Layoffs
arrive
State may dodge worst of job flu
BY ALEXANDER SOULE
In Lynchburg, Va., this month,
Stamford-based Pitney Bowes Inc.
filed notice it may cut up to 175
jobs.
MeadWestvaco Inc., which moved
its Stamford headquarters last
year to Richmond, Va., revealed
plans to lay off 75 people at an
envelope plant in Enfield.
Altria Group Inc., which relocated
its headquarters from New York
City to Richmond last year, reportedly
is planning job cuts there even
as it caps the acquisition of UST
Inc. – with possible ramifications
for UST headquarters in Stamford.
As corporations mail severance
checks and employees prepare for
a furlough of undetermined duration,
economists still expect Connecticut
to fare better in the recession
than many states nationally – despite
the influence of reeling Wall Street
banks on employment among Fairfield
County residents that commute to
New York City.
For the most part, employers have
openly disclosed aggregate job-cut
figures but have remained mum on
the impact on local offices and
facilities, save in instances where
under law they must file notices
under federal Workforce Adjustment
and Retraining Notification Act
(WARN) rules, intended to give
states time to arrange new jobs
for local workers losing their
employment.
Nationally, the U.S. economy shed
240,000 jobs in October, and unemployment
was 6.5 percent, up from 6.1 percent
in September. The official number
of unemployed people – those who
have been seeking work for at least
six weeks – rose by more than 600,000
nationally.
Connecticut may lose fewer than
10,000 jobs over the next 30 months,
according to revised estimates
by researchers at the Connecticut
Center for Economic Analysis (CCEA),
which is affiliated with the University
of Connecticut. That would amount
to just a fraction of the job losses
of the recession that started in
1989.
CCEA slashed its layoff estimates
from earlier this year by nearly
two thirds, attributing the more
optimistic outlook in part to a
recent drop in fuel prices. That
possibly is helping preserve extra
cash to meet payroll, CCEA surmised.
Connecticut is thriving in health
care and education, two sectors
that continue to add jobs to meet
still-growing demand; and the state
enjoys a diversified base, including
the casinos in eastern Connecticut,
financial companies in Fairfield
County, and the continued industrial
might of Hartford-based United
Technologies Corp. and its subsidiaries
like Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. in
Stratford.
Five companies filed (WARN) acts
with the state in October, with
the nearly 700 jobs cut, the second
highest total this year after May
when bankrupt Quebecor World printed
more nearly 40 percent of the 800
pink slips issued that month.
The worst month this decade occurred
in January 2006, when Macy’s Inc.
and Stop & Shop Supermarket
Co. L.L.C. initiated widespread
layoffs that contributed to 2,500
jobs being affected in WARN filings.
Among retailers nationally, auto
dealers and department stores have
suffered the steepest attrition
in the current downturn. Linens
’N Things is in the process of
shutting down stores in Danbury
and Norwalk; earlier this month,
Circuit City Stores Inc. declared
bankruptcy, affecting stores in
the two cities as well as in Trumbull.
Luxury retailers have not been
immune. In an interview with Bloomberg
News, the parent company of Mitchells
of Westport and Richards of Greenwich
revealed unspecified job cuts to
at its upscale department stores
in response to lower consumer spending.
Still, despite the United Kingdom’s
bailout of Royal Bank of Scotland,
RBS has not backed off occupying
a new building under construction
in Stamford, across the street
from UBS AG. The latter company
is aggressively slashing its worldwide
headcount in response to the crisis.
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