Businesses Quietly Laying Off Workers Ahead of Anticipated Recession

Don't be fooled by the small numbers because many of them are layoffs at corporate headquarters.
Here's a list of the latest layoffs:

• Boston Business Journal 09/13/2019: State Street lays off 250 IT workers in latest job cuts 
• Variety 09/12/2019: WarnerMedia’s Rooster Teeth Cuts 13% of Staff, Laying Off About 50 
• ARS Technica 09/11/2019: Uber lays off another 435 people to stem big losses 
• Splinter 09/12/2019: Newspaper Owned by Richest Man in the World Lays Off Non-Union Workers 
• SJ-R 09/13/2019: Whole Foods ending health benefits for part-time workers 
• Journal Sentinel 09/11/2019: Harley-Davidson lays off 40 workers in Milwaukee 
• NBC5 09/13/2019: Intrapac lays off more than 90 employees without notice 
• Silicon Valley Business Journal 09/12/2019: Symantec lays off hundreds in California, including at Mountain View HQ, amid buyout talks 
• Channel Partners 08/16/2019: Oracle Lays Off Hundreds More Workers 
• Trib Live 09/10/2019: EQT Corp. lays off nearly 25% of its workforce 
• GeekWire 08/28/2019 Cloud services company Skytap lays off 25 workers in first major change under new CEO 
• Inside Higher Ed 09/06/2019: Marquette Lays Off 2.5% of Faculty, Staff 
• Promo Marketing Magazine 09/13/2019: Staples Names New Head of Promotional Products, Lays Off 175 From HQ 
• The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register 09/14/2019: Gas Producer EQT Lays Off Nearly 200 Employees 
• Multichannel News 09/11/2019: AXS TV Lays Off at Least 40 in Wake of Anthem Deal 
• USA Today 09/04/2019: Sears and Kmart corporate workforce is shrinking with around 250 layoffs 
• CNN Business 08/20/2019: US Steel temporarily lays off 200 workers in Michigan 
• WRAL TechWire 08/23/2019: Cisco lays off ‘whole teams’ at RTP campus, confirms employee 
• CMS Wire 08/29/2019: Sitecore Lays Off a Reported 70 Employees 
• Reuters 09/05/2019: Bunge lays off grain traders in Geneva as company seeks to minimize risk: sources 
• Richmond Times Dispatch 09/12/2019: Manufacturer of store fixtures abruptly closed three plants in Henrico, lays off 190 employees 
• SJ-R 09/10/2019: GameStop lays off 14% of workers, closing up to 200 stores 
• Deadline 08/22/2019: Exhibition Giant AMC Lays Off 35 Workers As “Profit Improvement Plan” Begins 
• Plastics Recycling Update 09/11/2019: Revolve Recycling closes and lays off employees 
• Burbank Leader 08/30/2019: Disney lays off nearly 60 employees in media distribution units following Fox purchase 
• Altoona Mirror 09/03/2019: Norfolk Southern lays off approximately 100 workers 
• MediaPost 08/29/2019: Gatehouse Media Lays Off 24+ Newsroom Staffers 
• Decrypt 09/10/2019: Substratum burns through $13 million in ICO funds in two years, lays off staff 
• BC Local News (Canada) 09/13/2019 (Weak Timber Market): Shut down lays off dozens of forestry workers at Honeymoon Bay 
• Argus Leader 08/30/2019: Poet laid off workers, limited biofuel production in August. Then, it was honored in Fortune magazine 
• ABC13 News 09/03/2019: Northern Southern lays off 130 Roanoke employees 
• Animation Magazine 08/22/2019: Netflix Lays Off Five Top Kids & Family Execs 
• 6WBRC 08/15/2019: Goodyear Gadsden lays off 175; Union president blames NAFTA 
• Business Standard (India) 09/05/2019: Economic slowdown fallout: Realty major Lodha group lays off 400 employees 
• WHYY 08/20/2019: PES refinery lays off all but select few union workers, despite safety concerns 

This was just a partial list from the first page of a Google search using the key words "lays off"

Job losses in 2019

Money just posted the article The Retail Apocalypse Is Heating Up in 2019. Here Are the Major Stores Currently on Deathwatch. The list is getting long and some of the stores are already gone, but I thought I would do a little research into how many jobs will be gone after all is said and done:

• Sears
• 1,575 stores closed. 425 remain for the time being.
• Chicago Tribune 03/23/2018: Sears slashed more than 50,000 jobs last year.
• Payless Shoes
• 16,000 Workers to Lose Their Jobs as Payless Plans to Close All 2,500 U.S., Canadian Stores 
• JC Penny
• Money 02/28/2019 J.C. Penney Just Announced It Will Close 24 More Stores This Year (2,200 jobs)
• Victoria's Secret
• Business Insider 04/07/2016: Victoria's Secret is laying off hundreds of workers 
• USA Tuday 02/28/2019: Victoria's Secret says it is shuttering 53 more stores (plus the 30 stores closed in 2018)
• Gymboree
• CNN 01/17/2019: Gymboree's second bankruptcy will kill the brand. 
• Gap
• CNBC 02/28/2019: Gap says it will shut 230 stores over the next two years, posts mixed holiday results 
• Fashionista 06/15/2015: GAP to close 175 Stores, Lay Off 250 Corporate Employees. 
• NPR 02/28/2019: Gap To Split Into Two Companies, With Old Navy As Separate Firm. 
• Ann Taylor
• Dayton Daily News 06/13/2017: Parent company of Ann Taylor, Lane Bryant to close 667 locations. 
• Dollar Tree
• The State Journal-Register 03/06/2019: Dollar Tree Inc. to close up to 390 Family Dollar stores 
• Newspaper Journalists
• Illinois Times 03/07/2019 Don't let the door hit you - SJ-R employees offered buyouts 
• Illinois Times 03/11/2019 SJ-R cuts sports editor 
• NPR 03/??/2019: WATCH - LISTEN : As Goes Journalism, So Goes the Community 
• Rural Hospitals Closing
• Hospital Closings Likely to Increase 

Markets Insider just posted at 3:00 PM (03/04/2019): The retail apocalypse will claim 4,300 stores this year. Here's why mall giants aren't freaking out. 

The trouble I'm having is discovering precisely how many total jobs are at stake. Fit Small Business explains "Top 10 Retail Analytics Every Store Needs to Measure." Number 10 is the Payroll Percentage, It says that "Businesses with low margins have to spend less on payroll," but following this advice may have had dire consequences according to Forbes which posted an article on 12/16/2017 complaining that "Too Few Retail Workers On The Floor, Too Few Retail Sales And Profits On P&L Statement"

Businesses couldn't lower wages, so what other choice did they have? Cutting hours for part-time workers, cutting store hours to peak traffic times only, or layoffs.

Unfortunately nobody seems to be able to think outside the balance sheet to the larger economy and consider that all these retail employees losing their jobs might have been good customers if they were paid enough to have disposable income.

XIIID Research explains the shift of service infrastructure from a middle class into a form of poverty class. But the worst is yet to come, according to Michael Hudson we are currently in an "Extraction Economy" which is permanently siphoning money from the Working Class into the pockets of the Financial Class.

Businesses Decry Illinois Minimum Wage Increase

Rip Van Winkle (artist unknown) composited with
JonasDeRo's Ruined New York 

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed into law recently a state minimum wage increase to $15 per hour over a period of several years, during which inflation will keep up, rendering this action nothing more than just a political ploy.

Ideally for Springfield, Illinois alone this is alleged to affect the wages of over 36,610 people who currently earn less than $15 per hour.

If the minimum wage was pegged to inflation since it's inception, in today's dollars it would be over $23 per hour anyway. If the minimum wage was pegged to productivity we probably wouldn't have so much inflation.

So businesses trot out their pundits with the stale threats that they would do the following which have consequences:

• Leave the state of Illinois
• Start over from scratch somewhere else with build-out expenses and zero regular customers in an area potentially already occupied by competitors? Not likely.
• Close their businesses
• And do what? Find a Job? Not likely.
• Lay off their employees
• And sacrifice customer service, quality production and morale? Not likely.
• Cut their employees hours
• Already working with a bare-minimum staff, just how much more efficient can you get beyond replacing your full-time workers with only part-time workers?

Another stale argument is that minimum wage jobs are meant only for young students getting entry level experiences. Well I have news for you Rip Van Winkle, those jobs are not as upwardly mobile as they once were after World War II up through the 1970's. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Food prep and retail workers represent the largest group of employees earning less than $15 per hour and the median age is 37.

So for businesses planning on leaving the state I recommend the following GIF:

via GIPHY