Screwed: 1,500 at Macy’s

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

Today’s total: 3,242

Macy’s Inc plans to layoff a whopping 1, 500 store-level positions by March 6…Borders Bookstores will cut its workforce by 742 workers, which accounts for 15 percent of staff members…Time Warner Cable will soon cut 350 jobs in Denver, Colorado…Glassmaker Zeledyne LCC handed pink slips to 210 workers yesterday…ArcelorMittal plans to lay off 171 steelworkers at its West Virginia tin mill…Leading glass-manufacturer Owens-Illinois is foreclosing their Charlotte, NC plant and laying off 137 jobs…TTX confirmed 67 layoffs in their South Carolina plant…Prepaid debt card-issuer Meta Financial Group will lay off 40 workers…Yesterday, The Star Tribune cut 15 positions in the newsroom, increasing their unemployed total to 95 since the fall…Southampton Memorial Hospital have laid off 10 hospital workers since last Friday…Deutsche Boerse AG plans on laying off up to 10 percent of its work force…

Screwed: 13,000 at Verizon

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

Today’s total: 17,011

Verizon will cut 13,000 landline jobs because everyone now uses cellphones…Oracle will lay off less than 2,000 after its merger with Sun…The Home Depot Inc. plans to lay off 1,000 employees as well as close three pilot projects… Sitel, a Memphis, TN call-center, is cutting 426 positions, 264 of which were temporary…

Screwed: A Possible 19,000 in New York City

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

Today’s total: up to 19,304

Mayor Bloomberg says New York City may have to lay off a whopping 19,000 workers if the governor cuts $1.3 billion in aid as he plans…ArcelorMittal will can 171 steelworkers at its tin mill in West Virginia…ITT Communication Systems is eliminating 60 jobs in Fort Wayne, Ind….book wholesaler and distributor Ingram Content Group gave 57 Tennessee employees the boot…Tower Tech in Abilene, Texas is cutting 15 jobs…

Unemployment is in the Attitude

I’m unemployed, sort of. I was laid off from my job about a year ago. Now, I’m self-employed, which sometimes feels like unemployed: having to get my own health insurance, scrap together my own income from freelance projects, create my own “office” at home or at coffee shops. But most of all, it’s outlook and attitude that makes all the difference.

Some folks who have been laid off are bitter towards their former employer, their friends, the world at dumping them out on the street. I don’t blame them for their frustrations. It ain’t easy.

But you don’t turn around an undesirable situation with grumbling, passive aggression, a sense of entitlement, bullying or any other behaviors that, face it, don’t make you feel all that great. (At least, not for more than a few minutes.) Worse, it comes across loud and clear, and makes you even more undesirable…

Screwed: 11,200 at Sam’s Club (Recession’s Not Over…)

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

Today’s Total: 12,660

Wal-Mart does it big, as usual, canning a whopping 11,200 Sam’s Club employees…Ericsson is cutting 600 jobs on top of the 2,500 it has already axed…Tyson Foods is moving production of case-ready meats from the Midwest to the South and shedding 480 jobs…American Airlines plans to furlough as many as 175 pilots in the first six months of the year…

Why You Should Sell Yourself Short

It used to be called an Elevator Pitch.

In this social media age, it’s known as a Twitter resume. And it’s still a potentially powerful asset.

I don’t mean an actual tweetable resume–despite what some experts advise, it’s hard to believe that people are getting work that way. I mean a distilled version of your story. What you’re about in a powerful sentence.

It can get the attention of someone you’re meeting for five minutes. It makes you memorable. And the process of getting to that summary forces you to figure out what you really have to offer.

Make lists. Boil them down. Think in vivid, active terms..

WIFT?

The best thing you can do if you’re looking for a job is to network and get any meeting you can. But as Phil Rosenberg points out on reCareered, it’s not all about you:

Chances are your new contact is a busy person who doesn’t have much spare time on their hands. You as a job seeker have a very real reason you want to have coffee – you want their help in finding a job at their company (What’s in it for me – WIFM). But what reason do you give your contact? What’s in it for them (WIFT)?

Exactly—WIFT?

Don’t forget that to be effective in your networking, you need to bring something to the table as well. What can you offer the other person? Do you have information or other contacts that might be valuable to them? Your meeting may simply be an act of generosity on their part, or it may serve their own goals around helping people. In other cases, you can help build your value—a key factor in getting closer to a job—by being a resource to them. Just be careful of coming across too sleazy. The scratch-my-back tack can get a little icky if you overdo it…

Screwed: 2,500 at Xerox

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

Today’s Total: 4,145

Xerox is planning 2,500 worldwide job cuts this year… Beginning Feb.5, 700 workers in Wayne County, MI will be given furlough every Friday… Another 585 layoffs lie in the future of the Lloyds Banking Group… Nuclear Fuel Services in Erwin, TN will be temporarily laying off 150 employees… In preparation for budget cuts, the Portland School District considers serving approximately 100 teachers with layoff notices…

Screwed: 1,450 in Iowa

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

Today’s Total: 2,701

The closing of a hog plant in Iowa owned by Smithfield Foods will mean the loss of 1,450 jobs. … Columbus, Ga.-based TSYS plans to lay off 400 workers worldwide. … Some 338 layoffs are rolling out across the San Francisco Municipal Transit Authority, beginning this week. … Sitel will cut 250 workers at its Starkville, Miss., location. … Stanley Furniture Co. in Martinsville, Va., plans to lay off 200 employees. … One-third of its staff, about 50 employees, will be let go from Honolulu department store Shirokiya. … Luzerne County, Penn., will lay off 13 employees. … The Commerical Appeal newspaper in Memphis, Tenn., will cut 9 positions. …

Screwed: 4,000 at Philippine Airlines

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

Today’s Total: 4,589

Philippine Airlines plans to lay off 4,000 workers to avoid bankruptcy. … In Turkey, Izmir Demir Celik Sanayi AS will cut 177 employees. … As part of a restructuring plan, Cadence Design Systems in San Jose, Calif., will lay off 120 workers. … The Moraine Berry Co. in Dayton, Oh., will see 105 employees let go as a result of a focus on digital operations. … Douglas Battery Manufacturing will cut 90 workers with the sale of its industrial battery unit in North Carolina. .. Meredith Corporation cut 45 employees. … Boeing laid off 36 employees in its NASA Kennedy Space Center location. … The Reno, Nev., fire department issued 16 layoffs on Friday. … Eight to 10 employees are expected to be laid off this week by the city of Juneau, Alaska. ..Up to 450 employees could be cut from the Des Moines school system, including 300 teachers, depending on the budget. …