Mass layoffs up; cuts at Boeing

WASHINGTON - The number of layoffs involving 50 or more workers jumped one-third last year, and the pace of large job cuts has quickened in the first month of 2009.

The Labor Department reported yesterday that 21,137 mass layoff announcements were made last year, compared with 15,493 in 2007. That is the highest annual total since 2001, the last time the economy was in recession, and the second-highest since the department began tracking mass layoffs in 1995.

As a result of those announcements, more than 2.1 million workers were fired, the department said.

The bleeding continued yesterday as Boeing Co. said it would cut 5,500 positions, on top of 4,500 layoffs announced earlier this month. The Chicago airplane manufacturer said it did not know yet which of its operations would be affected.

Boeing has 5,480 employees in Pennsylvania, most of them at its helicopter unit in Ridley Township, Delaware County.

The new layoff total of about 10,000 equals 6 percent of the company's workforce. The layoffs were disclosed in a conference call after Boeing reported a net loss of $56 million in the fourth quarter of 2008, compared with a profit of $1.03 billion in the same quarter in 2007.

The company said it expected an increase in canceled or deferred orders this year as airlines cope with a drop in travel demand and tight credit.

Also yesterday, Time Warner Inc. said its AOL business would cut up to 700 jobs, or about 10 percent of the Internet unit's workforce, in a bid to reduce costs.

Starbucks Corp., the world's largest chain of coffee shops, said yesterday that it would cut 6,700 jobs and close 300 stores after reporting that its first-quarter profit fell more than 69 percent.

So far, companies have announced nearly 125,000 job cuts in January, according to an Associated Press tally.

"The pervasiveness and sheer depth of the current recession means there are few industries, regions or people that can escape the pain," economists for Wachovia Corp. said in a research note this week.