Blago’s Guide to Getting Fired

Recessionwire salutes Blago for facing the firing squad with rare aplomb. After mounting a week-long PR campaign in which he teared up, praised himself, and flirted with the ladies on The View, he showed the Illinois legislature his middle finger by skipping his impeachment hearing.

Screwed: 10,000 at Boeing

Boeing is expected to cut 10,000 workers after lowering its 2009 earnings outlook. … A severe drop in advertising revenue is forcing AOL to cut 7,000 positions worldwide. … Starbucks is closing 300 stores and cutting 6,700 employees. … Kodak will cut 3,500 to 4,500 positions. … Ford Credit will lay off 1,200 people, one-fifth of its workforce, due to heavy losses to be reported in its quarterly earnings announcement today. … Unemployment rose in all 50 states for the first time ever and global job losses could hit 50 million, a 7.1 percent unemployment rate, by end of 2009.

Recession Briefing 1.29

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

House Passes Stimulus Package (WaPo)
On the eighth day of his presidency, Obama achieves passage in the House of his $819 billion economic stimulus package. The Senate will vote today.

Geithner Says Plan for Banks Is in the Works (NYT)
But he discourages talk of “nationalization,” even though sources say he’s been sniffing around on this “bad bank” concept.

Caffeinated Closures

Attention employment-challenged workers: Your workspace options have just been reduced. With its fiscal first-quarter earnings today, Starbucks announced that it would be cutting 6,700 jobs

Read more…

CNBC: Cuomo Subpoenas Thain

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A breathless Charlie Gasparino is reporting on CNBC that New York Attorney General has subpoenaed former Merril Lynch CEO John Thain over the $4 billion in bonuses that were paid out to the company’s executives late last year.

Screwed: 8,000 at Sprint Nextel

A daily review of the employment fallout around the country.

Sprint Nextel plans to cut 8,000 jobs in the first quarter, or about 14 percent of its work force…Corning is slashing 3,500 positions…Philips Electronics is eliminating 6,000 jobs this year after swinging to its first quarterly loss in five years…IBM is cutting 2,800 jobs in sales, software units…Fox Interactive Media is laying off about 100 people…Reed Business Information sacked 7 percent of its work force.

Read about layoffs at the sites compiled on our Layoff Tracker page.

Screwed: 20,000 at Caterpillar

Today in layoffs, bulldozer/excavator maker Caterpillar is getting crushed and plans to shed 20,000 jobs, about 20 percent of its workforce. … Home Depot is expected to lay off 7,000 workers. … European bank ING is to shed 7,000 of its 130,000 employees after $1.29 billion in losses mainly related to toxic mortgage assets. … The ongoing secret layoffs at IBM are rumored to include an upcoming 3,000 on top of the 1,400 already said to have been let go. … Fourteen hundred workers will be cut at Williams-Sonoma. … Starbucks will let 1,000 workers go in the coming weeks. … Fannie Mae will put hundreds of its 5,500 employees out of work. … Vermont may cut 660 state jobs. … Digg.com is expected to reduce its 75-person staff by 10 percent (we wonder, who is that .5 percent staffer?). … Two states hit unemployment record highs: 9.3 percent in California and 6.9 percent in Massachusetts.

Is America Throwing in the Towel?

Slate’s Daniel Gross ponders the closing of a Circuit City store on Broadway as a sign of the times. Once, in happier days, a company the size of Circuit City would have filed for Chapter 11 and launched a new game plan. But dire predictions about the length of the recession may be putting the kibosh on optimism, despite the enthusiasm for the new president. Could our “Yes We Can” president be facing a “No We Can’t” economy?