Stories related to: layoffs

American Airlines plans to cut as many as 900 flight attendants from its ranks next month as part of nearly 7,000 expected layoffs this year, reports the Dallas Morning News. The job cuts, intended to counter rising fuel expenses, mirror an intended 8% reduction in the airline's worldwide flights. The cuts will leave American with fewer than 80,000 jobs, a low it hasn't hit since 1988. More »

Starbucks will close hundreds of stores across the US in its newest attempt to boost deflated profits, the Seattle Times reports. In the next nine months, about 600 stores are getting the ax, most of which opened after October 2005. About 12,000 employees will lose their jobs, but the company hopes to absorb some of them into other stores. The coffee chain also plans to open fewer than 200 new stores in the US during the next fiscal year. More »

After being in the red for two quarters, Citigroup will this week hand out pink slips in its investment-banking division, looking to sack 10% of the group’s 65,000 employees. The move, which would eliminate entire trading desks worldwide, is unusually severe, the Wall Street Journal says. CEO Vikram Pandit hopes to cut Citi’s annual expenses by $15 billion. More »

Continental Airlines today became the latest US carrier to slash its workforce and trim flights in the face of profit-busting fuel costs and an industry-wide slowdown, the Wall Street Journal reports today. The airline will cut its workforce by 3,000 jobs, scale back US departures by 16%, and aggressively trim its fleet of fuel-guzzling 737s. United and American also recently announced cutbacks. More »

Warner Bros. announced yesterday that it is closing both its indie arms, Warner Independent Pictures and Picturehouse. Speculation had the studio merging the indie and art-house divisions, but the studio opted for even more cost-cutting, the LA Times reports. More than 70 employees will lose their jobs in the shakeup. More »

UBS will cut 5,500 jobs, slightly fewer than expected, by the middle of 2009 as part of a major restructuring effort, the troubled Swiss bank said today in announcing an $11-billion first-quarter loss. Some 2,600 of the layoffs will be among investment bankers, mostly in London and New York. UBS will also sell off $15 billion in mortgage-backed securities to BlackRock and plans further sales of its mortgage holdings in the future. More »

Swiss banking giant UBS will lay off some 10% of its 83,000 workforce and scale back its investment banking arm in an attempt to reassure shareholders that it's taking actions to curtail losses associated with the subprime debacle, reports Bloomberg. Switzerland's largest bank says it will detail a further $11.4 billion in first-quarter writedowns in its earnings report tomorrow—bringing the total to $38 billion over the past three quarters. More »

Linens 'n Things filed for bankruptcy protection today, MarketWatch reports, and plans to close 120 stores nationwide as other operations continue. "The significant deterioration in the mortgage, housing and credit markets and the resulting impact on the retail marketplace, particularly the home sector, has overwhelmed the operating and merchandising improvements that we have made over the past two years," the company's new chairman said. More »

Hundreds of college grads who thought they had landed dream positions with Bear Stearns were canned before their first day on the job, the Wall Street Journal reports. As the giant bank began to implode, the students were at first assured their new jobs were safe—but then were sent packing to hunt for work along with 38,000 others recently let go by the financial industry. More »

As it adjusts its business model to lowered demand for landlines, AT&T will lay off 4,600 employees, the Wall Street Journal reports. The company plans to create about the same number of new wireless, broadband, and TV jobs, a trade-off that will create savings through dropping more senior, white-collar workers. "There are parts of the business that are growing and others that are not," a spokesman said. More »

Le Monde was absent from French streets today for the first time in more than 30 years as staff went on strike at the debt-ridden newspaper. In the ongoing battle over the future of the prestigious evening title, which saw the editor-in-chief pushed out, management is now trying to eliminate 130 jobs, or 25% of journalists. That was too much for staff, who walked off, reports the Times of London. More »

Troubled cell phone maker Motorola is laying off another 2,600 workers and will take a first quarter pretax charge of some $104 million to cover severance costs, reports the AP. Moto has cut its workforce by more than 10,000 workers since January 2007, as the company's . mobile phone business has crashed. More »

Some 300 DoubleClick employees, who briefly enjoyed a taste of Google culture after the ad agency was acquired in March, are facing layoffs as the search giant merges the two operations, reports the New York Times . It’s the first major layoff in Google’s history and trims DoubleClick’s US workforce by about 25%. DoubleClick employs about 1,500 globally. More »

New unemployment claims increased to a two-year high last week, the Wall Street Journal reports. A total of 407,000 Americans filed for jobless benefits, an increase of 38,000 over the previous week and the most since 2005. The surge in claims far surpassed the outlook of economists in a Dow Jones Newswire survey; they predicted an increase of 4,000. More »

In an economic indicator that paints a grim future for swaths of the US population, an all-time record 28 million Americans are expected to be close enough to poverty to receive $36 billion in food stamps in the coming fiscal year, reports the New York Times . There is a surge in recipients in 40 states, with 14 already reporting a record count last year. More »

After a 23% plummet in fourth quarter profits, Yahoo's CEO said the company will face job cuts and continued "headwinds" in 2008, the Wall Street Journal reports. Facing decreased advertiser spending, the company will lay off 1,000 employees next month, though it will try to relocate some within Yahoo. Such bleak expectations prompted a 10% drop in shares after hours. More »

Sprint Nextel announced a new round of job cuts and store closings today, the Kansas City Star reports. As it falls further behind in the wireless industry, the company will slash 4,000 jobs and 1,600 contractor positions. It also will shut 125 stores—8% of its total—and 4,000 distribution sites embedded in other stores. The cuts are some of the first moves by new CEO Daniel Hesse. More »

Daniel Hesse, the new CEO of Sprint Nextel Corp., plans another round of extensive job cuts, likely in the range of a few thousand, the Wall Street Journal reports. The layoffs come during a protracted period of poor performance for Sprint, the nation’s third largest cellular carrier, which analysts say has fallen far behind top rivals AT&T and Verizon in total customers and customer service. More »

Palm, the struggling maker of the Treo smart phone, laid off more than 100 of its 1,150 worldwide employees this week as part of an expense-cutting restructuring. The company, facing stiffening competition, has compounded its recent woes with product launch delays and the September cancellation of the Foleo portable computer, AP reports. More »

Citigroup is planning "massive" new layoffs, CNBC reports, less than a year after the financial giant cut 17,000 jobs. After announcing that it may have to write down as much as  $11 billion more in mortgage losses, Citigroup has been looking for ways to cut costs, as well as searching for a new CEO and considering a breakup. Company sources say the number of layoffs could reach as high as 45,000. More »