Sun Micro to cut 3,000 jobs

Computer maker Sun Microsystems Inc is cutting 3,000 jobs worldwide, or about 10 percent of its staff, blaming delays in its $7 billion sale to Oracle Corp.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison recently said that Sun is losing about $100 million a month because of uncertainty about the computer maker's future as European antitrust regulators pursue an in-depth probe of the transaction.

Rivals IBM and Hewlett-Packard Co are taking advantage of the uncertainty by poaching Sun's customers with steep discounts.

"Sun's business is really hurting," said Cross Research analyst Shannon Cross.

Analysts had widely expected thousands of Sun employees to lose their jobs, but not until No. 2 business software maker Oracle closes the deal.

Sun sold itself to Oracle after several years of failed attempts to devise a strategy to turn itself around. Last year it announced plans to 5,000 to 6,000 jobs and posted a net loss of $2.2 billion.

Sun said the job cuts would take place over the next 12 months, and it expects to take $75 million to $125 million in charges over the next several quarters. It said the job cuts would occur worldwide -- in its North America, EMEA, APAC and emerging markets regions.

Oracle spokeswoman Karen Tillman declined comment.

Dell to lay off 905 in plant closure

Computer maker Dell announced on Wednesday that it will close a plant in Winston-Salem, N.C., and will cut 905 jobs as a result. Dell said that 600 plant workers will be laid off in November, and the remaining 305 employees will be cut by January 2010, when the plant is scheduled to close. The cuts represent about 1% of the company's 78,900 employees.

"This is a difficult decision, especially for our North Carolina colleagues, but a necessary one for Dell customers and our company," said Frank Miller, vice president of Dell, in a statement. "The efforts of our team members there have been significant and we're committed to helping them through their transition."

The Winston-Salem plant was used to make desktop computers. The company said the plant closing is part of a larger effort to simplify Dell's operations and improve its efficiency. Dell began cutting back staff and closing plants in January, but a company spokeswoman wouldn't comment on the total number of job cuts the company has made so far.

In late September, Dell bought tech services provider Perot Systems (PER) for $3.9 billion as part of an effort to seek an additional source of revenue. Until the Perot deal, Dell has strictly been a hardware company, selling PCs and servers to its customers.

But businesses have relied less on hardware recently, buying fewer computers and outsourcing their servers during the recent economic recession.

Consumers also made fewer desktop and laptop purchases during the downturn. That cut into Dell's sales and profit in recent quarters and sent the stock down to an 11-year low in March before rebounding in recent months.

Hiring tools used for firing

With a dip in recruitments in the face of economic slowdown, skill assessment tools have now assumed a new and more ‘structured’ role — to help companies internally gauge the capabilities of an existing employee and decide whether he should be trained further, promoted or sacked.

Though the use of these tools for recruitment purposes has taken a back seat now, their demand for internal assessment tests has gone up, said Madan Padaki, CEO of MeriTrac Services. “The ball is now in the employer’s court. He has more choices as the availability of talent in the marketplace is more,” he said.

Skill assessment solution providers are witnessing a 20 to 25 per cent increase in demand from employers for assessing their workforce despite the fact that many of them have become leaner during the downturn, said R Kannan, CEO of Assess People.

“MertiTrac has been handling 90,000-125,000 assessments a month for the past two years. The firm has noticed a sharp rise in enquiries from IT/ITeS, BFSI and retail companies during the past six months. From around 10 enquiries in a quarter, a year ago, MeritTrac has received 25 enquiries for internal assessments each during the last two quarters,” said Padaki.

“Looking at the nature of questions framed for assessment tests, it is evident that at least 25 per cent of them were used to find non-performers, which could be used for downsizing purposes. This trend started only post-October last year,” said Padaki.

Almost 60 per cent of the demand is from IT and ITeS companies.

Organisations are focusing on three areas — effectiveness of training, a framework to determine employee retention and promotion and mapping their career path.

US tech industry lost 115K jobs in H1

Seems Indian techies have been luckier than their counterparts in the US. According to a study by TechAmerica Foundation, US technology industry cut 115,000 jobs in the first half of 2009, compared to the 72,900 tech jobs added in the same period in 2008.

However, in the US too, the tech sector seems better than other industry verticals. While between June 2008 to June 2009, tech lost 224,100 jobs, a 3.7% decline; the US private sector shed jobs at a higher pace of 5.1%.

The Washington-based non-profit foundation also said that high-tech manufacturing in the US continues to shed jobs, having lost 69,500 from January to June 2009. The high-tech services sectors shed 45,500 jobs from January to June 2009, a 1% drop.

The report also said that for the first time in its 5-year history, all three services sectors saw losses: engineering and tech services lost 21,500 jobs, while communications services shed 13,600 jobs. In software services the job cuts stood at 10,400.

US Jobless rate tops 12% in 5 states

Five states posted jobless rates above 12% in August, according to federal data released Friday. California, Nevada and Rhode Island each hit record-high rates, the Labor Department said.

-Michigan: 15.2%
-Nevada: 13.2%
-Rhode Island: 12.8%
-California: 12.2%
-Oregon: 12.2%
Source: CNNMoney

Michigan led the nation in unemployment, with a rate of 15.2%, while Nevada was next at 13.2% and Rhode Island was third at 12.8%. California and Oregon were tied for the fourth spot, each with unemployment at 12.2%.

"The losses tend to be heavy in states that have a high concentration of manufacturing jobs or were hit hard by the housing bust," said Mark Vitner, economist at Wachovia.

In August, 27 states and the District of Columbia recorded month-over-month unemployment rate increases, while 16 states posted a decrease in unemployment and seven saw rates hold steady.

The total number of nonfarm jobs fell in 42 states and the District of Columbia, while 8 states saw an increase.

The state-by-state unemployment report for August came after the government reported earlier this month that American employers cut 216,000 jobs in August, sending the nationwide unemployment rate to 9.7% from 9.4% in July.

Verizon to axe more jobs

Verizon's Chief Financial Officer John Killian is not sugarcoating what's in store for the ILEC's workforce: more job cuts are coming. During an investor conference late last week, Killian said additional employee reductions are necessary, but would not offer a specific timeline when these cuts would occur. Over the past year, Verizon laid off 8,000 workers with plans to cut another 8,000 in the second half of 2009.

The recent economic downturn, ongoing voice line loss and accelerated growth of its wireless and FiOS video services drove these job cuts, according to Killian. To extract more savings out of its wireline business, the company also will consolidate its call centers and integrate some services.

"We've been steadily reducing our overall work force size," Killian said to analysts during an investor conference. "But, we realized that we need to do more and in an accelerated pace."

'Year of staycation, not vacation': Survey

Americans are taking their paid time off from work but are cutting back on big vacation spending as they are not ready for unplanned absences that impact their paycheck, a survey has found.

According to a research by a financial services company, the Hartford Financial Services Group, more than half of workers in the US plan to use all of their paid time-off but are cutting back on vacation spending.

Out of 1,019 employees, 56 per cent plan to use all of their time off from work, while 67 per cent want to postpone their vacation.

"Employees said they value the paid time-off that they receive from their employers, but they continue to be worried about their income and expenses. And as a result, they plan to cut back on vacation spending. This could be the year of the so-called staycation," The Hartford's Group Benefits Division absence management director Marjorie Savage said.

The report found that majority of the workers are mostly concerned about personal finance followed by the economy (43 per cent) and only 27 per cent of employees fear losing their job.

Fear of losing one's job registered across all generations and genders. In addition, one in three workers (36 per cent) said they are worried about layoffs.

Capgemini to lay off 85 in Dallas

Capgemini Energy LP, which is a venture of TXU Corp. and its subsidiaries and technology outsourcing company Capgemini America Inc., said in a warn letter filed in Austin last week that the company will lay off 85 employees, effective Nov. 1.

The layoffs are taking place at the company’s Bryan Street office in downtown Dallas.

The company in its letter to the Texas Workforce Commission attributed the layoffs to the recent termination of Capgemini’s service agreements with Texas Competitive Electric Holdings Co. LLC and electric transmission business Oncor Electric Delivery Corp.

The company did state “there is a possibility that some of the affected employees” will receive job offers from the companies.

The jobs included in the cuts include senior analysts, project managers, test analysts, software engineers and other professional and management positions.

Microsoft laying off 27 employees in Redmond and Bellevue

Microsoft is laying off 27 employees in Redmond and Bellevue, according to the Washington State Employment Security Department. The departmentreceived a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) from the company about the layoffs, which are scheduled to take effectNov. 1.

The company said in January it was planning to eliminate 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months, while still creating 2,000 to 3,000 new jobs. After two rounds of cuts this year, Microsoft said it was mostly, but not completely, done with the layoffs.

US private sector job loss shrinks in August

Job losses in the US private sector fell to their lowest monthly level in nearly a year, a report by a private employment service showed on Wednesday, signaling stabilization in the labor sector.

US employers cut 298,000 jobs in August, fewer than a revised 360,000 jobs lost in July, according to the ADP Employer Services report. The July decline was originally reported at 371,000 last month. The median of estimates from 31 economists surveyed by Reuters for the ADP report, jointly developed with Macroeconomic Advisers LLC, was for 250,000 private-sector jobs lost last month.

"Despite recent indications that overall economic activity is stabilizing, employment which usually trails overall economic activity, is still likely to decline for at least several more months, albeit at a diminishing rate," ADP said. ADP and Macroeconomic Advisers said the report is designed as a proxy of the government's monthly non-farm payrolls report.

The US Labor Department will release August payroll figures at 8:30 am EDT on Friday. Earlier, Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc said planned layoffs at US firms fell in August to 76,456, the second smallest monthly total so far in 2009.

BAE Systems lays off 360 workers in Santa Clara, CA

For much of the recession, Silicon Valley's defense companies have been one of the bright spots in the employment picture. But recently, three companies have announced layoffs after the loss or cancellation of defense contracts. The latest, following Lockheed Martin and Rockwell Collins, is BAE systems.

The global company said Wednesday that it is laying off 360 employees out of about 1,800 at its Coleman Avenue operation in Santa Clara — 20 percent of the workforce. The reduction is due to the Army's cancellation of the Future Combat Systems Manned Ground Vehicle program, the company said.

BAE is an American subsidiary of the British global defense company BAE Systems. It makes the Bradley Fighting Vehicle in York, Pa. Its Coleman Avenue facility in Santa Clara is mainly used for the engineering of ground combat vehicles. FMC, which once made the Bradley there, became United Defense in 1994 and that company was purchased by BAE in 2005.

Rockwell Collins announced last week that it is closing its San Jose facility and laying off 600 people after cancellation of the F-22 Raptor fighter aircraft and the loss of a contract for displays on the F-35 Lightning II aircraft. Lockheed Martin said in June it would lay off several hundred people at its San Jose branch because of a change in scope of a classified program and the cancellation of part of a space-based, high speed military communications program.

Job losses in US slowed in Aug: Survey

Employers in the US probably cut jobs in August at a slower pace and manufacturing grew for the first time in more than a year, adding to evidence the worst recession since the 1930s is ending, economists said before reports this week.

Payrolls fell by 230,000 workers, the smallest decline in a year, according to the median of 65 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey ahead of a September 4 Labor Department report. Figures from a private group of purchasing managers on September 1 may show the first expansion at factories since January 2008.

“We are heading out of the tunnel,” said Jonathan Basile, an economist at Credit Suisse in New York. “It doesn’t mean we’ll have a very rapid recovery because consumers still face many headwinds.”

The worst employment slump in the post-World War II era, a record loss of wealth and mounting foreclosures are among the obstacles American households have to overcome before any recovery can gain speed. Government programmes, including “cash for clunkers” and credits to first-time homebuyers, may help the economy expand in the second half of the year.

The jobless rate in August is likely to climb to 9.5% from 9.4% the prior month, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Unemployment will reach 10% by early 2010, a Bloomberg poll this month showed.

Payroll losses peaked at 741,000 in January, the most since 1949. The US has lost 6.7 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007. Some companies continue to eliminate jobs to cut costs and boost profits amid weak sales.

Whirlpool, the world’s largest appliance maker, said last week it will close a manufacturing plant in Evansville, Indiana, resulting in the loss of 1,100 jobs, or about 1.6% of the company’s workforce.

A record reduction in inventories over the first half of the year sets the stage for production to rebound, economists said. Companies including General Motors and Chrysler Group, both out of bankruptcy, may benefit from higher sales and a boost to output from the government’s “cash-for-clunkers” effort.

The incentive programme, which offered buyers discounts of as much as $4,500 to trade in older cars and trucks for new, more fuel-efficient vehicles, produced almost 700,000 automobile sales before ending on Aug. 24, the Transportation Department said last week.

Ford Motor, the second-largest US automaker, posted its first monthly US sales gain in July since 2007. “We had a solid July sales month and we are headed toward an even stronger August,” Ford marketing chief Ken Czubay said last week in a statement.

US job mkt in recovery mode; employers plan to hire in a year: Survey

The employment dynamics in the United States are finally changing and for good more than half of the country's employers are planning to hire in the next 12 months, a survey has said.

Technology, customer services and sales are the top three areas which have a bullish perspective in these tough times as employers in this segment would be the first ones to add jobs once the economy recovers.

According to the survey by Robert Half International and CareerBuilder, around 53 per cent of employers surveyed expect to hire full-time employees over the next 12 months, while 40 per cent would hire contract, temporary or project professionals and 39 per cent would add part-time employees.

"Companies already are identifying the key skill sets they will need in new hires to take advantage of the opportunities presented by improving economic conditions.

"Firms that cut staffing levels too deeply may need to do significant rebuilding once the recovery takes hold," Robert Half International Chairman and CEO Max Messmer said.

When the pace of hiring begins to accelerate, entry- and staff-level workers can expect to benefit the most in terms of new opportunities.

The survey said that 32 per cent of hiring managers plan to hire staff-level professionals, while 28 per cent would hire entry-level workers.

Layoffs Hit Maxis and Raven Software

Bad news for the staff of Spore developer EA Maxis today, as Electronic Arts has confirmed that the studio has been hit with a series of layoffs, the most recent development in a by now regular trend in the games industry. There are no exact numbers for the layoffs, but Shacknews has it that this is a "sizable exodus."

"Often in the video game industry, the size of a studio fluctuates in response to business conditions," EA said in an official statement. ""In this case, EA has taken action to reduce the workforce at Maxis as we focus the business and focus Maxis."

This may have something to do with the Spore franchise itself, or just belt tightening all around at the EA operation. EA stated that it remains committed to Spore and other Maxis properties. The company most recently announced that Spore would be hitting Nintendo platforms this October in the form of Spore Hero and Spore Hero Arena on the Wii and DS.

Advergame, Online Developer Fuel Games Cuts Staff

Fuel Games, developer of iPhone, PC, online, and console games, told Gamasutra that it is cutting staff and is in the midst of restructuring -- right after a venture capital injection.

The developer, which has studios in Ottawa, Canada, and Denver, Colorado, made games such as Vans SK8 for iPhone, web-based titles such as the Entourage-based Viking Quest, and the McDonalds Happy Meal-bundled Fairies And Dragons, and runs online portal AllGirlArcade.com.

The company also created numerous advergames for brands such as the Niagara Motel film, Milwaukee's Best Light, and the Land of the Dead movie, among many others.

Leaked documents show IBM has laid off more than 9,000

Layoffs at IBM total more than 9,000 for the year. According to leaked copies of the company’s internal “resource action” packages, total verifiable layoffs through Aug. 24 number 9,298.

The company has acknowledged some layoffs, but has steadfastly refused to give details, such as numbers or locations.

Alliance@IBM national coordinator Lee Conrad said additional job cuts – some too small to warrant R.A. packages, some involving contractors – most likely “push the total above 10,000.”

The company appears to be on track to lay off 16,000 North American employees by year’s end – a number that first leaked in early January.
Source: recordonline, localtechwire

Accenture to cut 7 percent(336) of senior executives

Technology outsourcing and consulting firm Accenture Ltd (ACN.N) said on Thursday it cut 7 percent of its senior executives and would take charges that will lower its fiscal fourth-quarter profit.

The New York-based company also said it is also taking steps to reduce office space as it seeks to drive growth. Accenture said the cost-cutting actions would result in a pre-tax restructuring charge of around $247 million in the fiscal fourth quarter ending Aug 31.

Accenture said it continued to expect net revenues for the fourth quarter in the range of $5 billion to $5.2 billion with operating margins between 13.4 percent to 13.7 percent.

The company said it expects the restructuring charges to reduce its earnings per share for both the fourth quarter and the full year by 24 cents.

Wall Street analysts had on average been expecting Accenture to post profits of 63 cents in the fourth quarter and $2.68 for the full year, according to a poll by Reuters Estimates.

New US jobless claims unexpectedly rise last week

The number of US workers filing new claims for jobless benefits unexpectedly rose last week, a government report showed on Thursday, as companies continued to cut payrolls amid uncertainty over the economic outlook.

Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits rose 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted 576,000 in the week ended August 15 from 561,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast new claims slipping to 550,000 last week from a previously reported 558,000. A Labor Department official said there were no special factors influencing the report.

The number of people collecting long-term unemployment benefits edged up 2,000 to 6.24 million in the week ended August 8, the latest week for which the data is available. However, the four-week moving average declined 2,500 to 6.27 million.

The insured unemployment rate, which measures the percentage of the insured labor force who are jobless, was unchanged at 4.7 percent.

The four-week moving average for new claims climbed 4,250 to 570,000 last week. The four-week moving average is considered a better gauge of underlying trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility.

AIG finance arm has 900 job cuts, 6th straight loss

American International Group Inc's money-losing consumer finance unit on Thursday said it eliminated 900 jobs and closed 145 branches in the first half of the year, and may make further cutbacks as it prepares to be sold.

In a regulatory filing, American General Finance Corp said its quarterly loss increased sevenfold to $227.2 million from $31.8 million a year earlier, as revenue declined 32 percent.

American General has lost $467.8 million this year, after losing more than $1.3 billion in 2008. It has lost money for six straight quarters. The job and branch cuts represent about 11 percent of the year-end totals that the Evansville, Indiana-based company had reported. American General said it ended 2008 with 7,900 employees and 1,374 offices, a separate filing shows.

"We may implement further measures to preserve our liquidity and capital, including additional on-balance sheet securitizations, portfolio sales, expense reductions, branch closures, and reductions in production," the company said. It said it expects to have enough liquidity for at least a year. An AIG spokeswoman said American General decided on the job cuts in May, and attributed them to the economic downturn.

AIG posted a second-quarter profit last week. The New York-based insurer is trying to sell assets to help repay the government, after accepting a series of federal bailouts totaling roughly $180 billion.

Kaiser Permanente to slash 1,200 jobs in California

Oakland-based Kaiser Permanente is cutting 1,200 jobs as it continues to struggle with enrollment losses and the tough economic environment, senior officials said Tuesday.

The layoffs affect “just under” 2 percent of Kaiser’s overall workforce, and about one-third of the jobs eliminated were described as involving “temporary, on-call or short-hour employees,” according to an Aug. 11 statement by Gay Westfall, Kaiser’s senior vice president for human resources. She said most medical centers have positions that were eliminated, without providing specifics.

As a result of economic pressures, she said, Kaiser has “lost members, experienced lower patient volumes, and seen a slowing revenue trend that is expected to continue into next year.”

Marc Brown, a Northern California spokesman for Kaiser, said all of the jobs are covered by Kaiser's Labor Management Partnership with the Service Employees International Union and several others (but not including the powerful California Nurses Association). Primary job classifications that are being affected include housekeeping, pharmacy technicians and clerks, unit assistants, transcription/medical secretaries, health information management clerks and local business offices.

However, Dave Regan, the Oakland-based trustee for SEIU's United Healthcare Workers West local, insisted in a statement Tuesday afternoon that his union has an agreement with Kaiser that prevents its members from being included in the layoffs. It represents about 50,000 Kaiser workers in the state.

"We don't think it's necessary to eliminate any positions, given Kaiser's strong financial performance this year," Regan said. "Given that performance, we are disappointed that Kaiser saw fit to send out notices to individual employees notifying them that their positions were being cut. This will unnecessarily alarm those individuals, even though we have negotiated strong options to avoid actual layoffs."

The new round of cuts comes after several earlier rounds that cumulatively resulted in about 900 jobs being eliminated in Kaiser’s national facilities services unit, various data centers, and its information-technology unit, which recently completed the bulk of a multi-year estimated $6 billion electronic medical record installation in Kaiser outpatient clinics and hospitals. Some hospitals in Northern California are yet to be fully wired, however.

Westfall said the cuts reflect “the difficult economy and an uncertain industry environment, including lower Medicare reimbursement rates and changes related to health care reform.”

Along with reducing the size of its non-physician workforce, Kaiser has also deferred merit salary increases for non-unionized employees; adjusted timelines for capital spending projects; reduced the number of full-time employees through attrition and other means, and laid off non-union workers, Westfall said. She noted that some workers affected by the cuts may be able to find other jobs within the sprawling system, which had about 167,300 non-physician employees and 14,600 doctors before the recent cuts, according to its web site.

Total enrollment in Kaiser’s health plan dipped by nearly 36,000 members, remaining at about 8.6 million, over 2009’s first six months, officials announced last week.

Despite that decline in enrollment, Kaiser’s nonprofit health plan, hospitals and affiliated subsidiaries nearly doubled last year’s first half net income figures in results reported late last week, boosting its profits to more than $1 billion.

Net income for 2009’s first half was $1.1 billion, compared with $601 million in 2008. Operating revenue for the period was up about 4 percent to $21.1 billion, Oakland-based Kaiser said. Operating revenue was flat at about $1 billion.

For the second quarter, ending June 30, operating revenue jumped 3.9 percent to $10.5 billion, compared with the year-earlier quarter, but operating income slipped nearly 18 percent from $499 million to $411 million, Kaiser said.

Kaiser’s results were bolstered by a second-quarter jump in non-operating income, as Wall Street recovered from the first quarter’s steep decline.

It posted $209 million in non-operating income for the quarter ending June 30, and had $620 million in net income for Q2, a big jump from 2008’s $351 million Q2 net income. For the first half, however, investment income was just $15 million -- a tiny profit eked out from Wall Street in tough times, but far better than 2008’s first-half loss of $443 million on investments.

Late last month, Kaiser confirmed it is laying off 25 employees in its Oakland-based national facilities services unit, and that Christine Malcolm had resigned as senior vice president of the unit. That came on top of about 70 jobs cut in April and hundreds more earlier in the spring.

In April, Kaiser said it was cutting 70 non-clinical jobs in Northern California due to declining enrollment, and had cancelled 3,000 posted job openings since October. In March, it announced 850 job cuts, due to a $500 million outsourcing deal with IBM and other factors, with 700 cuts coming in Kaiser data centers and 160 from a realignment of its IT workforce.