Unkind cuts for this holiday

Rebulican-American

You may still be digesting your Thanksgiving Day meal, or driving into leftovers today. If that's the case, and you still have a job to return to after the holiday break, then you have much for which to be thankful this year.

Others across the nation aren't so fortunate. The list of companies, both foreign and domestic, cutting positions or laying off staff in the United States seems to grow by the day. Just this week, Waterbury lost 125 jobs, as Wachovia said it would close its retail mortgage unit, cutting 65 jobs, and T.L. Cannon Management of Buffalo, N.Y., said it would close the Applebee's restaurant on Wolcott Street on Sunday, cutting another 60 jobs. The national unemployment rate stands at 6.5 percent, a 15-year high, but economists except it to peak at 7.5 percent by the third quarter of 2009

The Bank of New York Mellon said it will cut its worldwide work force by 4 percent, or about 1,800 jobs.

Deutsche Bank will cut 900 jobs from its London and New York offices.

JPMorgan Chase is cutting 10 percent of its investment banking staff, or about 3,000 jobs.

Neptune Orient Lines the world's seventh-largest container carrier, said it will shed 9 percent of its work force, or about 1,000 jobs, mostly in North America.

The Associated Press plans to cut up to 10 percent of its work force in 2009 - roughly 400 employees - according to sources at the news service.

Boeing announced plans to cut approximately 800 positions at a Witchita, Kan., plant, due to delays in the Air Force tanker-replacement project and the end of other programs. The layoffs will take place mostly in the first half of 2009.

Citigroup is cutting as many as 53,000 jobs in its investment bank and other divisions throughout the world.

Sun Microsystems said it plans to cut up to 6,000 jobs, or 18 percent of its global work force.

Applied Materials, the semiconductor-and-solar panel equipment maker, is slashing 1,800 jobs.

Circuit City, which is filing for bankruptcy, is laying off about 17 percent of its domestic work force, or up too 7,300 people.

Deutsche Post the German mail and logistics company, will cut 9,500 jobs at its DHL unit in the U.S.

Nortel Networks plans to lay off 1,300 wokers, nearly 5 percent of its work force.

Motorola will slash 3,000 jobs in a cost-cutting effort.

Ford said it would cut 2,260 white-collar workers in North America.

General Motor, which previously said it would reduce salaried employment costs by 20 percent, will also cut another 1,900 salaried jobs on top of the 5,100 announced last summer.

Fidelity Investments will start laying off nearly 3 percent of its global work force later this month, affecting 1,288 workers in the first round from a work force of 44,400. It plans to trim more workers early next year.

Toy maker Mattel Inc. says it is cutting some 1,000 positions worldwide, about 3 percent of the company's work force.

Goldman Sachs laid off roughly 3,200 employees this month, part of previously reported plans to slash 10 percent of its global work force. The move comes after laying off hundreds of support staff and junior bankers in June. The company had a record 32,569 employees in August and the latest cuts reduce headcount to the lowest since 2006.

At Merrill Lynch, 10,000 employees could be jettisoned as a result of the merger with Bank of America.

Bank of America, the second-largest U.S. bank by assests said in june it expected to eliminate about 7,500 jobs over the next two years after the completion of its acquisition of Countrywide Financial Corp, the largest U.S. mortgage lender.

Barclay's plans to cut about 3,000 jobs as it brings Lehman Brothers into its fold. Lehman, which filed for bankruptcy last month, had 26,000 employees. About 10,000 have been given jobs until at least the end of the year.

The lack of merger and acquisitions and initial public offerings is hitting Morgan Stanley hard. The U.S. investment bank said on July 31 it was finished cutting jobs, having slashed 4,800 jobs in the past year but some analysts expect Morgan could lay off 15 percent of its work force.

Wachovia said in August it would cut 6,950 jobs, 600 more than it had previously disclosed.

UBS said at the beginning of October it would cut another 2,000 jobs at its troubled investment bank. The job losses come on top of 7,000 jobs already cut, about 4,100 of which were investment banking positions cut in the past year. The bank will have reduced its headcount by more than 10 percent to under 80,000.

Credit Suisse has axed more than 1,500 jobs, the majority in investment banking in the last year since 2007, and on Tuesday it said it would cut 500 more jobs.

HSBC said late last month it was cutting 1,100 jobs in its investment banking operation, or 4 percent of the work force.

First American, the largets U.S. title insurer by reported revenue, said last month it cut 1,250 jobs in the third quarter, bringing the total for the year to about 2,950, or 8 percent of its work force. It has cut roughly 6,500 jobs since the first quarter of 2007.

National City Corp said this month it planned to reduce 4,000 jobs, or 14 percent of its work force, over three years to save $500 million to $600 million annually by 2011.

Computer maker Dell, which is nearing the end of nearly 9,000 job cuts, has asked employees to consider taking up to five days of unpaid vacation, is offering voluntary severence packages and has instituted a global hiring freeze.