Permanent Layoffs Soar, And It Will Get Worse
As companies brace for years of pandemic-related disruption, thousands of furloughed workers are told they won’t be coming back.
Permanent Job Losses
The New Layoffs Will Be Permanent.
GM Resorts International and Stanley Black & Decker Inc. recently told some employees furloughed at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic that they wouldn’t be put back on the payroll. And companies bringing back the majority of furloughed workers, including Yelp Inc. and Cheesecake Factory Inc., are making reductions as they adjust to the new reality that many coronavirus-related closures won’t be resolved this fall.
More fresh layoffs at big employers loom. A day after Salesforce.com Inc. posted record quarterly sales, the business-software company notified its 54,000-person workforce that 1,000 would lose their jobs later this year. Coca-Cola Co. said Friday it plans to lay off some employees and offer voluntary buyouts to about 4,000 employees in the U.S. including Puerto Rico as well as Canada. American Airlines Group Inc. and United Airlines Holdings Inc. have said more than 53,000 workers could be affected in about a month if the airlines don’t receive another infusion of funds from the government.
Layoff Announcements in Past Month
- MGM Aug 29: 18,000 More
- Coca-Cola Aug 29: 4,000 Buyouts
- American Airlines Aug 25: 19,000 Furloughs, Layoffs in October
- Twin River Casino Rhode Island Aug 24: 1,300 Workers by End of September
- Airport Restaurant Workers Aug 21: 2,000 Notified of Permanent Layoffs
- Hollywood Casino in West Virginia Aug 18: 540 Permanent Layoffs
- McCarran Airport Las Vegas Aug 15: 940 Employees
- Booking.Com August 4: More than 4,000 Starting in September
- Spirit AeroSystems (parts supplier) July 31: 450 More Layoffs
- Spirit Airlines July 31: 20-30% of 9,100
- Nike July 31: At Least 500 Layoffs in Oregon
Those are the new announcements in the last month with the layoffs happening in September and October.
It does not reflect announcements from March through July effective in September or October.
Airlines received $25 billion in March to halt layoffs through September so beware of repeat announcements.
But Delta plans 2,000 layoffs and that is not in the above list. Nor is United.
On July 8, United Airlines warns of 36,000 layoff. That's nearly half its U.S. staff.
October Airline Layoffs Threatened
- United: 36,000
- American: 19,000
- Delta: 2,000
- Spirit: 2,000-3,000
- Southwest 0 (But 17,000 Accepted Extended Time Off or Early Retirement)
The Delta Announcement is for Pilots Only and that is on top of over 1,800 early retirement acceptances.
Also note that Delta Air Lines said it is still overstaffed even though 17,000 employees are taking buyouts and early retirements.
At a minimum we are talking about a reduction of about 100,000 direct airline jobs.
The massive layoffs are certainly quite bad news, not only for those affected, but also for the economy in general. Not only is the economy shrinking, but the unintended secondary effect will be that the unemployment compensation to all of those folks who are no longer producing value will cause inflation. This is an additional inflationary force quite above that caused by the Fed creating all of that money for the stock market crowd. Inflation does not benefit the bottom 95%.