We Never See A Headline / 'Bout A Breadline / Today

February 2, 2009 3:46 PM

LayoffDaily.com -- thoroughly cataloging each day's depressing layoff news, from the very small companies to the very large, and updated several times a day. (But there's also a small section of the site devoted to news of companies and government org's that are hiring.)
posted by Asparagirl (42 comments total)

I'm not sure if this is a derail, but is this mess hitting any MeFites personally?
posted by crapmatic at 4:01 PM on February 2

This isn't building the confidence we need to move forward.
posted by orthogonality at 4:04 PM on February 2

People I worked with who had children to feed and mortgages to pay got laid off last week. There's no guarantee that I won't be joining them sometime in the not-too-distant future if things don't improve.
posted by mullingitover at 4:04 PM on February 2

Headlines: Who is Hiring? :)
...
Sands Casino in Bethlehem PA +1,000
...
Unemployment Office Hiring
...
Bloated Federal Govt. Keeps Hiring

The cute additions of emoticons and qualifier added to "Fed Govt." bothers me a bit. It's an interesting site, but these bits make it seem less than sincere.
posted by filthy light thief at 4:06 PM on February 2

Who remembers Fucked Company from the dot-com era?
posted by Plutor at 4:07 PM on February 2 [2 favorites]

is this mess hitting any MeFites personally?

Yes.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 4:08 PM on February 2 [1 favorite]

I'm not sure if this is a derail, but is this mess hitting any MeFites personally?

I've been pleading with the mods for my $5 back since the crisis hit.
posted by gman at 4:11 PM on February 2

Plutor: "Who remembers Fucked Company from the dot-com era?"

I was just going to say the same thing.
posted by geekyguy at 4:14 PM on February 2

Plutor - posted Dec. 27, 2008: (Philip Kaplan) strongly considered re-starting the site and even had a former Valleywag writer lined up to do the hard work. But on second thought, he said, that era is dead for him. He's going to focus on the positive instead.

Put another way, no one's paying to watch the world burn any more, so he is also looking for a new gig. In the down-turned economy, he's looking to help you [g]et recognized for your skills in 2009.
posted by filthy light thief at 4:17 PM on February 2

/derail - I got the axe in November - applied all over with almost no response and landed a 'long term temp' at the start of January.

Things could have been a lot worse though.
posted by Lizc at 4:18 PM on February 2

Wonder if there is a Mandarin version...

"China says 20 million migrant workers have lost their jobs during the economic downturn "
posted by doogyrev at 4:25 PM on February 2

Who remembers Fucked Company from the dot-com era?

Fucked Company redux
posted by mattoxic at 4:32 PM on February 2

Prince Mfg. -27
Motorola -70
GroupM -93
Garment workers in the Philipines 10 000

We got it good
posted by mattoxic at 4:37 PM on February 2

last archive of fuckedcompany.com on 8/11/07 before they went offline that week
posted by crapmatic at 4:38 PM on February 2

Prince Mfg. -27
Motorola -70
GroupM -93
Garment workers in the Philipines 10 000

We got it good

Uh...

Boeing - 10,000
Circuit City - 30,000

etc

Plenty of American companies cutting 5k+ jobs.

(Not disagreeing that we have it better off, but those are pretty cherrypicked examples)
posted by wildcrdj at 4:46 PM on February 2

Get a whisky first: Tech layoffs: The scorecard
posted by plexi at 4:51 PM on February 2

Man, I explored some of the links on that site and now I'm even more scared than I was before. On the other hand, I don't think anything's going to really affect me personally, unless the rule of law itself breaks down and chaos ensues. I guess, having come from poverty myself, I'm mainly scared for those who are going to be experiencing it close up and personal.

All these Republicans who are against the poverty-related lifelines in that stimulus plan, they've surely never experienced poverty themselves, or they wouldn't be blathering on about how unnecessary extended unemployment and food stamps are as we deal with this economic crisis. I mean, living people have much more potential than dead people to contribute productively to our economy.

I know people who have been laid off or let go, and I know people who are now in foreclosure and/or declaring bankruptcy. The problems are growing more widespread, and quickly too.
posted by jamstigator at 4:57 PM on February 2

I'm not sure if this is a derail, but is this mess hitting any MeFites personally?

My last day of work was Friday.

Fortunately, I have two temp agencies looking on my behalf and am interviewing with a third on Thursday, I've been sending about applications at the rate of about two per day and have been doing so for the past three weeks, and I've got some freelance writing gigs coming up, plus my office assistant resume is fabulous; I'm pretty confident that something will turn up within a few weeks, even just a long-term temp thing (which is kind of what I want anyway).
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:02 PM on February 2 [1 favorite]

weird. i don't see verizon on that list, and they've been laying off my friends left and right.
posted by radiosilents at 5:19 PM on February 2

Plenty of American companies cutting 5k+ jobs.

7,000 at Motorola.

Including me.
posted by jammer at 5:30 PM on February 2

Who remembers Fucked Company from the dot-com era?

I was going to say that, but you did anyway, so thanks!

Now, does anyone remember when he tried to do porn to make money? That was... odd.
posted by Talanvor at 5:39 PM on February 2

I'm not sure if this is a derail, but is this mess hitting any MeFites personally?

Count me in, from Canarda.
posted by peggynature at 5:57 PM on February 2

I cut 10 people from my Facebook friends list this week in solidarity.
posted by blue_beetle at 5:58 PM on February 2

The Layoff Daily iPhone app is all kinds of wrong. "Let's see what's hot on my shiny electronics... They haven't cut off my mobile account yet. That's good, at least."
posted by ardgedee at 5:58 PM on February 2

Way too many government jobs are aimed at only at "status candidates," meaning people who already work for the federal govt. USA Jobs is at least a 3/4ths a waste of time even on a good day.
posted by raysmj at 6:00 PM on February 2

Plenty of American companies cutting 5k+ jobs.

How do they expect people to live on less than 5k?

And (just in case) where do I apply?
posted by hal9k at 6:08 PM on February 2

Got laid off just before Xmas. Along with my entire department.
posted by anvilcity at 6:21 PM on February 2

All of the calls related to employment in my department are routed to me. Over the summer I averaged about 3 calls a week. Since January I receive about 20 calls a day. It is painful to hear the hope in their voices, then the despair when I tell them we have no openings.

Several of my co-worker's spouses have been laid off. Everything is so scary right now.
posted by JujuB at 6:22 PM on February 2

Ok - this is a touchy and emotionally draining topic. A lot of people are getting hit by the downturn, and those lucky enough to still be gainfully employed are worried for fair reasons.

But I'm calling out the first site. It's offers nothing. Having a site that just 'keeps track' of layoffs while serving ads (even though there's not too many of them) is profiteering. It's exploiting people's worries. The iPhone app is crass. I don't see any insightful commentary on that page.

I call bad link.
posted by phyrewerx at 6:52 PM on February 2 [1 favorite]

Yeah, this site is a cynical attempt to profit by and on fear-mongering. I know Asparagirl's intention was just to open up discussion on the recession, but as good as the discussion might be, I don't like that the cost for that is giving publicity to this ugly site.
posted by orthogonality at 7:09 PM on February 2

Hey guys, over here! Laid off since Tuesday last. So far the company I used to work for has laid off over than 250 people in the last month alone.
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 7:20 PM on February 2

And I don't mind the link - I actually WANT to hear more about who's putting us out on the street.
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 7:21 PM on February 2

Oh, and also Chili's is closing 35 restaurants! There is a silver lining!
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 7:26 PM on February 2

I'm not sure if this is a derail, but is this mess hitting any MeFites personally?

Tight sphincters ahoy! here at [Giant Bookselling Company That's not Based in New York or Seattle].
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 7:47 PM on February 2

I got laid off Dec. 1st '08. Still looking. If anyone needs a software QA dude in the Portland, OR area... :-)

Anyone else find the formatting strange? With the minus sign in there, I keep wanting to do math while I read the list. Should be Company: #
posted by wastelands at 1:47 AM on February 3

Yeah, I'm with phyrewerx and orthogonality. That first site is basically running this query and posting ads.

Also, I randomly clicked one of them, the closing of a burger place in Arizona. There was only an article because many people lamented the closing of a place with history. Quote from the linked story, bolding mine:

"That particular location was not generating the sales volumes needed to sustain the business," Battle said. "We'd been working to turn around the situation for quite some time, but our efforts were not successful."

Battle said the decision had been many months in the making, and had nothing to do with the region's current economic slump. He added that, since Whataburger is a privately owned company, it is not generally in the habit of making sweeping, across-the-board layoffs.

"We don't typically make sweeping changes, it's about the one individual restaurant each time," he said. "We did not take this decision lightly because we knew it would effect our team members there."

Battle said the company gave each of its Kingman employees one week's severance pay, and extended an offer of employment at any of the chain's other Arizona locations.


Without any analysis, that site is completely useless, and even dangerous.
posted by vacapinta at 6:41 AM on February 3

Tue 2-3-2009 - Headlines (updated 4-8X a day)
Xerium Technologies -230

Peddinghaus Corp. -60

Banks, Funds, Insurers -312,500

Those 312,500 layoffs have occured over the past year and a half, not all today...and that figure includes the 5,800 PNC layoffs already posted. So these are just aggregated headlines without any real context.

On the bright side, they do have the story about Denny's giving away free Grand Slam breakfasts today. Oh, wait, I knew that already, too.
posted by malocchio at 9:46 AM on February 3

I'm not sure if this is a derail, but is this mess hitting any MeFites personally?

My workplace just cut everyone to 20 hours a week. We're all holding out breath and waiting to see whether the company makes it. Last week two of our competitors closed up shop.

Anyway, I hope those fuckers on Wall Street are enjoying their bonuses.
posted by 912 Greens at 11:03 AM on February 3

My employer laid some people off a couple of weeks ago. In the subsequent quarterly meeting, the company president claimed it was the last thing they wanted to do. As they always do.

As I always do, I immediately thought, "And yet, it was the first thing you actually did."
posted by Kirth Gerson at 12:22 PM on February 3

Who remembers Fucked Company from the dot-com era?

I remember seeing my March 2001 layoff on Fucked Company. Good times, good times.
posted by slogger at 2:31 PM on February 3

That is, not me individually, but that several-hundred-person layoff I was caught up in.

But I think everyone understood that already.

Not that anyone really cares.
posted by slogger at 2:33 PM on February 3

Yeah, I got the axe in October. (While I was out on vacation, and no severance package either, the bastards.) Anybody here need a biochemist?
posted by Quietgal at 5:07 PM on February 3