Screwed: 300 at Sykes Enterprises, Inc.

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

Today’s Total: 500

Sykes Enterprises, Inc., a Milton-Freewater, OR based call center, is laying off 300 employees due to “the cyclical nature of contracts”… Universal Music Group has laid off 50 employees across its labels and divisions… 45 positions will be eliminated at the Fort Worth, TX Star Telegram… 40 attorneys and staff are being let go from the nationwide offices of Seyfarth Shaw… North Carolina plant Pepsi Bottling Ventures is cutting 35 jobs, about 20 percent of its workforce…

Recession Briefing: African-American Unemployment Rate Tops 17 Percent

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

Unemployment for African Americans is projected to reach a 25-year high this year, according to a study released Thursday by an economic think tank, with the national rate soaring to 17.2 percent and the rates in five states exceeding 20 percent. (Washington Post)

Major U.S. banks and securities firms are on pace to pay their people about $145 billion for 2009, a record sum that indicates how compensation is climbing despite fury over Wall Street’s pay culture. (Wall Street Journal)

The federal foreclosure prevention program was designed to help struggling homeowners reduce their monthly payments, but housing advocates say they frequently see homeowners rejected or kept in a trial modification for questionable reasons. “There’s a real resistance on the servicers’ part to making permanent modifications,” said Diane Thompson of the National Consumer Law Center. (ProPublica)…

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Recession Briefing: Wall Street Bigwigs Get Grilled

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

Comparing Wall Street titans to shady car salesmen, a committee investigating the financial crisis grilled the nation’s top bankers Wednesday in the latest example of Washington’s smoldering anger at an industry many there feel hasn’t atoned for its role in the slump. (Wall Street Journal)

President Obama plans to call on Thursday for taxing about 50 big banks and major financial institutions for at least the next decade to recoup all taxpayer losses from the bailout of Wall Street. (New York Times)

The last time the nation’s debt was this big compared with gross domestic product — 70.4% of GDP — was immediately following World War II. How did the Greatest Generation pare it down? It didn’t. It grew the economy faster than the debt, pushing down the debt-to-GDP ratio and making debt payments easier to manage. (USA Today)…

Recession Briefing: C.E.O.’s Start Apologizing

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

Since the job market’s peak in June 2007, there are approximately 50 percent fewer job openings for the 15.3 million U.S. citizens who are officially unemployed, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Huffington Post)

As America recovers from the recession, some of the nation’s chief executives are offering that rarest of statements — an apology. But often, their words are so carefully parsed, scrubbed by lawyers or picked over by public relations professionals that it is unclear just how much mea is in their culpa. (New York Times)

The $787 billion economic stimulus package was responsible for keeping between 1.5 million and two million jobs in the economy through the end of 2009, White House economists said Tuesday. (Wall Street Journal)…

Screwed: 240 at Avon

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

Today’s Total: 351

240 jobs will face elimination next month at Avon‘s distribution center in Glenview, Ill. … Dearborn Public Schools sent layoff notices to 30 teachers and assistant principals this past Monday. … Warner Bros. Interactive has laid off 25 employees from three of its Seattle-based studios. … In another round of layoffs, the Sacramento Bee will be laying off 25 staff by the end of January. … 19 jobs are being cut in Northern Berkshire Healthcare in Massachusetts. … In Reno, 12 non-union municipal workers have received layoff notices in an effort to level the budget shortage. … AOL plans to close some European offices while cutting an unknown number of U.S. jobs…

The Recession Will End… When Housing Gets Sorted

Just a few short weeks ago, it felt like we were through the worst of it – jobs seemed to be improving, retail sales were strong, banks were paying back their loans to the government. But then one niggling little issue emerged: the housing market is hardly in good shape.

The big question is when to buy. Prices surged in the summer and early fall, and so did sales, thanks to a government tax credit. That credit is due to expire in April, which, coupled with rising interest rates, could put the market at a standstill. Surely prices may fall, benefiting buyers, but there may be fewer homes on the market. And who wants a mortgage at a higher interest rate – if you even qualify? Banks are becoming more stringent, recommending mortgages be capped at no more than three times one’s annual income, with no less than 20% down…

Recession Briefing: Workers Liberated from Cubicles!

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

Two years of the Great Recession have done more to liberate workers from their offices than a decade of stressed-out employees pleading to telecommute. Dilberts worldwide are losing their cubes. (Global Post)

Even when the U.S. labor market finally starts adding more workers than it loses, many of the unemployed will find that the types of jobs they once had simply don’t exist anymore. (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street firms aren’t the only banks that had a banner year. The Federal Reserve made record profits in 2009, as its unconventional efforts to prop up the economy created a windfall for the government. (Washington Post)…

Recession Briefing: One in Five Men Unemployed

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

The recession and the resulting shortage of good jobs have spurred a jump in applications to law schools and a growing interest in graduate programs. (New York Times)…

One in five working-age American men does not have a job, according to the latest federal employment numbers, an all-time high that illustrates the extraordinary toll this recession has taken on male-dominated professions in particular. (Huffington Post)

The porn industry is wrestling with a recession deeper and more severe than what’s constraining the mainstream entertainment businesses. (Daily Finance)

Recession Briefing: Can’t Drive 55

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

Just what Americans need as they try to dig out from the Great Recession: gas prices headed back toward $3 per gallon. The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline hit $2.70 on Thursday, according to the auto club AAA. That’s up 67 percent from this time last year. (Washington Post)

The decimated housing market may get considerably worse before it gets better, according to housing-industry professionals, who expect foreclosures and home-price declines to continue pressuring the sector through at least the first half of 2010. (Time)

Apartment vacancies hit a 30-year high in the fourth quarter, and rents fell as landlords scrambled to retain existing tenants and attract new ones. The vacancy rate ended the year at 8%, the highest level since Reis Inc., a New York research firm that tracks vacancies and rents in the top 79 U.S. markets, began its tally in 1980. (Wall Street Journal)…