LandAmerica Leaves Much To Be Admired

From the company website and their Press Release:

"LandAmerica is recognized as number one in the mortgage services industry on Fortune's 2007 list of America's Most Admired Companies."

After a lay off of 700 FTE’s (full-time equivalents), that is what the company calls their employees, earlier this year they announced another round of 1,100 people being sent packing.

With the housing market working off the last five years of speculative excesses, it is understandable that they need to reduce staffing. What I find objectionable is that it is packaged with an additional stock repurchase program and in a way intentionally meant to support the company’s stock price.

In their Press Release they discuss the cuts after the stock repurchase announcement: “Also, as part of an effort to reduce costs…”. There is not the slightest bit of compassion or concern shown, nor will they even refer to the employees as people. They only mention severance because it is part of an expense.

From the company’s website:

"LandAmerica Shared Resources Center in Richmond, Virginia, supports over 900 company-owned offices and a network of more than 10,000 active agents. LandAmerica serves agent, residential, commercial, and lender customers throughout the United States, Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, and Asia."

New artical: The Insult Is Complete At LandAmerica

Barclay Ensures That EquiFirst Has Viable Future

In a Reuters interview with reprter Jonathan Stempel, company spokesperson Jennifer Sharpe, stated that the companies plan for lay offs “will help to ensure EquiFirst has a viable future”.
Also from the article: “EquiFirst, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, employed about 1,400 people before the latest cuts.”

Since the company is not in the talkative mood, SockPuppet posted this on the grapevine at Broker Universe almost two weeks ago on August 15, 2007:

“EquiFirst is getting ready to cut off the bottom 10-20% of its sales force. ELT (leadership team for those of you outside of building 5) may think this is a well guarded secret but everyone seems to know its coming. I've heard layoffs in ops are certain to follow.”

Adam Smith added to the tread:

“As someone who has gone through product cuts, then ops cuts, I can tell you the worse is yet to come (especially in service): double number of AE´s on an AM´s desk, 1 less person in file setup, 1 less person in broker setup, 1 less u/w etc. It will be painful, not as rosy as you picture it. Volume will be less, but it will feel like triple because there is no support. Plus, morale will drop because everyone will be worried about their jobs (I think you had ads that said you never had a layoff-now the security is gone) and u/w will kill more than approve loans because they to will be worried about keeping their jobs. Files you once got an exception will be a thing of the past."

“Also, if it has not happened by now, I would expect your products to start falling off the matrix weekly (I believe you guys sell alot to Citi and Citi just got hammered for all the subprime they have on their books).”“Lastly, if this is the first time layoffs have occurred, expect many more to follow. I know of many lenders that are on their 3rd round of cuts (AE´s and ops)”

“Anyway, good luck, and welcome to 2007.”

EarthLink Cutting Nearly Half It’s Staff

EarthLink, Inc. (NASDAQ: ELNK) is joining the herd of companies that announce lay offs and stock repurchases at the same time in an effort to support the companies stock price. While 900 people will be laid off, at least Mr. Huff showed respect for the people that were instrumental in building the company.

Rolla P. Huff, EarthLink President and CEO, announced in their Press Release:

“We are extremely appreciative of our employees’ dedication and contributions, and we hope that the benefits and services we have put in place to provide assistance will help during this time of transition,” stated Huff. “While we recognize this is a difficult time for those affected individuals, this was a needed action for the company to better align our cost structure with our existing business.”

Lehman Breaks Silence

This afternoon Lehman announced the closing of their subprime lending unit BNC Mortgage LLC. This action will close their 23 offices putting 1,200 out of work. They have stopped taking applications but will process current mortgage approvals through their Aurora Loan Services LLC.

Accredited Home – From Milk And Honey To S**t And No Money

Accredited agreed on June 4 to be acquired by Dallas-based Lone Star for $15.10 per share, or about $400 million. Less than two weeks ago it filed suit against Lone Star to complete that merger. Lone Star has said Accredited may be entitled to nothing more than a $12 million breakup fee.

Accredited Home issued a news release this morning stating that 1,600 staffers will be let go. As companies go, they gave a little more information than most. From their news release:

"Substantially all of the retail lending business consisting of 60 retail branch locations and 5 centralized retail support locations will be effectively closed as of September 5, 2007, impacting approximately 480 positions nationwide. Accredited will continue to operate its San Diego-based customer retention unit that assists the Company's loan servicing customers."
"Five of the Company's ten wholesale divisions will be substantially closed effective September 5, 2007. These closures, combined with reductions in staff at the remaining five divisions, will reduce the wholesale workforce by approximately 490 positions, leaving approximately 340 employees in the wholesale operation."
"Effective immediately, no new U.S. loan applications will be accepted, although the Company will honor existing commitments. Accredited intends to resume wholesale loan originations based upon improvement in market conditions."
"The Company's settlement and insurance services division, Inzura Settlement Services, which provides appraisal, title insurance and other settlement services, will be substantially reduced. Headquarters staff in San Diego, CA will be significantly reduced to approximately 220 people from its current workforce of approximately 400."

Movie Gallery And Hollywood Video Receive NASDAQ Notices

From a Aug. 21 PRNewswire-FirstCall release Movie Gallery Inc. (MOVI) has been given till February 11, 2008 to bring their share price above $1. The second letter gives them till November 15, 2007 to bring their minimum market value up to $15,000,000. If they can not meet NASDAQ's minimum requirement to maintain an OTC stock listing, they will be delisted and the stock will move to Pink Sheet heaven.

This site has had a rash of inquiries looking for info concerning the possibility of lay offs or of a bankruptcy. That usually happens just prior to a major announcement.

I posted this at 4 AM so it would be out first thing.

You can read the PRNewswire here. My previous articles:
Movie Gallery & Hollywood Video Gets Extension
Movie Gallery Parent Of Hollywood Video Will Be Adding Pink Slips To Their Shelves

LSI - More “Partnering” Lay Offs Coming To Kansas City?

In the last line of the last paragraph in a Matt Andrejczak article on Marketwatch:

”LSI also will transition similar functions at facilities in Singapore and Wichita, Kansas, to current manufacturing partners.”

As written in LSI Leveraging Worldwide Contract Manufacturing Ecosystem = U.S. Layoffs, the company has no intention of retaining any of their American facilities other than the required sales staff. When the following honors were awarded to the LSI facility in Wichita, in 2003, they had total employment of 600. I have not been able to obtain current staffing levels.

Four years ago this facility was honored by the Kansas Society of Professional Engineers and Governor Sebelius:

Largest high tech employer in Kansas receives accolade for contributions to state economy and engineering ingenuity

Capital One Leaving Mortgage Market

Yesterday Capital One issued a Press Release stating that they will immediately close their GreenPoint Mortgage division that was just purchased last December. Good buy guys. That along with the closing of their selected mortgage divisions will result in 1,900 lay offs.

The company indicated that they remain committed to Capital One Home Loans offices. From the Press Release:

“Capital One Home Loans, based in Overland Park, KS, and Capital One N.A., including its 725 local retail bank branch locations in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Texas, and Louisiana, are not directly affected by this decision. Capital One intends to continue to originate and sell mortgage loans through Home Loans and its bank branches…”

Fifth Third Eliminating 650 Jobs

Fifth Third Bankcorp are giving 400 staffers their notice and are eliminating another 250 positions through attrition. The banking industry have been on a lay off tear lately but the 3% trimming of their 22,000 staff appears to be just what they have announced; an attempt to control expenses in the face of a tepid market.

Being from the Cleveland area, Fifth Third was always the preferred source for home mortgages because they held and serviced all their own paper. If that is still the case, then they would have little exposure to the current problems hitting the mortgage market. Even with Ohio experiencing high foreclosures, their recent acquisition of First Charter shows a conservative approach towards expansion by limiting their exposure to a tumultuous Atlanta market.

Countrywide Info Needed

Rumors and gossip has been flowing all weekend about what might happen at Countrywide. Today an AP article said that an E-mail was cited by the WSJ that layoffs were going to happen at their Full Spectrum Lending unit. That AP article cited Countrywide with 61,000 employees, and a newer LATimes article lists them with 18,000, either way layoffs could have a huge effect.

If you have any info, please leave a comment or an E-mail through my profile page. Confidentiality is assured.

SunTrust – Could Offshoring Be Part Of Their “Organizational Design Component”

Today SunTrust Banks Inc. put a Press Release out that stated 2,400 back office and managerial positions will disappear in the near future. Could this just be a required step preceding the implementation of contracting for offshore services. SunTrust is reported as the 7th largest bank in the U.S. and all of the six larger banks have taken the offshore route. Citigroup, WaMu, B of A, JP Morgan Chase, Wachovia and Wells Fargo have active offshore programs and over the last two years have had significant lay offs.

The Mortgage Meltdown Part 1

The mortgage companies have shown extreme vulnerability to this recent drying up of the availability of instant funding for brokered home mortgages. As I count, 30,000 to 40,000 people have seen their livelihood also dry up. Part 2 will cover the future of the mortgage industry and who the winners will be.

Part One

The widespread closures and layoffs in the mortgage industry is more than just a slow down or a shakeout, it directly points to a flawed business plan. The same question keeps popping up; should a company based on a business model that can not withstand a short term drying up of “borrowed” money survive.

Of course the last ten years have brought home ownership to more Americans than ever before; many of us have been able to buy the American dream using non-conventional loan programs. But the problems in the industry didn’t start with the average home owner, the problem was started by speculation, the belief that you can build and they will come, the belief that what you charge will become the new base line for pricing and the belief that all property will automatically grow in value.

This was the part of the industry that was begging for a shakeout. But as the shakeout continues, some other areas of the mortgage industry that are normally unseen have shown extreme weakness to any tightening of the credit flow.

The party is over. As the promised above average returns dry-up for investors, and the values of the underlying assets diminish, the pools of investor money that was used to fund these mortgages are disappearing and the investors are taking what is left and heading for greener pastures. This part is bad and is causing enormous problems for many, but the overall effect is that all debt instruments are being revalued and the less than squeaky clean are now experiencing massive withdrawals.

This is far from over and what effects it will have on the average Joe and Jane are yet to be seen, but our for those that are suddenly put out of a job, the meltdown has literally hit home.

First Magnus Another Casualty Of The Mortgage Meltdown

Is First Magnus Financial Corporation (FMFC), who is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona back in business? Last week their web-site posted a notice that they where discontinuing their mortgage operation. Today their site has been changed remaking the company into an online mortgage broker.

How many where laid off? From a Cathy Luebke article in The Business Journal of Phoenix FMFC has released 5,000 employees immediately. That info came from an E-mail sent to staff on Thursday. From the E-mail:

"Despite our efforts to continue normal operations, we have come to a point when we must substantially reduce our work force," the Austin email states. "What this means for most of our employees is that Thursday, Aug. 16, 2007, will be your last day of employment. Detailed information regarding payroll, benefits and other human resource related matters will be available as soon as possible."

Besides their wholesale operation, the list of retail offices is sizable.

From an AP article dated Friday FMFC has laid off 99% of their staff or 6,000 people. If it is 5,000 or 6,000 there are a lot of people put out of work with less than a day’s notice.

From the ESRI web-site:

“Starting out as a small retail mortgage bank in 1996 with only a handful of employees, FMFC has grown into the largest privately held mortgage bank in the United States and ranks in the top 20 of the largest mortgage bankers overall.”

NovaStar – When Things Get Tough, The Tough Get Going

NovaStar Financial Inc. announced a staff reduction of 500 and as stated in their August 17, Press Release; CEO and President of their Mortgage lending unit, David Pazgan will also get going.

The company said that 70 of the 545 workers will be released from their headquarters in Kansas City and they will also be closing their wholesale loan origination groups in Independence, Ohio and Lake Forest, California.

Amgen Taking The Downsizing Diet Pill

This announcement comes of the heals of AstraZeneca laying off 10%.

Other CEO’s should be embarrassed by the class that Mr. Sharer has shown in the way he has handled the job cuts at Amgen.

From an article by Luke Timmerman and Angela Zimm on Bloomberg.com Amgen will be “downsizing” 12 to 14 percent:

“Amgen Inc., the world's largest biotechnology company, will slash jobs for the first time in its 27-year history, close plants and cut capital spending in response to declining sales of its top-selling drug, Aranesp.”

Posted in the RumorMill section of Biofind.com was an August 15 memorandum from Kevin Sharer, Chairman of the Board, CEO and President:

“Downsizing is the most difficult thing a company can do. We do not take lightly the need to do this. We have added 13,000 people to Amgen since 2001 and returning to 2006 levels will not be easy.”

At least Mr. Sharer sounded sincere and has given these cuts the importance they deserve, instead of hiding or spinning the devastating effect that the lost jobs have on real people. He also addresses severance issues in his memo:

“Tomorrow, we will announce the details of a voluntary transition program for eligible staff members in the United States. Certain staff members who reach 55 points through a combination of age and service (with a minimum of 5 years service) can apply for a package that is designed to help them transition into an early retirement or to pursue other interests. Approximately 2,300 people meet these eligibility criteria. This program can help those staff make that transition, and it will also reduce the number of staff who will be affected in the overall reduction in headcount. We will also continue our hiring freeze and tightly manage attrition and backfilling of open positions. We expect to complete the restructuring process with a targeted reduction in force.”

The August 15, Press Release: Amgen Restructures Due to Lower Aranesp(R) Revenues While Continuing to Invest in Innovation and Future Growth

To link to the August 16, Video to employees: CEO speaks to staff

Click here for a list of U.S. locations.

Posted as a reply to the memo:

“First to go are the people that were hired from Lilly and Merck during the last five years, start with RF. The downsized bretheren are waiting for them at the gates with iron fists and bats.. A__holes pissed a lot of money down the drains with their zany ideas..”

Sun Micro's Jonathan Schwartz The Genius?

Now that the "no brainer" part has been done; cutting 15% of their workforce and selling off their real estate, can Schwartz deliver.

Sun MicroSystems announced another "restructuring" that will save the company about $150 million a year. Since the company is deliberately vague about giving details on how many or where the cuts will occur, the street estimates that 2,000 jobs will be lost.

From a Barbara Grady article on insideBayArea.com:

"Sun already eliminated 3,700 jobs since Schwartz took over in April 2006. It closed its Newark and Sunnyvale campuses."

"Since there last round of cuts primarily hit the U.S., we can assume that these cuts are also targeting U.S. facilities.

"But in cutting these jobs and real estate costs and boosting sales of its server computers, it tripled its profit margin to 8 percent by its most recent quarter and consequently returned to making money."

From the Boston Business Journal:

"In June, the Boston Business Journal reported that Nordblom Co. acquired Sun Microsystems' Burlington campus for $212 million and planned a remake of 800,000-square-foot property."

"Sun Microsystems said it planned to downsize its presence at the 158-acre campus, which was built in 1998. As part of the sale of the property, Sun Microsystems will remain a tenant but will lease 100,000 square feet less or about 450,000 square feet."

Orange County Mortgage Damage

Mary Ann Milbourn, of The Orange County Register, has been following what is considered ground zero for the lay offs hitting the mortgage industry. To follow her story more closely and/or to view a comprehensive listing, click on her article: UPDATE Orange County mortgage casualties

Many thanks to Ms. Milbourn

Mortgage Industry Producing Lots of Unemployed

I’ve written quite a bit about the nations biggest and best banks sending tens of thousands of jobs overseas; Citigroup 26,500, Washington Mutual 10,000, New Century 6,500 and American Home Mortgage 6,250. But there are hundreds smaller companies involved in the mortgage industry that are closing or belling up to the bankruptcy bar.

Some of the following names haves no numbers attached, Mortgage Lenders Network USA laid off 80% of their staff or 1,440 in January.

So the following is a lists of the ones that I have been able to come across. From The Truth About Mortgage.com:

Aegis Funding – closed
Accredited – rumors of a closure
Acoustic Home Loans – closed
Ameriquest – laid off 3,800, closed 229 retail branches after $325 million settlement
Argent – for sale
Axix Mortgage – closed
Bank of America – continued layoffs, mulling Countrywide merge
Broad Street Mortgage – sold to Wausau Mortgage Corp.
Citigroup – bought ABN AMRO Mortgage Group
Clear Choice Financial – in default, Bankruptcy possible
Concorde Acceptance – rumored to be closed
Countrywide – layoffs, may be bought out by Bank of America
DeepGreen Financial - closed
Decision One – closed six regional centers
E-loan – closed sub-prime wholesale division
ECC Capital/Encore Credit – sold to Bear Stearns
Equibanc - closed
Fieldstone Mortgage – closed Las Vegas branch
Fremont General – exited secondary sub-prime market
FundingAmerica - not accepting any new business
HMIC – closed
Indymac – bought retail arm of New York Mortgage Trust
Lender’s Direct Capital Corporation – closed wholesale lending operations
Loancity – closed 7 branches
Loans 123 – no longer taking anymore business
Mandalay Mortgage – closed
MGIC – bought rival mortgage insurance provider Radian Group
Millenium Bankshares – closed mortgage division
Mortgage Lenders Network – stopped residential loan production
New Century – stock plummeted after announcing huge losses and buybacks
Novastar – facing potentially huge lawsuit
Oak Street Mortgage – closed
Option One – for sale
Own It Mortgage – closed
Popular Financial Holdings - exited the wholesale sub-prime mortgage market
ResMae – for sale
Right Away Mortgage – closed
RFC – layoffs
Rose Mortgage Corp. – closed
Saxon – layoffs
Sebring Mortgage – closed
Secured Funding – closed
Silver State Financial Services – closed
Sovereign Bancorp – exited wholesale market
Summit Mortgage - closed
Wachovia – layoffs
Washington Mutual – exited correspondent market

These lay offs are just in Orange County, CA and was posted by djGT in the forums at DI.FM:
(Updated July 26, 2007. Citigroup and new Impac Mortgage layoffs added.)
Acoustic Home Loans, Orange. Closed in April 2006. Laid off 203 people.
ACC Capital Holdings, Orange. Laid off an estimated 3,000 of the 6,000 employees at its Ameriquest Mortgage Co., Argent Mortgage Co.and AMC Mortgage Serviceson March 15. Reported 1,072 layoffs in Orange County as of June 22 to the EDD. Last year, the companies laid off more than 4,000 people.
BNC Mortgage LLC, Irvine. Reported 94 layoffs to the EDD, effective Aug. 12.
Citigroup Inc., Brea. Reported 77 layoffs to the EDD effective June. 29.
Countrywide Home Loans, Anaheim. Reported 59 layoffs in January to the EDD.
ECC Capital, Irvine. Sold its mortgage operation to Bear Stearns in February but said it would keep its 350 local workers. The company laid off about 600 people nationwide last year.
Express Capital Lending, Newport Beach. Reported 36 layoffs March 30 to the EDD.
Dana Capital Group, Irvine. The lender reportedly closed the first week of May. Layoffs unknown.
Ditech.com, Costa Mesa. Reported 181 layoffs effective July 3 to the EDD.
First NLC Financial Services LLC, Orange. Reported 113 layoffs in March to the EDD.
First Street Financial, Irvine. Ceased operations June 15. Layoffs unknown.
Fremont Investment & Loan, Brea. The company announced March 2 that it was exiting the subprime business after federal regulators issued a proposed cease and desist order. Reported 62 initial layoffs in Anaheim March 5 to the EDD. Additional reported layoffs in Anaheim and Brea brings total to 470 as of Aug. 6.
H&R Block Mortgage Corp., Irvine. Announced 50 layoffs May 17. The company reported additional layoffs effective July 10 bringing the total to 183.
Home Loan Center Inc./Lending Tree Loans, Irvine. Reported 271 layoffs effective July 10 to the EDD.
Homeview Lending Inc., Lake Forest. Reported 21 layoffs March 16 to the EDD.
Impac Mortgage Holdings Inc., Irvine. Announced May 9 that it laid off about 100 people out of about 800 in its workforce nationwide. On July 25, the company said it would lay off an additional 190 workers nationwide, including 43 in Orange County.
IndyMac Bancorp., Irvine. Announced 400 layoffs nationwide July 19 including 20 in Irvine.
Master Financial Inc., Orange. Stopped lending March 14. Reported 50 Orange County layoffs to the EDD.
New Century Financial Corp., Irvine. Filed for bankruptcy April 2. An initial 2,000 workers were laid off nationwide, including nearly 500 in Orange County. The company reported to EDD that as of May 4, it had laid off a total of 1,051 people in its Irvine and Santa Ana offices.
Novastar Mortgage Inc., Lake Forest. Reported 56 layoffs March 16 to the EDD.
Opteum Financial Services, Foothill Ranch. Reported 130 layoffs as of June 23 to the EDD.
Option One, Irvine. Parent company H&R Block said in November that it would sell Option One and close 12 branches, none in Orange County. On May 16, it announced 615 layoffs nationwide, including 133 in Orange County.
People’s Choice Home Loan, Irvine. Filed bankruptcy March 20. Reported 242 layoffs effective May 22 to the EDD.
Quick Loan Funding, Costa Mesa. Owner Daniel Sadek told the Orange County Register in May that the company payroll had shrunk from 700 at its height to about 125 now.
ResMae Mortgage Corp., Brea. Filed bankruptcy Feb. 12, saying it would keep 800 out of 1,037 jobs. Reported 185 layoffs effective May 19 to the EDD.
WMC-GEMB Mortgage Corp., Costa Mesa. Reported 29 layoffs effective May 7 to the EDD.

American Home Mortgage Investment Inc. No Time Wasted

American Home Mortgage Investment Inc. is just the latest in a long list mortgage companies defaulting. They currently have approximately 7,000 employees and will be letting all but 750 go by this Friday (today). The speed at which this happened has caused many investors to start looking at anyone who has the slightest exposure to the mortgage industry.

Monday, July 30th AHM missed a required $95 million payment to RAIT Investment Trust, a Philadelphia mortgage real estate investment trust.

Thursday, August 2nd AHM announced that they were ceasing most of their operations and would need to terminate employment of 6,250 workers.

Thursday the lawsuits started to pile on:
PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 2, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Law Offices Bernard M. Gross, P.C. announced that a class action lawsuit has been commenced in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Civil Action No. 07-3193.
NEW YORK, Aug. 2, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- The law firm of Seeger Weiss LLP announces that it filed a class action lawsuit today in the United States District Court for Eastern District of New York on behalf of purchasers of American Home Mortgage Investment Corporation.
NEW YORK, Aug. 2, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Kirby McInerney & Squire, LLP announces that it has filed a class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York on behalf of all persons who purchased or otherwise acquired the publicly traded securities of American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. ("American Home Mortgage" or the "Company") (Nasdaq:AHM) between April 26, 2006 and July 30, 2007, inclusive.

RAIT Investment Trust wasn’t left out of the fun:
PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 1, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Law Offices Bernard M. Gross, P.C. today announced that a class action lawsuit has been commenced in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on behalf of purchasers of the securities of RAIT Financial Trust ("RAIT" or the "Company") (NYSE:RAS) between January 10, 2007 and July 31, 2007.

Friday, August, 3 AHM leaves the mortgage industry keeping only it’s S & L portion alive to maintain the companies remaining assets.

So far all the bad news has been confined to the subprime part of the mortgage market. AHM specialized in Alt-A’s, not subprime loans and are considered less risky than subprime. The unfolding of AHM illustrates just how precarious the existence is of any company that requires borrowed funds to operate on.

It’s interesting how AHM describes there business in the Investors Section of their website:

"American Home Mortgage Investment Corp.'s primary goals in managing its portfolio are to gain yield through the benefit of self-origination, and otherwise seek to reduce risk. The Company attempts to minimize the risks associated with holding a leveraged portfolio of securitized loans held for investment by approximately matching the duration of its securitized loans held for investment with the duration of the liabilities the Company utilizes to finance those loans. The Company further seeks to mitigate risk by investing primarily in adjustable-rate mortgage ("ARM") and hybrid-ARM securitized loans."

American Axle Moving More Jobs Out Of The U.S.

From a Buffalo News Business article by Fred O. Williams: “American Axle & Manufacturing confirmed plans to idle the company’s 734-job Buffalo plant — formerly the city’s largest source of factory jobs…”

What was interesting was the openness that Chief Executive Richard Dauch discussed the offshoring of U.S. jobs: “Seventy-five percent of new business backlog is sourced to non-U.S. facilities,”

From the article:

“The new orders will go to plants in Guanajuato, Mexico; Changshu, China; Araucaria, Brazil; and Olawa, Poland, he said. The business may also lead to construction of other non-U.S. plants.”

“The company said that costs at U.S. plants remain high, despite a buyout that erased 1,500 production jobs nationally”

‘“If you keep doing that, in America we’re going to be working for poverty wages,” said the man, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of some form of retribution.’

‘“Our profits are coming from overseas,” Chief Financial Officer Michael Simonte said during the conference call.’

California Sending DMV Data To Mexico

From a Peggy Lowe article in the Orange County Register:

“Orange County's Superior Court contracts with a company that uses workers in Nogales, Mexico, to do the data entry of traffic tickets, a revelation on Thursday that outraged many who fear personal information is leaving the country.”

The individual courts have the authority to contract out the services that they oversee. And the workers in Nogales, Mexico that do the data entry of traffic tickets, have national felony background checks and they are also certified by the Sonoran State Police.

But if the confidential personal DMV data is compromised, what recourse do the courts really have against the company. Once the damage is done, hundreds or thousands of identities could be stolen with millions of dollars of damage done.

Do we trust the Mexican police to keep millions of dollars of our personnel data safe?

J & J – Little Info On Where Their 4,800 Lay Offs Occur

In a July 31st Press Release, Johnson & Johnson stated: “These actions we are taking to improve our cost structure will enable us to continue investing for future growth and profitability.”

The Press Release also states that most of the “savings” will happen in their pharmaceutical section. From their List of Companies the company seems to have their largest presence in Delaware and New Jersey.

They also plan to streamline human resources, finance and information technology.

Please forward any specifics to me.

Amkor Tech Packaging Up The Few U.S. Jobs Left

Amkor Technology is the world’s second largest contract chip packager. With 22,000 employees that work in 15 factories around the world, they are now releasing 150 out of 270 workers in their last U.S. factory. Located in North Carolina’s Research Triangle.

From an Amanda Jones Hoyle article in the Triangle Business Journal:

“The remaining 120 Triangle employees, mostly engineering staff, will focus on research and development. The RTP facility is Amkor's only remaining manufacturing plant in the United States.”

“The company acquired RTP-based Unitive and its Taiwan-based sister company, Unitive Semiconductor Taiwan Corp., in 2004. Its operations in Morrisville and on Cornwallis Road in RTP are what remain of Unitive, a company that was honored as the "North Carolina electronics company of the year" in 2003 by what is now called the North Carolina Chamber.”