Screwed: Potentially 10,000 in China at Wal-Mart

A daily review of the employment fallout around the country and the world.

Wal-Mart talks of laying off 10,000 employees in China… In another round of layoffs, Volvo Group plans to cut 1,543 jobs in Sweden… 660 school bus drivers are laid off in Jacksonville, Florida… Agilent Technologies’ Santa Rosa division has laid off 300 employees… The Chicago Tribune shrinks its newsroom size again, laying off 53 editorial employees… The Miami Art Museum cuts its budget by 10 percent and lays off 3 employees.

Take a Holiday, Unemployed People!

Are you taking your own calls, drawing up your own memos, filing your own documents, buying your own office supplies? Why, then, this Administrative Professionals Day is for you!

Your hard work and that of those like you has been celebrated since 1952, when the holiday was created by Young & Rubicam exec Harry F. Klemfuss and the National Secretaries Association.

Here’s what you might do to celebrate…

5 Ways the Recession is Good for the Environment

Happy Earth Day! When this day was started 39 years ago, we were all flush – with plastics, with carbon emissions, with massive waste visible from the parkway to the playground (remember the Crying Indian?). Since then, recycling has picked up and carbon emissions have dropped — but we’ve still got a long way to go (acknowledgments, Al Gore).

Scarcity, to look at the bright side (if there is one) of hardship, may be the mother of this invention.

Here’s how these tough economic times are doing ecological good:

1. Fewer carbon emissions. With 5.1 million fewer people commuting to work and families cutting back on vacations, the number of cars on the road has dropped, so we just might see a drop in the amount of carbon emissions…

More Frugal Fitness—Hit the Gym for Free

Our friends at the 405 Club point out that New York Underground Fitness, on West 57th Street, is offering free access to people who can prove they’ve been laid off.

“There’s more to this business than just counting how many memberships you can sell,” said owner Eric Slayton.

According to a Bloomberg story out last week, people are taking advantage of down time by going to the gym…

Harvard Economic Historian Says, ‘We’re in a depression’

Two big-time economic thinkers duked it out in a debate about the causes of the Recession Tuesday night. The event was sponsored by The Aspen Institute and Roosevelt House, Hunter College’s Public Policy Institute. Jeff Madrick, a Senior Fellow at the New School’s Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis and regular contributor to the New York Review of Books, faced Niall Ferguson, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University and William Ziegler Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Moderator Brian Lehrer, host of the Brian Lehrer Show, asked tough questions about the economic crisis.

After the debate, attendees had the chance to ask questions of their own. One audience member asked when the Recession would be over. For the first time during the evening, the two men largely agreed.

Ferguson took the question first. “We’re not in a recession,” he said. “We’re in a depression. I would say it’s a slight depression, rather than a Great Depression, but we’re looking at five years of subprime growth.”…

Saving a Marriage after Job Loss

Amanda Petersen* was living the good life in suburban Detroit. The 40-year-old mother of two was the family breadwinner. A senior executive in a real estate development firm, Petersen’s $200K job paid a generous bonus, offered stock options and a profit-sharing plan. It meant private school for the kids and enabled her to go on special trips with her husband, a firefighter, throw parties, and lavish gifts on family and friends. Laid off last spring, Petersen felt clobbered.

While lucky enough to find a job last summer as the administrator of a non-profit organization, Petersen earns only a third of what she was making, which promptly put an end to getaways, beach houses, holiday gifts and her twice annual parties: “We would have pulled the kids out of private school if we hadn’t paid the tuition for the full year in advance.”…

Recession Briefing 4.22

What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.

Turns out the recession can spice up relationships: Experts say that tough economic times are leading many couples to better appreciate one another — and increase physical intimacy. (Forbes)

With more stories of workplace violence lately, some are worried that the recession is putting a growing strain on anxious workers near the boiling point. (Reuters)

Local leaders in Flint, Michigan — a city notoriously tied to the fortunes of the failing auto industry — may try to stem the city’s economic decline by razing parts of it. (New York Times)

If you come across a good article or blog post about the recession pass it on.

Screwed: Up to 700 at Yahoo

A daily review of the employment fallout around the country and the world.

Yahoo plans to layoff up to 700 employees… The Southfield Board of Education has approved 112 layoffs, 104 teachers and 8 administrators… HSBC has laid off 100 private bankers in Hong Kong… MBTA general manager announced 75 planned job cuts… University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center may begin laying off employees in the next month in an effort to cut its budget by 10 percent.

Best Blogs for the Recession

Why didn’t we think of the hilarious chart over at Unemploymentality.com? On notebook paper, it “graphs” the number of blogs against the unemployment rate. Jobs down = blogs up.

We don’t have numbers to back that up—as wordyard explains today, it’s hard enough to tell how many people are professionally blogging—but it at least feels true. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of new websites about budget living, job hunting, economic policy, layoffs and more. A Google search for “ unemployed and blog” turns up more than 3 million results. “Laid off and blog” gives you more than 7 million.

So how to distinguish the smart, funny and useful from blather about not having a job? Last week, we compiled a list of the Top Ten Blogs for Surviving the Recession for our friends at Blogs.com. Here’s an expanded version of that list to bookmark if you want to understand the latest news, cut your spending, or get a damn laugh.

Redux: Give Us a Hero, Preferably in Tights

Lynn Parramore looks back at the Great Depression to see the path ahead.

Hard times were made for heroes. We want stories of the fearless, the bold, and the incorruptible. We crave somebody who stares danger in the face and stands up to the bad guys. If those bad guys are nasty pirates straight out of a storybook, then so much the better.

That’s why the sea captain Richard Phillips, who offered himself to Somali pirates to protect his crew, is hailed as “Captain Courageous.” And it’s no surprise that the daring Navy SEALS who felled his captors are celebrated with glowing media profiles, their valor and marksmanship like salve in wounded national pride. Score one for America!

After saving the lives of 155 passengers with his spectacular Hudson River landing, Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger got his own superhero nickname…