Closures & Layoffs (Mar. 1-7)

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Download these layoffs, closures and downsizings and all of the stories in the Watch List Newsletter here. The Adobe pdf version also includes all of this week’s leads of distressed properties and loans of concern, lease cancellations through bankruptcy actions and stories on property and loan investments, leads on properties under contract, lenders and lists of loans approaching their maturity date. In addition, the pdf version contains bonus news items not found in these columns or the CoStar Group web news pages.

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Biggest Job Cuts May Have Peaked

Companies are now settling in to what many believe will be a long recession. More than 60% of companies say that they believe their business results will not hit bottom until the end of 2009 or into 2010, according to Watson Wyatt's most recent human resource survey.

In response, many employers made significant changes to their HR programs between October and February, including layoffs, salary and hiring freezes and resetting merit increase budgets for the upcoming year.

However, our results show that many companies are putting the drastic cuts behind them and are now looking to make smaller cost-cutting changes moving forward.

Other key findings:

More than half of companies (52%) have already made layoffs, up from 39% two months ago. However, the number of companies planning layoffs has fallen 10 percentage points from 23% to 13%.

42% of companies have already put salary freezes into place, an increase from only 13% two months ago.

69% of companies have revised their merit increase budgets for 2009. The median increase at those companies has decreased from 3.5% to 1.5%.

12% of respondents (up from 3% in December) have lowered their company 401(k) or 403(b) match.

Since the economic crisis hit, 79% of respondents have noticed 401(k) or 403(b) participants changing their investment mix to move out of equities (up 20 percentage points from 59% in December).

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Manufacturing Layoffs Hit New Highs

Employers took 2,227 mass layoff actions in January that resulted in the separation of 237,902 workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor.

The January numbers add to the grim total for the last 14 months of 25,712 layoffs of 2,632,336 workers.

Eleven major industry sectors reported program highs in terms of average weekly initial claimants for the month of January-mining; manufacturing; wholesale trade; retail trade; transportation and warehousing; finance and insurance; real estate and rental and leasing; administrative and waste services; educational services; health care and social assistance; and accommodation and food services.

The manufacturing sector accounted for 38% of all mass layoff events and 44% of initial claims filed in January 2009 with the highest in transportation equipment (57,173) and machinery (14,120). The administrative and waste services industry accounted for 12% of mass layoff events and associated initial claims during the month.

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Closures & Layoffs

Nationwide
E.W. Scripps Co. has ceased publication of the Rocky Mountain News, Colorado's oldest newspaper. Scripps will continue to own and offer for sale the assets of the Rocky Mountain News.

Hearst Corp. will sell or close the daily San Francisco Chronicle if it can't dramatically lower expenses within the next few months. The cost cutting will require significant layoffs.

iGo Inc. in Scottsdale, AZ, has reduced its total headcount by approximately 20% or about a dozen people.

Nortel based in Toronto, Ontario, intends to reduce its workforce by an additional net 3,200 positions worldwide. The company expects to carry out these reductions in the next several months. These new reductions are in addition to the 1,800 remaining reductions from previously announced cuts.

PPL Corp. in Allentown, PA, will eliminate about 200 management and staff positions across the company's U.S. operations, about 6% of the company's non-union U.S. workforce.

Trubion Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Seattle, WA, plans to cuts its workforce by 25%, or 25 employees and is undertaking a corporate restructuring.

Local

Company Address Closure or Layoff # Affected Impact Date Loparex LLC 1828 Burgundy Lane NW, Cullman, AL layoff 53 4/20/2900 BASF Corp. 152 Ipsco St., Decatur, AL closure 115 3/31/2009 Cargill 1030 State Docks Road, Decatur, AL closure 107 4/20/2009 Gerber Childrenswear LLC 201 Kendall Ave., Evergreen, AL closure 77 5/22/2009 Scotch Lumber Co. 119 W. Main St., Fulton, AL layoff 108 4/17/2009 Elwood Staffing/New South Express 249-B Clover Road, Lincoln, AL layoff 86 4/6/2009 Freeport-McMoRan Morenci, Inc. 4251 US Hwy 191, Morenci, AZ unknown 1,550 3/16/2009 HEAD Penn Racquet Sports 306 S. 45th Ave., Phoenix, AZ unknown 143 3/9/2009 Crowne Plaza Phoenix 2532 W. Peoria Ave., Phoenix, AZ unknown 91 3/31/2009 STMicroelectronics, Inc. 1000 E. Bell Road, Phoenix, AZ unknown 85 4/6/2009 Source Healthcare Analytics, Inc. 2394 E. Camelback Road, Phoenix, AZ unknown 72 3/20/2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc. 2398 E. Camelback Road, Suites 950-920, Phoenix, AZ unknown 1 3/23/2009 D.R. Horton, Inc. 16430 N. Scottsdale Rd., Ste. 200, Scottsdale, AZ unknown 41 3/9/2009 Compass Bank 8312 S. Hardy Dr., Ste. 108, Tempe, AZ unknown 75 3/31/2009 Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. 2100 E. Elliot Road, Tempe, AZ unknown 72 3/20/2009 Home Depot Bath and Remolding, Inc. 602 W. 22nd St., Tempe, AZ unknown 51 4/1/2009 Tolt Service Group 850 W. Elliot; 8350 S. Kyrene Road, Suite 104, Tempe, AZ unknown 50 4/10/2009 Wells Fargo Home & Consumer Finance Group 8375 S. River Pkwy., Tempe, AZ unknown 9 3/22/2009 Arizona Mail Order Co., Inc. 3775 E. 34th St., Tucson, AZ unknown 261 3/12/2009 Tucson Citizen 4850 S. Park Ave., Tucson, AZ unknown 68 3/21/2009 American Home 4690 N. Oracle Road; 2020 W. Prince; 1801 E. Hwy 69; 9550 E. Golf Links Road; 1944 S. Greenfield Road; 18705 S. I-9 Frontage Road, Tucson; Tucson; Prescott; Tucson; Tucson; Sahuarita, AZ unknown 126 3/31/2009 Connecticut Junior Republic 550 Goshen Road, Litchfield, CT closure 115 unknown Eastman Kodak 15 Bank St., Norwalk, CT closure 100 unknown UST Inc. 6 High Ridge Park, Suite A, Stamford, CT closure 19 unknown Home Depot - Expo Store # 6309 1520 SW 8th St., Boynton Beach, FL closure 123 4/26/2009 First Data Global Customer Service 4000 Coral Ridge Drive, Coral Springs, FL unknown 159 4/17/2009 Kmart -- Store # 3683 9200 Wiles Road, Coral Springs, FL closure 78 5/8/2009 Home Depot - Expo Store # 6308 8944 State Road 84, Davie, FL closure 140 4/26/2009 Home Depot - Expo Store # 0282 5737 NW 7th St., Miami, FL closure 118 4/26/2009 Home Depot - Expo Store # 6358 100 Immokalee Road, Naples, FL closure 87 4/26/2009 Point Blank Body Armor 4031 NE 12th Terr., Oakland Park, FL unknown 89 5/1/2009 Home Depot - Expo Store #6366 4601 Millenia Plaza Way, Orlando, FL closure 112 4/26/2009 Kmart -- Store 3092 3951 34th St. South, St. Petersburg, FL closure 56 5/8/2009 Avaya 11399 16th Court North, Suite 1100, St. Petersburg, FL unknown 53 2/24/2009 Kmart -- Store 7196 2800 34th St. North, St. Petersburg, FL closure 52 5/8/2009 Piper Aircraft, Inc. 2926 Piper Drive, Vero Beach, FL unknown 289 2/9/2009 Kmart -- Store # 7520 4000 Goldenrod Road North, Winter Park, FL closure 58 5/8/2009 The Home Depot , Atlanta, GA unknown 511 unknown Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart,Stewart & Associates Inc. 3565 Piedmont Road, Suite 303, Atlanta, GA unknown 88 unknown Air Jamaica 1270 Woolman Place, Atlanta, GA unknown 22 unknown Austin Industrial Eastern Region 115 Sand Bar Ferry Road, Augusta, GA unknown 60 unknown Rayonier 1830 Golden Isle E, Baxley, GA unknown 115 unknown Staples 108 Riverstone Pkwy, Canton, GA unknown 89 unknown The Atlanta Journal Constitution , Clarkston, GA unknown 88 unknown Harland Clarke 2939 Miller Road, Decatur, GA unknown 220 unknown Tenneco Automotive 200 Mcintyre Drive, Hartwell, GA unknown 125 unknown Cahaba Government Benefit Administration 400 E. Court Ave., Des Moines, IA closure 94 4/3/2009 Frank N. Magid Associates, Inc. One Research Center, Marion, IA closure 76 4/19/2009 Pacon Corp. 1705 W. Washington, Mt. Pleasant, IA layoff 65 4/10/2009 CMC Joist & Deck 1120 Commercial St., tIowa Falls, IA layoff 109 4/13/2009 Atwood Mobile Products, LLC 800 Hwy. 150 SW, Union, IA closure 125 4/19/2009 Lennox Industries, Inc. 4301 121st St., Urbandale, IA closure 62 3/31/2009 Keystone RV Company 2642, 2775 Hackberry Drive & 7605 North Street Road, Goshen & Howe, IN closure 265 5/1/2009 Amsted Rail/ASF-ASF Keystone 4831 Hohman Ave., Hammond, IN layoff 74 4/8/2009 Navistar Engine Group 6555 E. 30th St., Indianapolis, IN closure 1,336 7/31/2009 hhgregg distibution center 4151 E. 96th St., Indianapolis, IN layoff 51 4/6/2009 TeleServices Direct 2200 Elmwood Ave., Lafayette, IN closure 279 4/4/2009 BorgWarner 5601 Kilgore Ave., Muncie, IN layoff 750 4/13/2009 Firestone Industrial Products 1700 Firestone Blvd., Noblesville, IN closure 238 6/26/2009 Sprint Nextel 6220 Sprint Pkwy, Overland Park, KS unknown 8,000 unknown Hawker Beechcraft 2656 Scanlan Ave., Salina, KS unknown 250 unknown Hawker Beechcraft 9709 E. Central, Wichita, KS unknown 1,500 unknown Cessna One Cessna Blvd., Wichita, KS unknown 680 unknown Boeing , Wichita, KS unknown 30 unknown AGC 1 Auto Glass Drive, Elizabethtown, KY unknown 140 unknown SKF 1001 Happy Valley, Glasgow, KY unknown 95 unknown OxyChem 4014 Bell Lane, Louisville, KY unknown 60 unknown

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