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By Julie Wernau | A dozen Chicago-area businesses have given notice to the state that
layoffs are planned, affecting more than 920 workers.
Sears Holding Corp., Unilever, Reed Business Information, Continental
Casualty Co., Material Sciences Corp., Navistar Financial Corp. and
Regional Elite Airline Services LLC at Midway Airport, notified Illinois
in April of the impending layoffs as required by the Worker Adjustment
and Retraining Notification Act.
From Crain’s Chicago Business | Peoria-based heavy-equipment producer Caterpillar expects to rehire 9,000 of the 19,000 workers who were laid off worldwide during the recession.
Get the full story: chicagobusiness.com.
From the Greater Milwaukee Business-Journal | Allstate Corp. notified the state of Wisconsin that it intended to close its Brookfield, Wis. Midwest claims office by June 1, laying off the 54 workers there.
Get the full story: bizjournals.com
United Airlines pilots and flight attendants picketing outside a board of directors meeting in 2009. (Alex Garcia/Chicago Tribune)
From Reuters | Airline industry analysts say that dissatisfied pilots, flight attendants and ground workers are a huge obstacle to the success of a merger between UAL Corp’s United Airlines and U.S. Airways. “If anyone thinks that sitting these groups down together and coming up with a single contract is going to be easy, they’re not reading the tea leaves,” Pat Friend, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, told Reuters. “I’m not even talking about what’s happening with the pilot groups — that’s another train wreck waiting to happen.”
Get the full story: reuters.com.
By Ameet Sachdev | Mayer Brown continues to hemorrhage lawyers, despite what the Chicago law firm says are “encouraging signs” for 2010.
The international firm said Thursday that laid off 28 lawyers in its U.S. offices, which represents 3 percent of the approximately 925 U.S. lawyers. The layoffs did not affect partners, only associates and lawyers known as “counsel” who are not on partnership track.
From Media Bistro | Sources are saying that ad agency DDB Chicago has laid off 15-20 staffers “across the board.”
Get the full story: mediabistro.com.
By Ameet Sachdev | The Lovells law firm plans to close its Chicago office by the end of
October, sending 22 lawyers and 25 other employees scrambling to find
work.
The London firm is set to merge with Washington-based Hogan &
Hartson on May 1, creating one of the world’s largest law firms with
$1.8 billion in revenue and 2,500 lawyers in 40 offices. But the new
firm, to be called Hogan Lovells, will not have a presence in Chicago.
By Mary Ellen Podmolik
and Zoe Galland
| There may be nothing like a recession to make workers more devoted to
their jobs, according to a new survey. Temporary-help company Kelly Services claims that 34 percent of
employees said they were now more loyal to their companies, while 14
percent were less loyal. Workers in Chicago are more loyal to their employers than
those in Houston or Boston: 32 percent of respondents in Chicago said they felt more loyal toward their employers, just
behind
Los Angeles’ 34 percent. 41 percent of Chicago’s respondents said they feel “totally committed” to
their company.
When asked to name one thing that would make them
more committed to their jobs, workers in Chicago as well as Boston said “more interesting or challenging work,” while workers in Los Angeles,
Northern California, and Houston said it’d have to be “higher salary or
benefits.”
The latest snapshot of the economy, though harder to interpret because
of the influence of the weather, was generally consistent with a slowly
improving job market in which layoffs have fallen sharply but vigorous
hiring remains elusive.
By Sandra M. Jones |
AT&T is closing its 411 office in Chicago and laying off 84
directory assistance operators, according to a monthly layoff report
from the state of Illinois. The office at 10 S. Canal St. is scheduled to close in April.
The Dallas-based phone company has been consolidating its directory
assistance offices for years as more people rely on the Internet,
rather than 411, to look up phone numbers.
Associated Press | There will be no interruption in unemployment
insurance benefit payments in Illinois because Congress passed a
one-month extension of existing programs this week.
As many as 15,000 Illinois workers each week would have exhausted their
unemployment benefits without congressional action. The extension runs
through April 5.
Republican Senator Jim Bunning. (EPA/Jim Lo Scalzo)
Associated Press | Sen. Jim Bunning has again blocked the Senate from
extending unemployment benefits and health insurance subsidies for the
jobless.
The Kentucky Republican objected Tuesday to a request by Maine Sen.
Susan Collins, a fellow Republican, to pass a 30-day extension of
jobless benefits and other expired measures. The measure would also
extend highway programs and prevent a big cut in Medicare payments to
doctors.
From the Ventura County Star | Lincolnshire-based Zebra Technologies Inc. is continuing to shed jobs at its Camarillo, Calif. plant in a planned shift of production to China by mid-year.
Get the full story: vcstar.com
From the New York Times | A report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s director of research has found that death rates among high-seniority male workers jumped by 50 percent to 100 percent in the year after a job loss, depending on the worker’s age. Even 20 years later, deaths were 10 percent to 15 percent higher. The study, by the Chicago Fed’s Daniel G. Sullivan and Columbia University economist Till von Wachter, examined death records and earnings data in Pennsylvania during the recession of the early 1980s.
Get the full story: nytimes.com
(Gary Gardiner/Bloomberg News)
| By Sandra M. Jones | Sears plans to close eight of its namesake stores by early April as parent Sears Holdings Corp.continues efforts to trim underperforming locations from its ranks.
The retailer intends to shutter four full-line department stores in Waycross, Ga., Columbia, Tenn., Wilson, N.C., and Houston. Another four Sears Essentials stores–a freestanding, big-box format that once had been pegged as Sears’ growth vehicle–will close in Plainfield, N.J., Carlton, N.J., West Bend, Wis., and Londonderry, N.H. |
See also • Kmart to shut down 2 Illinois stores |
