Job Cuts Keep Coming—Is Your Firm On the List?

Another round of layoffs was announced on Thursday, adding to the gloom over rising unemployment.

Delta Air Lines and Performance Food Group were among the latest names on Wednesday to announce job cuts.

CNBC.com

The number of workers drawing unemployment aid jumped to a record high in early February according to data on Thursday that highlighted the deteriorating labor market as a 13-month recession deepens.

The number of people remaining on the benefits rolls after drawing an initial week of aid surged 170,000 to 4.99 million in the week ended Feb 7, the most recent week for which the data is available, the Labor Department said.

That was the highest reading on records dating back to 1967. Analysts had estimated so-called continued claims would be 4.86 million from a previously reported 4.81 million the prior week.

"We're maintaining a high level of labor market deterioration. In general I think we're moving towards the pace of maximum contraction in the economy, but evidence for that is only preliminary," said Alan Levenson, chief economist at T. Rowe Price in Baltimore.

The aggressive layoffs and the accompanying job insecurity mean that households, whose net worth has already been eroded by the collapse of the housing and stock markets, will further cut on spending and creating a vicious cycle for the bleeding economy.

Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits were a seasonally adjusted 627,000 in the week ended Feb. 14 unchanged from the previous week. According to Labor Department data, new claims hovered close to a 26-year high.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast 620,000 new claims.

Here is a rundown of corporate job cuts announced so far this month:

• Delta Air Lines said it would grant voluntary buyouts to the more than 2,100 employees requesting them, but the number of job cuts could grow as the company assesses future labor needs. The company eliminated 4,000 jobs last year though voluntary exit packages.
• Ninety-eight jobs will be cut at a local procurement business for food distributor Performance Food Group after the company decided to outsource its food-service purchasing functions.

• Goodyear Tire & Rubber plans to cut 5,000 jobs worldwide in 2009, or 6.7 percent of its staff, in response to signs of a prolonged slump in demand for new cars and trucks.
• GM said it would step up cost-cutting, reducing its global workforce by 47,000 jobs this year and cutting five additional U.S. plants by 2012.
• Chrysler, meanwhile, will reduce capacity by 100,000 units and cut 3,000 jobs.
• Smithfield Foods announced a plan to restructure its pork group that involves cutting the number of independent operating companies in the group to three from seven, and closing six plants. The company expects to cut a net 1,800 jobs in the restructuring. Some workers will be offered transfers to other units, the company said.
• Nearly 800 jobs are being eliminated at the steering division of Delphi . The cuts announced are hitting 425 hourly workers and 350 employees who are on salary at the Delphi complex in Buena Vista Township.
• Pioneer said it is closing its television-making operations and plans to slash 10,000 jobs from its global workforce, as the economic slowdown batters the consumer electronics industry. The job cuts cover 6,000 staff positions—about 16 percent of the total—and 4,000 temporary positions.
• Auto parts maker BorgWarner said sharply lower global auto demand caused it to cut 4,400 jobs in the last six months—24 percent of its total workforce—and it posted a steep loss for the fourth quarter as industry-wide conditions worsened.
• U.S. heavy equipment maker Caterpillar offered voluntary early retirement packages to about 2,000 production workers. The cuts are in addition to the 22,000 layoffs the company announced last month.
• Click for companies that announced layoffs in January...

—Sources: AP, Reuters, with CNBC.com staff.

CONTINUED : The Layoffs Continue...

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