Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Major Job Cut Announcements Hit Kansas City Area

Last month we said good-bye to an economically dismal 2008 and held out hope for a better 2009.
Well, so far the economic news in 2009 has been far from hopeful. Perhaps the worst news, at least locally, came yesterday as Sprint-Nextel announced plans to eliminate 8,000 jobs by the end of March. Sprint was not alone in delivering gloomy news yesterday, as Caterpillar, Pfizer, Home Depot and ING also announced significant layoffs. So far this year more than 200,000 job cuts have been announced nationwide.
According to The Kansas City Star, about 2,000 of the jobs Sprint eliminates will be in the Kansas City area.
Speaking of Kansas City employment, the Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released data showing a loss of 8,900 jobs in the Kansas City area between November 2007 and November 2008. The Missouri side of the region accounted for 4,900 of those lost jobs, while 4,000 were on the Kansas side. Most of the job loss occurred in the Construction, Manufacturing and Trade, Transportation and Utilities sectors. Education and Health Service saw modest gains. For details, see the BLS news release.

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