Timesizing® Associates - HOMEPAGE

---

Downsizings, Oct. 1-15, 2001
[Commentary] ©2001 Phil Hyde, The Timesizing Wire, Box 117, Harvard Square, Cambridge MA 02238 USA (617) 623-8080

10/13/2001  4 downsizings reported, totaling 3,199 jobcuts + undisclosed, reported in (NYT) NY Times and (BG) Boston Globe (not counting 200 Asian jobcuts according to "Lycos shuts Indian operations in Asian revamp," Reuters 10/12/2001 via AOLNews via RadioTony, and not counting 3,000,000 industrywide cuts in the hospitality industry according to "Employers 'using attack to shed unwanted staff' [- unions]," by Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles, The Independent (UK) 12 Oct 2001 via RadioTony) -

1. DaimlerChrysler sets cutbacks at Freightliner, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   ...The largest truckmaker [will] cut 2,700 jobs, close as many as three plants and take a $330m charge in Q4 to try to return its Freightliner truck unit to profitability. The unit - the maker of Freightliner, Western Star and Sterling trucks - will eliminate 1,600 union workers and 1,100 salaried positions, bringing the work force down to 11,700, a reduction of more than half since 1999.
   [So before the cuts there were 11700+2700= 14,400 total jobs, and the 2700 cuts were 19% of that total.]
   Freightliner, based in Portland, Ore...has been hurt by a drop in demand as the economy slowed. DaimlerChrysler, based in Stuttgart, Germany, has also been hurt by a contractual obligation to repurchase trucks from customers for fixed prices.
   [Huh? They're supposed to be sellin' em, not buyin' em.]

2. Vignette Corp., NYT, C4.
   ...Austin, Tex., an Internet commerce software maker, [will] lay off 300 people, or about 20% of its staff, after third-quarter sales fell short of the company's forecast.

3. Viant to cut 37% of staff, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   ...An Internet consulting company that reduced its staff 18% in the second quarter, is trimming its work force by 37%, or about 116 employees, to cut costs as demand slows.
   [As of 3/28/2001 #6, we had Viant down for a total workforce of 344 of which 37% would be 127. But 116 would be 37% of 314. Did Viant lay off 344-314= 30 people in the meantime that they didn't tell us about? But wait, they did tell us about an intervening 18% layoff, but 18% of 344 is 62, and 344-62= 282 and 37% of 282 is only 104, not 127. Then come some more murky figures.]
   The Boston company will reduce its staff to 200 from 316 by the end of the year....
   [That 316 is a lot closer to 314 than to 282. Maybe their 18% should have been 9% because 344-9%= 344-31= 313. And the other 9% included some layoffs in Q1. At any rate, they started the year with 610 and now they've only got 200, so they've had 410 cuts this year, and we've only counted 211 cuts so far (back on 3/28/2001 #6), so now we get to count 410-211= 199 jobcuts.]
   Viant and rivals like Organic Inc., Razorfish Inc. and others have seen demand fall as money-losing Internet firms cut spending.

4. Lechters Inc., Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   ...Harrison, NJ, a housewares retailer that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May, [will] close its 315 stores after 90-day going-out-of-business sales as part of its liquidation of assets.
   [Unspecified lost jobs.]

1. Computer Associates International to cut jobs, pointer digest (to C13), NYT, C1.
   ...The software giant...based in Islandia, NY \will\ lay off 900 employees, or 5% of its work force, in the face of slowing corporate spending on technology.... About 700 of the laid-off employees work in the United States and Canada, with many of the rest in Latin America.

2. Aztec to close, Bloomberg via BG, C5.
   Aztec Technology Partners Inc., which helped firms use the Internet...will fire all of its 535 employees today in the wake of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing last Friday. Braintree MA-based Aztec said the Bankruptcy Court declined its request to use cash collateral to keep operating and pay employees, so the firm will close today.

3. Sotheby's and Christie's plan layoffs worldwide, by Carol Vogel, NYT, C2.
   ...[One of] the world's largest auction houses...began reducing its work force at the end of last year, announced yesterday that it would eliminate about 147 additional positions worldwide. When the cuts, which will total 350-400 jobs by the end of the year, are completed its staff will have been reduced by 14%. The layoffs will cost the company about $13m in severance pay and other charges. William Ruprecht, Sotheby's chief executive, said the reductions would take place in every part of the business....
   [We picked up 150 of these cuts on 1/12/2001, #6, so we still need to count 400-150= 250 jobcuts.]

4. Internet access service on verge of closing, by Chris Gaither, NYT, C13.
   The MobileStar Network Corp., a driving force in offering wireless Internet access in public places, said yesterday that it had laid off its entire work force and would sell its assets if it could not find a buyer to continue its service.... MobileStar, founded in 1996 and based in Richardson, Tex...entered into negotiations for a major investment from...a publicly traded telecommunications company. The deal fell through late last week. MobileStar hired the Diablo Management Group, a turnaround Group, to oversee a sale, and then laid off its 88 employees on Tuesday....

5. Sotheby's and Christie's plan layoffs worldwide, by Carol Vogel, NYT, C2.
   ...Christie's...had an all-staff meeting on Tuesday to announce the elimination of 21 positions in the United States in the United States, which is less than 3% of its staff in Christie's Americas. Layoffs are also expected at its headquarters on King Street in...London and at its lower-priced arm in the South Kensington area of London.... Christie's has been reducing the size of its staff through attrition for months....

1. Bleak outlook for quarter at Motorola - Another loss seen and more jobs cut, by Barnaby Feder, NYT, C4.
   Motorola, which is one of the first major technology companies to offer investors guidance on [its] economic outlook each quarter, announced plans yesterday for shedding 7,000 more jobs.... Because it anticipates continuing tough conditions in most of its businesses, Motorola said, it will cut 3,000 more jobs than the 32,000 previously announced (see 9/07/2001).
   [Bringing their total up to 35,000 jobcuts.]
   In addition, 4,000 more employees will leave the company with businesses that Motorola is selling, putting the company's projected work force at 108,000....
   [Making the percentage cut 3000/(108000+3000)= 2.7% of the previous total workforce, rounded = 3%.]

2. Canada: Printer cuts forecasts, by Bernard Simon, via NYT, W1.
   The commercial printer Quebecor World of Montreal [is] laying off 2,400 workers, 6% of its payroll.... The group also plans...to close 7 of its 160 plants. Most cutbacks will be in the United States. Charles G. Cavell, the CEO, said printing had historically been resistant to economic downturns, but the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks caused a significant drop in spending.

3. Australia: Cuts at Optus, by Becky Gaylord, NYT, W1.
   The telecommunications company Cable & Wireless Optus...which was acquired last month by Singapore Telecommunications, \will\ cut 3% of its work force.... Optus will lay off 350 people....
   [Again the lethal takeover-downsizing connection.]

4. Maytag cuts [225] salaried jobs as it absorbs Amana [Appliances], AP via NYT, C4.
   ...The Maytag division [of ??] has 4,600 salaried employees nationwide. The job cuts, which will occur through the end of the year, are about 5% of that total.... At Amana, where Maytag faces a labor strike by union production employees, 70 of 1,080 salaried jobs will be eliminated..\..
   [The reason unions were stupid to ever drop the top-priority push for shorter hours is that such "timesizing" is a rationing, a withholding of labor hours from the free market, and a consequent rebalancing of market forces in favor of centrifuged power and against centripetaled or concentrated power. But that is exactly what strikes do. Strikes withhold labor hours from the free market to harness market forces into rebalancing the power gradient. In this light, timesizing is simply a gradualizing and continuizing of strike efforts. Just as timesizing's overtime-to-training conversion results in as close as we can come to the goal expressed in the term "continuous training" (and also, if it existed, the term "continuous hiring"), so timesizing's flexible adjustment of the workweek is equivalent to what might be called "continuous striking," at least on the downward adjustments. In light of these metaphors for the operation of timesizing, it is as inevitable as the emergence of insurance, or cost averaging, both of which gradualize and continuize risks or costs. We have tried to avoid claims of inevitability for timesizing, hoping to avoid comparison for the perhaps premature, or unfounded, claims of inevitability by Marx for socialism, which were based, as we recall, on capitalism's containing the "seeds of its own destruction." But those seeds could be seen as "needs" - for its own enhancement, just as timesizing dusts off the neo-classical economic doctrine of the marginal utility or efficiency of (concentrated) capital to present its potential contribution to centrifugation. But this business of continuizing and gradualizing - both strikes and training - just as insurance and cost-averaging do, does add a strong pressure to use the language of "inevitability" more often.]
   ...A company spokesman, Jim Powell,...said production would not be affected and no hourly production workers were involved.

5. 180 Massport workers face ax, by Frank Phillips, BG, B1.
   ...as the agency's board takes up a plan to cut $51m from its operating budget. Board members late yesterday were given a plan to deal with a sudden and dramatic downturn in Massport revenues since the terrorist attacks last month....
   ...Slated for elimination is the international marketing office and its $5m budget and roughly 27 staff members....
   The layoffs would come in two phases.... The first would be an immediate reduction of 100 staff members, effective Nov. 1.
   [Obviously an arbitrary, politically motivated number, designed to impress. Throughout this article these little 180 figure is spun as gigantic, e.g., one high-profile target is quoted saying, "I am one of many, many people who obviously have to be let go."]
   The second phase, involving another 80 workers, would get pink slips effective Nov. 30..\..
   [Making November, first and last, the killing month at Massport.]
   According to the authority officials, the seven-member board will also be asked to cut back many support services and programs at Logan Airport, including big reductions in the internal bus routes and staffing at the parking garages....
   [We have already heard hearsay anecdotal evidence ("friend of a friend" of Carlie at SCAT) that there have already been "huge" jobcuts at Logan. None of which makes us eager to use Logan. Providence and Manchester airports are lookin' better and better. The key to this whole story is its sister story, "Roots of patronage run deep in Mass. political life," by Yvonne Abraham, BG, B1.]

6. Belo cuts jobs, Bloomberg via BG, C2.
   Belo Corp., which owns the Dallas Morning News and 18 television stations, is cutting about 160 jobs, freezing wages for most employees for a year, and cutting executive pay because advertising sales fell. The job cuts equal about 2% of the company's 8,000-employee staff.

7. Edelman [Public Relations] to shut its Boston office, by Beth Healy, BG, C7.
   ...The Chicago-based firm..\..is closing its offices in Boston [Ma.] and Austin, Tex., as part of a cost-cutting move [and] letting go of 2% of its staff, or 45 employees, due to the economy's slump.... The 49-year-old firm has 14 [other] offices....

1. Japan: Metals cuts, Bloomberg via NYT, W1.
   Japan's biggest metals company, the Mitsubishi Materials Corp., will cut 2,500 jobs, or 10% of its work force, within three years because of a slump in demand from from technology companies. The company, based in Tokyo, [will] also reduce salaries and take other measures....

2. Credit Suisse is taking hits on Wall Street and at home, by Gilpin and Olson, NYT, C1.
   Credit Suisse First Boston [CSFB] saddled with the highest cost structure on Wall Street, [will] eliminate 2,000 jobs, or 7% of its workers worldwide....
   [Together with the 760 cuts of 10/04 #6, this makes 2,760 cuts in Q4, blamed here on "the highest cost structure on Wall Street." Followup: "Profile at Credit Suisse Group plunged 73% last year," by Elizabeth Olson, 3/13/2002 NYT, W1, states "Credit Suisse has had a rough few months. Heavy losses in Q4, which dragged down the annual results, stemmed from the costs of eliminating 2,500 jobs and from the cost of settling charges...." So first they blame high costs for jobcuts and then they blame jobcuts for bad results, ie: high costs. Brilliant. Wouldn't it be simpler just to trim working hours (and compensation proportionately), keep everybody employed, and maybe motivate them to prioritize more, now they didn't have as long a workday?]

3. Goodyear firings, Bloomberg via BG, D2.
   Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. will cut 1,400 jobs at five plants in Alabama, NC, Texas, and Virginia. Goodyear, with 100,000 employees worldwide, had already announced that 8,600 positions will be eliminated this year.
   [Compare NYT's misleadingly minimizing version tomorrow, "Goodyear plans to lay off 475 at Alabama plants," AP via 10/11/2001 NYT, C4, which buries the statement "Goodyear...plans to cut as many as 1,400 jobs, or 5% of its manufacturing work force, at five plants this month...." Also, in Nov. we get "Goodyear cuts production for 10th consecutive month," Bloomberg via 11/22/2001 NYT, C5, which states, "The company did not offer specifics.... It has eliminated about 7,500 jobs since December." Well, we make the total more like 9,957, consisting of today's 1400 on 10/10 #3, 1357 on 5/01 #3, and 7200 on 2/15 #1.]

4. Terex to close 7 plants, cut 725 jobs and take a charge, Reuters via NYT, C4.
   ...as it consolidates production..\.. The capital equipment maker...based in Westport, Conn...now plan[s] to cut 1,225 jobs, or about 16% of its work force, as of June 30. The newest cuts will be in planlts in Tetbury and Warwick, England and in Cork, Ireland.

5. Layoffs are planned at agencies in 2 states, by Stuart Elliott, NYT, C7.
   ...Temerlin McClain in Irving, Tex., part of the McCann-Erickson World Group unit of the Interpublic Group of Cos., is laying off 75 to 80 employees, or more than 15% of its staff of 490....

6. Layoffs are planned at agencies in 2 states, by Stuart Elliott, NYT, C7.
   ...Wieden & Kennedy in Portland, Ore., plans to lay off as many as 30 employees, close to 13% of its staff of 235, after losing the creative assignments for two large brands of the Coca-Cola Co., Diet Coke and Powerade.... The layoffs will affect only the Portland HQ office and Amy Nicholson, creative director at the agency's NY office since 2000....
   [How nice of them to single someone out and name them.]

7. Etc. - Xchange Inc., Globe staff and wire services, BG, D7.
   ...of Boston cut its work force by 15%....
   [Unspecified job cuts.]

1. Amid financial wrangling, Swissair gets half its flights into the air, by Elizabeth Olson, NYT, W1.
   GENEVA...- Swissair was operating only half its flight schedule [yester]day and said it would cut 9,000 jobs as banks, creditors and shareholders wrangled over who was at fault for last week's grounding of the country's flagship carrier.... Mario Cort, the airline's CEO, told employees at a meeting that 13% of the staff would be cut..\..
   [How appropriately unlucky.]
   Swissair...announced flat fees for its flights [yester]day....
   [Whatever that means.]
   UBS [Union Banque Suisse] officials accused Mr. Corti of being overly optimistic and refusing to plan for an orderly bankruptcy despite months of warnings..\..
   [Isn't that why CEOs are "paid the big bucks"? - for being overly optimistic?]
   Mr. Corti accused the banks of a "conspiracy" to undermine Swissair by failing to transfer...funds to keeps the carrier flying. [He] said the banks had stonewalled.... He...had tried to reach..\.. Marcel Ospel, the head of UBS during the day Tuesday to ask for the money, but...Mr. Ospel was...unreachable because he was on his way to New York by private jet last Tuesday..\..
   [We're so glad that somebody was able to fly in style last week. For Swissair passengers, it was a different story -]
   The partial rescue plan, brokered by the two Swiss banks, did not prevent Swissair from grinding to a halt for two days when it ran out of money, leaving thousands stranded. A firestorm of public protest followed.
   ...Mike Powell of Dresdner Kleinwort in London said the banks' ["rescue"] deal does "smack of some kind of conspiracy to save [better make that "save"] a Swiss airline. "Either there was a complete lack of attention to detail, which is hard to believe," he said, referring to the bank delay in transferring money, or "it was a plan to allow Swissair to go under to protect the profitable bits"..\..
   Switzerland's two biggest banks, UBS and the Credit Suisse Group...as part of last week's bailout...acquired Swissair's 70% stake in the regional carrier Crossair. A group of 60 financial institutions were said to be preparing a legal challenge to the bank deal....angry that the two Swiss banks pushed ahead with a deal that...dumped debt on others while stripping off the profitable [parts of] Swissair for Crossair. Since last week's deal, Crossaid stock has gone up about 50%..\.. A group of shareholders was also threatening a lawsuit....
   [With guys like Ospel and banks like UBS and Credit Suisse, sounds like the Swiss don't need Osama bin Laden. This whole deal greatly enriched these two big banks while shaking down Swiss taxpayers and disgracing the nation. From now on, given a choice, who's going to fly Swissair, the nation's flagship carrier, now that everyone in the world knows that the SOBs running Switzerland's two biggest banks will ground you anywhere in the world for two days just so they can take their stock portfolio from $50B to $51B?]
   Mr. Ospel appeared on Swiss television Friday night, admitting "mistakes"...and apologizing. Tempers were running so high that UBS earmarked an additional $30m for passengers caught in the airline's temporary shutdown..\.. In a letter to employees [yester]day, Marcel Ospel....said "It's time to move on."...
   [Oh yeah, he'd love that, wouldn't he! "Let's just forget the whole thing while I count my money and Swiss pride and taxpayers' pockets get the shaft."]
   Swiss federal ministers also blamed the banks for failing to do more, and kicked in $280m to help Swissair remain aloft over the next few weeks..\..
   [That's not enough. They should simply reverse the deal that gives the two banks 70% of Crossair and give it back to Swissair. Then Swissair should take its business elsewhere. We recommend the Royal Bank of Canada. Swissair is probably ready for somebody nice - even if it's spelled b-o-r-i-n-g. When the ancient Chinese wished that a child "may live in interesting times," it was a curse. Or as our old Hebrew professor used to say, "Laddies - evil is interesting; good is boring." (= old Bill Staples at Vic - RIP.)  Look at the contrast between nice Micaëla and nasty Carmen in the opera of the latter's name. So no just "time to move on" -]
   With Swissair struggling and the transition to Crossair ahead, the public and others were still trying to figure out who was to blame....
   [Easy. Just look at who's profited.]

2. Temporary-staffing company to eliminate 500 jobs, Reuters via NYT, C4.
   The Spherion Corporation...[will] cut 500 jobs...about 11% of its staff of 4,650.... Spherion, based in Fort Lauderdale, said the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks would slow demand for its services.
   [They sure will if everyone commits this kind of pre-emptive consumer-base damage.]

3. Travelocity.com lays off workers, Bloomberg via NYT, C2.
   ...The largest Internet travel seller plans to eliminate 19% of its work force, or about 320 jobs, and close its call center in Sacramento, Calif., to reduce costs. Travelocity on Friday cut about 35 positions, or 10% of its workers not involved in customer service, and plans to cut 285 customer-service jobs when the call center closes in 60 days.

4. Onyx Software warns of revenue drop, Reuters via NYT, C4.
   ...[A maker of] sales and customer-service software today warned that...it would cut costs by trimming jobs and pay.
   [Top executives' too?]
   The company, based in Bellevue, Wash...[will] reduce its work force by 25% to about 460..\..in an effort to...reduce expenses....
   [That makes the pre-cut total 613 and the cut a loss of 153 jobs.]
   Additionally, the company [will] pare base pay for some employees and tie a portion of executive pay to company performance..\..
   [That's better for the company in the long term than tying it to the manipulable stock price - especially when the stock can be raised by bringing the company down - Chainsaw Dunlap's specialty.]
   "Many customers postponed purchasing decisions due to a deteriorating business climate, including the events of Sept. 11...," Brent Frei, Onyx's CEO, said in a statement....
   [How strangely salutary to have that single-date focus for the long slow drift into recession, which otherwise would be like the frog in the gradually heated water who never knows he's in danger so he stays in till he boils. Of course, nobody in the halls of power today, nor in academe, knows any more of the real problem and the real solution than they did in 1929. (Except for Art Dahlberg and 2-3 others..)]

1. Free market's assembly line carries had choices, by Carlotta Gall, NYT, A4.
   KRAGUJEVAC, Serbia...- After years of false promises that a foreign investor would rescue them and that production would climb from its dismal lows, auto workers at the state-owned Zastava assembly plant were given a harsh choice: accept a plan that would cut two-thirds of the work force, or go belly up.... Seeing that the choice was really no choice at all...
   [it would have been if they were given the middle option of cutting two-thirds of their working hours and pay, and keeping everyone employed at a reduced level with some income, and the company's entire skill set intact. Like the NYC hotel in today's timesizing article - see 10/06/2001.]
   the workers accepted the plan this summer and their factory became an urgent test of how Yugoslavia might reform its economy....
   [Reform it by killing it? Don't think so.]
   When they put the...plan to a referendum, 96% of the work force voted for it, even though it would put...out of work...8,000 [67%] of the car plant's 12,000 workers....
   [There is a lot of crap in this article about tough realities and tough capitalism etc. etc., but it's basically just defeatist, destructive and short-sighted western-trained morons who don't have the imagination to see a third alternative. Supposedly, there is -]
   ...no future for the small, boxy Yugo cars they made, since no matter how cheap they were, no one outside Serbia wanted to buy them....
   [Oh no? Try them for $1800-1900 in the USA - the price cars used to be in the 1950s - and watch them fly out of the showrooms. And watch the big car manufacturers squeal.]

2. Requiem for a cheerleader: Silicon Alley magazine is dead - Publisher in new project on venture capitalists, by Amy Harmon, NYT, C9.
   The Silicon Alley Reporter, a magazine known for its unabashed boosterism of New York's new media entrepreneurs, has published its last issue, its publisher, Jason Calacanis, said last week.... By paring his staff to 22 from 30, and continuing to produce industry conferences...Mr. Calacanis said the magazine had been able to break even in recent months.
   [So, 30-22= 8 jobcuts.]
   \He\ plans to begin publishing a magazine...called Venture Reporter in December....

1. Japan: TDK will cut 8,800 jobs, Bloomberg via NYT, C2.
   ...Japan's largest maker of disk-drive components [will] cut...20% of its work force, as demand for electronic parts [falls]. The company, based in Tokyo, will cut 3,400 employees by the end of March 2002 and the rest by March 2004....

2. Sun Microsystems says loss to be bigger than expected - Company plans to lay off 9% of workers, by Chris Gaither, NYT, C4.
   ...A maker of powerful business computers \will\ lay off about 3,900 employees [because] many of the company's best customers are in industries hardest hit by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, including telecommunications, financial services and travel....

3. Etc. -...Cookson Group PLC, Globe staff and wire services via BG, C1.
   ...A maker of UK maker of circuit-board parts that twice pared its profit forecast since April, will cut 1,700 jobs, taking its total to 3,700 this year.
   [None previously counted this year.]
   Cookson is cutting 1,190 jobs in Mass., NJ, NH and other states, mainly in the Northeast, where it has its 25 plants....

4. Dollar Thrifty cutting jobs as car rental slow, AP via NYT, C3.
   The Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group [is] cutting up to 1,200 jobs, about 20% of its work force, because of the travel slowdown from last month's terrorist attacks.... To [limit] costs after the attacks, Dollar Thrifty reduced the size of its fleet and trimmed operating costs....

5. Britain: Regional carriers to merge, by Suzanne Kapner, NYT, C2.
   British Airways [will] merge its two regional carriers...British Airways Regional operations with CitiExpress.... The slimmed-down regional business would operate with about 200 fewer workers, would reduce some routes and would cancel others....

6. Japan: TDK will cut 8,800 jobs, Bloomberg via NYT, C2.
   ...Komatsu Ltd., the second-largest maker of construction machinery, [will] cut 12% of its work force.
   [Unspecified jobcuts.]

1. The Netherlands: Cutbacks at airlines, by Suzanne Kapner, NYT, W1.
   KLM Royal Dutch Airlines [will] cut as many as 2,500 jobs and reduce passenger capacity an additional 10% because of the terrorist attacks in the United States. The airline reduced capacity by 5% soon after the commercial jets crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The additional reductions will take effect on Oct. 28.... It estimates that the attacks resulted in a loss of $46m during September. KLM [will] use smaller aircraft and reduce the frequency of flights to many destinations.
   [So what does KLM stand for? We may have the spelling wrong, but we heard from a Dutchman that it's Koeningklike Luft-fahrt Matschapij, literally Kingly Air-trip Company, alias Royal Flight Co. - in Dutch - so thence, Royal Dutch Airlines.]

2. WebLink Wireless cuts jobs, Bloomberg via BG, D2.
   ...A mobile e-mail and paging provider that sought bankruptcy protection in May, is cutting 20% of its work force, or 232 employees, 151 of whom work in the San Antonio call center - the third round of job losses for WebLink this year. WebLink, with 1.7m customers, will have 900 employees left, down from 1,800 in January.

3. Provant to fire 200, Bloomberg via BG, D7.
   ...[A seller of] employee training services to clients like Ford Motor Co...is firing...17% of its staff, across the nation to cope with a decline in sales causes by the slower US economy. As part of a plan to cut annual expenses by $15m, the Boston company is also cutting executives' pay and will lower capital spending....

4. Sonus Networks will lay off about 150 workers, by Peter Howe, BG, D7.
   ...The advanced voice telecommunications switch maker..\..is laying off about 150 of its 730 employees, including 35 at its Westford HQ...because of slowing telecom spending. \It\ said most of the jobs being cut are at its Richardson, Tex., operations, the former Telecom Technologies, Inc., which it bought for $735m in stock in November....
   [The lethal takeover-downsizing connection.]

5. Stride Rite cuts 120 jobs and forecasts quarterly loss, Bloomberg via NYT, C3.
   ...[A maker of] Keds and its namesake brand of children's shoes...based in Lexington, Mass..\..laid off 20% of its administrative employees...and [will] report a loss in the fourth quarter of its fiscal year.

6. Citizens offers jobs, by Scott Nelson, BG, D7.
   Citizens Financial Group...is making job offers to all but 100 of the employees in the branch banking operations of Mellon Financial Corp., which it acquired in July.
   [Again, the lethal takeover-downsizing connection.]
   A spokeswoman said Citizens will offer positions to 4,135 Mellon employees before the deal is completed Nov. 30. Most of the remaining 100 workers will get other jobs at Mellon.
   [Layoff artists are always sooo confident about infinitely absorbent qualities of the job market - when it's other people's lives on the line. Sort of like polluters are about the infinitely absorbent qualities of the atmosphere, the ground water or the oceans, or as whale "harvesters" are about the infinite replacement capabilities of the species they're hammering.]

7. Firm makes cuts, Bloomberg via BG, D7.
   MatrixOne Inc., which develops software that allows companies with different computer systems to share documents, trimmed about 100 jobs, or 15% of its staff...as customers cut information-technology spending....

8. Netegrity sees loss, Bloomberg via BG, D7.
   ...[A maker of] computer security software said it lost money and cut about 8% of its work force in the third quarter as sales were halted after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks....
   [Unspecified jobcuts.]

9. Knight Trading Group expects to post a third-quarter loss, Reuters via NYT, C3.
   ...The largest Nasdaq market maker..\..has also cut jobs in the United States and Europe..\..because of the weak stock market and the four-day market shutdown that followed the Sept. 11 attacks....
   [Unspecified jobcuts.]

1. General Electric Aircraft Engines to cut 4,000 jobs, AP via NYT, C4.
   ...or 13% [second 13 - unlucky day!] of its work force by early next year because it expects the demand for engines to drop after the terrorist attacks.
   [Another self-fulfilling prophecy.]
   The company...based in Evendale, Ohio..\..will cut up to 800 jobs from its Cincinnati offices and approximately 250 jobs in Lynn, Mass....

2. Corning to idle plants and cut more jobs, Reuters via NYT, C4.
   ...The company said the job cuts might reach 12,000 employees, including about 8,000 previously announced, by the end of the year....
   [12,000-8,000= 4,000 new layoffs.]
   It said it would temporarily idle most of its global optical fiber manufacturing plants.
   [This is probably a timesizing to avoid more downsizing (i.e., cuts in worktime to avoid cuts in workforce), but while information about the length of the idlings is left indefinite, we're not going to put it on our 'glimmers of timesizing' page.]

3. France: Alcatel cuts jobs, Reuters via NYT, W1.
   The French telecommunications equipment company...plan[s] to cut about 1/3 of its worldwide fiber optics and undersea network staff by the middle of next year amid deepening market gloom. The cuts, which will eliminate 3,038 jobs in France, Britain and the United States, are in addition to 20,000 announced earlier this year [7/27].

4. Nordstrom lays off 1,600 employees, AP via NYT, C4.
   ...nationwide in the last 30 days, including about 250 at the HQ in Seattle of the company, a department store chain. The layoffs, of 3.6% of the company's 45,000-person work force and 7.9% of the corporate HQ staff, are a result of slumping sales since the terrorist attacks....

5. Interpublic units trimming staffs, by Jane Levere, NYT, C3.
   ...Havas Advertising in Paris announced that it would lay off 1,200 employees, or about 5% of its worldwide work force.

6. Credit Suisse plans layoffs, executives say, by Andrew Sorkin, NYT, C1.
   Credit Suisse First Boston [CSFB] is planning to cut about 20% of its investment banking staff worldwide, including "a substantial number of senior people."... The layoffs...might be announced as early as next week.... John J. Mack...appointed CEO of the bank in July...has said that he intended to cut costs at the firm, which is widely believed to have the highest compensation packages on Wall Street.
   The job cuts, expected to include about 760 of the 3,800 employees, come as the investment banking industry is facing its worst slump in nearly a decade....

7. Sinking revenues may force Massport to slash jobs at Logan, by Frank Phillips, Boston Globe, front page.
   The Massachusetts Port Authority [Massport], faced with plunging revenues at [Boston's security-sloppy] Logan International Airport since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, plans to lay off at least 15% of its 1,200-person workforce and severely cut ongoing projects, two authority sources said yesterday....
   [15% of 1200 is 180 jobcuts.]

8. Segue plans cuts, BG, C10.
   Segue Software of Lexington MA [will] cut its work force by about 15%, or 43 employees...ini response to the continuing decline in the economic climate as well as in the high technology industry....

9. Adams Harkness & Hill to cut 20 workers, by Beth Healy, BG, C5.
   ...mainly in investment banking and research..\.. The Boston investment firm...plans to cut its staff by nearly 10% as the market for public stock offerings and mergers remains slow....

10. Interpublic units trimming staffs, by Jane Levere, NYT, C3.
    ...Mullen/LHC, the Winston-Salem, NC, office of Mullen, which is based in Wenham, Mass., is laying off 15 employees, or 12.5% of its staff of 120. Brooke Smith, a spokeswoman for Mullen/LHC, confirmed reports of the dismissals in the online editions of Advertising Age and Adweek.... Mullen/LHC laid off about 30 people in June....

11. Days after losing her husband, a headhunter loses her job - An employer says the World Trade Center attack has been bad for business, by Janny Scott, NYT, A24.
    ..."...Our business was affected, as many were, by the World Trade Center tragedy," said Richard Eichenberg, president of the Peak Organization, a 70-person company in Midtown Manhattan that places professionals in jobs.... He said perhaps 10% of the employees were laid off....
    [10% of 70 gives us 7 layoffs.]

12. Cuts at Kenneth Cole Productions, Reuters via NYT, C4.
    ...The marketer and retailer of designer shoes [will] cut about 10% of its corporate staff, citing a disruption in sales caused by the Sept. 11 attacks....
    [But no total workforce figure is given, so...unspecified jobcuts.]

13. Interpublic units trimming staffs, by Jane Levere, NYT, C3.
    ...Lowe Lintas & Partners Worldwide in NYC is seeking voluntary layoffs from among its staff of 680; a memorandum sent on Tuesday offered what were described as enhanced severance packages to those choosing to leave.
    [So, unspecified jobcuts.]
    Since May, about 63 employees have been laid off by the agency....

1. Nortel will cut work force by 20,000 - Expected $3.6B loss spurs layoffs and sale of businesses, by Simon Romero, NYT, C2.
   Nortel Networks of Canada [is] cutting 10,000 jobs and reducing its work force by an additional 10,000 jobs through the sale of businesses, leaving the company with fewer than half the employees it had at the beginning of the year. Nortel, the maker of communications equipment, had already announced 30,000 job cuts since problems in the industry began to worsen earlier this year. Nortel, which is based in Brampton, Ont., began the year with 94,500 employees and expects to have 45,000 after the cuts....
   [But right now, taking the conservative percentage step from 65,000 to 55,000, the 10,000 cuts are 10000/65000x100%= 15.4% of the total workforce.]

2. Lacking cash, Swissair grounds all its flights, by Elizabeth Olson, NYT, W1.
   Swissair abruptly stopped flying today because it lacked cash to pay for jet fuel and landing fees and feared that its planes would be seized by creditors at foreign airports. At least two planes were seized, at Heathrow Airport near London, though one was later released.... In all, 262 flights were canceled when Swissair stopped flying, stranding passengers at a number of airports including the airline's hub in Zurich, where suppliers refused to deliver fuel because of the airline's unpaid arrears.
   Swissair warned today of even more layoffs than the 2,650 already announced this week;...
   [Guess that's different from their 3,000 catering cuts announced last week - see 9/25/2001, #2.]
   ...union leaders said as many as 10,000 of its 72,000 workers might be at risk....
   The airline lost $1.8 billion last year..\..A failed strategy of expanding in Europe through stakes in these and other small carriers was the main cause of Swissair's wrecked finances, but the slump in air travel after the Sept. 11 terror attacks broke its back, analysts said.... Trading in Swissair shares was suspended at least until Wednesday morning, but analysts said they now appear to be worthless....
   [So much for the vaunted efficiency of the Swiss. Guess we can't use Peter Ustinov's quote any more to describe Toronto as "New York run by the Swiss." What a disgrace when top executives lose focus on their corporate mission, centering on employees and customers, and start messing with takeovers and worse, stock trading. In the future this fiddling will all be banned, though it may be 200 years before these arrogant b*st*rds get their noses locked against the grindstone.]

3. Wyndham International hotel chain will lay off 1,600 employees, Reuters via NYT, C4.
   ...An operator or owner of about 240 upscale hotels \is\ laying off or furloughing...about 5% of its work force of about 28,000, because of an industrywide slowdown.
   [Can't count these as timesizing furloughs unless there's a definite duration.]
   Wyndham...hope[s] to bring some of those workers back on the payroll as demand increase[s]. The company said 20% of its 27,000 employees who work at hotels were working reduced hours until occupancies rise....
   [Now that's a timesizing.]

4. Xerox says Flextronics will buy a manufacturing unit [from it], Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   ...About 5,000 [Xerox] jobs will be transferred to Flextronics, and 1,000 more will be cut, including positions in California, New York and Britain.... Xerox has 85,000 employees....

5. WorldCom cuts, AP via BG, D2.
   ...The Mississippi-based telecommuncations giant..\..plans to cut 1,000 jobs in Europe.... When it fired 6,000 US employees in March [3/01/2001], that amounted to about 7% of its work force.

6. Research firm cuts jobs, by Jayson Blair [=‘Times reporter who resigned leaves long trail of deception,’ 5/11/2003 NYT, A1], NYT, C2.
   The research firm Jupiter Media Matrix [is] responding to "challenging market conditions" by cutting at least 195 jobs, or 30% of its staff, and by restructuring its management team....

7. Monster.com cuts jobs, by Stephanie Stoughton, BG, D7.
   Job recruitment Web site...laid off 125 employees, or about 10% of its US staff, in response to the slowing economy. About 60 workers at the company's HQ in Maynard MA were affected by the reductions. ...The cuts followed a "corporate-wide" directive to reduce costs from Monster.com's parent company, TMP Worldwide Inc. Monster.com also needed to reduce overlapping positions following several buys....
   [Again the markets-destroying takeover-downsizing connection. Guess these boys need to consider Jesus' parable of the wheat and the weeds. Moral - don't weed now, wait till the harvest.]

8. Etc. - Student Advantage Inc., Globe staff and wire services, BG, D7.
   ...of Boston, which markets online discounts to college students,...will cut 70 jobs, about 15% of its work force, to reduce operating expenses in 2002 by more than $5m. Most of the jobs will be in graphic design, production and technology....
   [Hey at least they're not in sales and marketing, like some companies'.]

9. Stanley Works to cut jobs, AP via NYT, C10.
   ...The hardware division, one of the company's three smallest..\..will discontinue production of hardware in the United States, eliminating 65 jobs from its New Britain CT plant by the end of the year. [It] will transfer operations to the Stanley Works' four-year-old plant in Xiaolan, China....

10. Celox to lay off 65, by Peter Howe, BG, D7.
    ...A Southborough MA- and St. Louis-based Internet switch maker...is laying off about 65 of its 285 employees in anticipation of slowing capital spending by telephone and Net companies. About half of those being laid off work in the company's Southborough office....

1. Ikon Office Solutions, distributor of photocopiers, to cut 2,600 jobs, Bloomberg via NYT, C2.
   ...The largest American distributor of copiers from Canon Inc. and the Ricoh Co. will eliminate...jobs and said profit for the quarter that ended yesterday would be lower than forecast.... Ikon will have a loss after taking a pretax charge of about $65m for the job cuts and exiting some businesses.

2. Goodbye to Mademoiselle [shouldn't that be "au revoir"?]: Condé Nast closes magazine - Overall ad downturn ends 66-year run - An attempt to ride the cutting edge only blurred the focus, by Alex Kuczynski, NYT, C2.
   ...Steven T. Florio, the CEO of Condé Nast, announced the decision yesterday morning to staff members, saying that the magazine, which has a circulation of 1.1m, was no longer viable in the current economic climate. It will cease publication with the November issue, which goes on sale next week.... Two years ago, Condé Nast, which also publishes Vogue and Glamour, made an effort to reshape Mademoiselle by hiring Mandi Norwood, then the editor of British Cosmopolitan. She tried to marry Mademoiselle's mass market and somewhat traditional appeal with more cutting-edge content. The result was an awkward combination of occasionally bawdy humor...with Mademoiselle's mix of fashion and old-fashioned relationship advice....
   Beginning with the January 2002 issue, current Mademoiselle subscribers will receive Glamour, whose advertising rate base will be raised to 2.2m from 2.1m..\..
   [So subscribers get nothing in December? And don't they mean the rate base will be raised to 2.1+1.1= 3.2m?]
   Condé Nast, a division of Advance Publications...will try to find jobs for the magazine's 93 business and editorial employees at the company and other divisions of Advance....
   [93 jobs up in the air.]

1. Advertising - The industry sees changes in big accounts, but also layoffs and profit warnings, by Stuart Elliott, NYT, C16.
   ...Dismissals...reported by the online editions of the trade publications Advertising Age and Adweek..\..will cost an estimated 525 people their jobs in the coming weeks..\..at five...agencies...including
   
   1. the Chicago office of Campbell Mithun, part of the McCann-Erickson World Group division of the Interpublic Group of Cos.;...
2.           Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco, owned by the Omnicom Group;
3.           iXL in Atlanta;
4.           Media Passage in Seattle, which closed; and
5.           Modem Media in Norwalk, Conn., partly owned by Interpublic.

6. Advertising - The industry sees changes in big accounts, but also layoffs and profit warnings, by Stuart Elliott, NYT, C16.
   ...The growing uncertainty about world events, which is causing many marketers to delay or reduce ad spending, was the reason given on Friday by the Cordiant Communications Group in London to warn of a "significant reduction in profitability" for 2001. Planned layoffs at Cordiant are being increased by 75%, to 700 of its estimated 10,000 employees worldwide from a previous goal of 400 [see 6/13, #2].
   [So, the previous 400 cuts took the total workforce down to 10000-400= 9,600, and an additional 700-400= 300 jobcuts, equivalent to 300/9600x100%= 3.1% of the current total, takes the total further down to 9600-300= 9,300 employees worldwide.

7. A new trauma for brain patients - Brighton MA center's closing is a blow, by Patricia Wen, BG, B1.
   ...Executives of the Greenery Rehabilitation Center, which..\..cares for...some 50..\..brain-injured patients [and] also serves about 90 elderly nursing-home patients, said declining insurance reimbursement rates for their long-term patients...and the costs of keeping up with current health-care regulations..\..contributed to losses of about $6m a year, forcing them to close the facility.... By law, the center may close only after all patients have found new facilities, even if it means keeping the doors open beyond the projected Nov. 30 closing date....
   [Unspecified jobcuts. These little closings &/or downsizings in a regional U.S. newspaper are important because they are happening every day and getting picked up only by the regional and local newspapers. The New York Times generally ignores them, except an occasional case in or around New York City.]

Click here for downsizing stories in -
Sep. 16-30/2001.
Sep. 1-15/2001.
Aug. 17-31/2001.
Aug. 1-16/2001.
July 16-31/2001.
July 1-15/2001.
June/2001.
May/2001.
Apr.16-30/2001.
Apr.1-15/2001.
Mar.16-31/2001.
Mar.1-15/2001.
Feb.16-28/2001.
Feb.1-15/2001.
Jan.16-31/2001.
Jan.1-15/2001.
Dec.16-31/2000.
Dec.1-15/2000.
Earlier Y2000 months accessible via links at bottom of Dec.1-15/2000 page.
Dec/1999.
Earlier 1999 months accessible via links at bottom of Dec/1999 page.
December/98.
Earlier months accessible via links at bottom of Dec/98 page.

For more details, our laypersons' guide to our great economic future Timesizing, Not Downsizing is available at bookstores in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Mass. or from *Amazon.com online.

Questions, comments, feedback? Phone 617-623-8080 (Boston) or email us.