the world.  A few have moved to negative rates, while the United States Federal Reserve has started to raise rates.  This has had the important effect of strengthening the US Dollar against foreign currencies.  The US Dollar is now worth $1.40 Canadian dollars (one of our largest trading partners).  It has the effect of making our goods 30-40% more expensive to purchase.

Schlumberger – announced that 10,000 jobs will be cut it is unclear how many are United States based jobs.

Dow Chemical – with its pending merger and then 3 way split with Du Pont the Dow Chemical group is looking to layoff 500 workers in the Michigan Headquarters.  This is an increase from a previously announced 1,200 jobs to be cut, the grand total now stands over 2,200 jobs to be lost by 2017.

Hiring

Yes there are some companies hiring seasonal workers for spring and summer employment.

Home Depot – Looking to hire 80,000 works for 2016 season, most of these jobs will be part-time, however the company does claim that some full-time positions are available.

2015 First Quarter, Second Quarter ,Third Quarter.

Read about the First Quarter of 2014 here.  Second Quarter 2014 recap here. Third Quarter 2014. Fourth Quarter 2014.

2013 Recap of First Quarter, Second Quarter, Third Quarter, and Fourth Quarter reports.

For 2012 coverage check out First Quarter, Second Quarter, Third Quarter and Fourth Quarter reports.

For 2011 coverage check out our First, Second, Third and Fourth Quarter reports.