1/20: Unrelated Yahoo layoffs to affect 1500 – 2500 employees

Silicon Alley Insider reports Yahoo has created a list of 1500 – 2500 employees to be eliminated within 2 weeks.

The “list” is reportedly the product of a Q4 project in which all group heads were asked to look at redundancies and create their own lists of potential cuts. All the group-level lists have now been turned in to corporate.

The decision to go ahead with lay-off is said to be largely dependent on stock price: Yahoo’s stock trading in the low $20s has gotten Jerry’s and president Sue Decker’s attention. Jerry will feel vulnerable if the stock goes into the teens and will try whatever he can to prop it up. He’s not ready to give up the CEO job, sell-out, or shop the company around at this point.

1/19: WC Wood layoffs announced (65)

The layoffs affect approximately 65 workers, approximately half the total of new jobs created earlier this fall.

Officials at the plant had touted the expansion of 120 jobs with an expansion in 2007. Friday, those gains were partially halted with the announcement.

In addition to the those workers immediately impacted, other workers at the facility would be moving to different shifts, it was announced.

The WC Wood plant in Ottawa had approximately 300 employees before the layoffs were announced and has been at its Ottawa site for more than 15 years.

1/19 Potential Web 2.0 layoffs: Joost

Joost headed for the deadpool.

Mathew Ingram wonders tonight if Joost is heading for the deadpool – if utter lack of talk about the company since launch is any indication, I’d have to agree.

1/19 Regency Homes layoffs: 26

Regency Homes has dismissed 26 employees as Iowa’s largest home builder attempts to weather a slump that has settled in on the housing industry.

Harold Brandt, hired last month by the West Des Moines contracting firm to serve as its chief restructuring officer, said the cuts reached across the company, from clerical staff to supervisors.

Brandt said the cutbacks came after a review of all operations at Regency, which also builds and manages apartments and operates a commercial construction business.

1/18: Unrelated: GE to layoff 900 in Bloomington

General Electric refrigeration plant looks busy as usual. But by the end of 2009, the parking lot could be empty, the trucks will have dropped off their last load, and the gates could be closed for good.

Thursday, the company announced they are intending to close the Bloomington location. This announcement comes after GE reports a $45 million loss in 2007. Officials say profits this year aren’t expected to be any better. However, for the nearly 900 employees, all they know is they’re probably out of a job.

1/18 Lehman Brothers layoffs: slash 1300 mortgage jobs

Lehman Brothers is slashing 1,300 mortgage jobs and closing three offices of unit Aurora Loan Services, including one in Lake Forest, according to Bloomberg and the LA Times. Aurora makes Alt-A loans, a mid-range credit category. Here’s more from Bloomberg: Lehman, the fourth-largest U.S. securities firm, cut 2,450 jobs last year by shutting its subprime-mortgage unit and shrinking Aurora. The company, led by Chief Executive Officer Richard Fuld, used hedges to avoid the bigger losses reported by some of its competitors. Merrill Lynch & Co. today posted a record loss for the fourth-quarter and reduced the value of subprime-infected assets by $16.7 billion.

1/18 Sallie Mae plans to layoff 350 workers

A $25 billion collapsed buyout offer and higher borrowing costs have prompted Sallie Mae (NYSE:SLM) , the nation’s largest student lender, to lay off about 3 percent of its work force nationwide.

The embattled SLM Corp. said Friday it will slash 350 jobs from an 11,000-worker staff to help cut costs 20 percent by 2010.

1/18 IndyMac layoffs in India 400-450

Independent mortgage lender in the US, IndyMac Bancorp, has decided to cut down staff with its temporary and outsourcing vendors by 27%, mainly in India.

Currently, three service providers in India, Cognizant Technology Solutions, ExlService Holdings and WNS, cater to the ninth-largest American mortgage lender. IndyMac’s move could impact about 400-450 people at the three service providers.

1/18 IDM Pharma of Irvine sets 60% layoffs

IDM Pharma of Irvine warned of layoffs. Now it has told the Securities and Exchange Commission that the job losses will affect about 60 percent of its work force, which could mean nearly 50 job losses between its sites in Irvine and France. It’s also looking for a company it can merge into.

1/18 BusinesWeek Magazine expected to layoff several

More bad news for McGraw-Hill (MHP): BusinessWeek’s advertising revenue plummeted 16% in Q4, according to Publishers Information. This drop was even worse than BusinessWeek’s ad revenue for the full-year 2007, which fell 12%. Shockingly, it is even worse than the obliterated newspaper industry, whose ad revenue “only” fell about 10% for the year.

BusinessWeek can’t just blame the “business magazine” industry in general. According to PIB, the Economist’s revenue jumped 28% in Q4. Fortune dropped 8%, but Forbes rose 5% and Money was flat. BusinessWeek’s problems, in other words, seem largely specific to BusinessWeek.

1/18 Merillat to layoff 75

Housing slump blamed for layoffs at Merillat

Merillat, a Michigan-based cabinet manufacturing company, slashed 75 jobs in its Ocala branch, another effect of the soft housing and construction market. Merillat Communications Manager Jim Potthast said the mass layoff was the only step left to take.

1/18 USF layoffs to hit many

TAMPA – The University of South Florida plans to cut more than $52 million from its budget during the next two years, a grim prospect that likely will force layoffs and could further reduce the number of students accepted.

Half of that comes this year and includes $12.2 million USF has cut as a result of a $1 billion state budget shortfall. Every public service from education to law enforcement has felt the pinch.

That’s just the start, however. State economists predict a $2 billion shortfall next fiscal year, a symptom of Florida’s housing woes that are depleting tax collections. Anticipating those bad times, USF leaders will spend the next two weeks considering how to cut $26 million more out of next fiscal year’s budget.

1/18 Adams Aircraft to layoff 300

Centennial-based Adams Aircraft announced 300 layoffs.

A company spokesperson says the layoffs are in an effort to strengthen the long-term operations of the company. They encourage all team members to reapply for jobs when a ramping-up of manufacturing takes place.

In the meantime, executives are working to secure $75 million to $150 million in additional funding.

The Colorado Department of Labor has contacted Adams Aircraft and Aurora Loan Services to make sure they followed the provisions of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act or WARN.

1/17 Lehman Bros layoffs to affect 1300 nationally

DENVER – As the state braces for new numbers on the unemployment rate, word came this week that hundreds of Colorado employees have been laid off.

Lehman Brothers announced Thursday that they have let go roughly 1,300 people nationally. The firm has shut down its wholesale and correspondent lending activities with its Aurora Loan Services subsidiary.

1/17 Nationwide More than 1/3 of job cuts in Ohio

Nationwide video.

1/16; Unrelated Catalent Pharma layoffs

Catalent Pharma Solutions, the maker of gel-caps for such popular drugs as Advil, is paring its St. Petersburg work force. The manufacturing plant off Roosevelt Boulevard was owned until April by Cardinal Health, when the division was acquired for $3.3-billion by the Blackstone Group. A Catalent spokesman said an unspecified number of layoffs were taking place in St. Petersburg because of an unanticipated change in demand for certain products.

Catalent’s St. Petersburg plant had about 600 employees before the layoffs; globally, Catalent has 10,000 employees at 30 facilities.

1/17 Unrelated Sybron, 70 layoffs

The Sybron chemical plant on Birmingham Road will shut down production in May, resulting in the layoffs of 90 workers, executives with the parent company announced yesterday.

1/16 Bank of America, 650 more layoffs

Bank of America Corp. Wednesday announced plans to eliminate 650 more positions, adding to the 3,000 jobs lost last year.

Last October, the bank, headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., cut 2 percent of its workforce after a 32 percent decrease in third-quarter share earnings, Bizjournals.com reported.

1/17 Phoenix – 6% layoffs

The City Council voted this week to accept a plan from the city’s budget and research staff to cut its public-safety budget by 3 percent, exempting police officers, firefighters and the personnel who support them.

Phoenix needs to reduce its budget by an estimated $67.1 million over the next 18 months due to diminishing sales-tax revenue in the wake of the housing-industry slowdown.

1/16: Layoffs hit Legendary Sadestin in Florida

The sluggish real estate market has forced layoffs at two major hospitality companies on the Emerald Coast.

Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort, Walton County’s largest private employer, has tightened its belt this winter by laying off 51 employees.