Layoff Tracker

The owner of Burnaby’s biggest mall has laid off about 50 people, as it continues efforts to turn around the performance of its shopping centres. Ivanhoe Cambridge, which owns Metropolis at Metrotown, said its latest restructuring in five months will affect seven Quebec employees and about 43 elsewhere in Canada. Six positions are being added in Quebec elsewhere at Ivanhoe. Read more at Castanet

Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises has informed state officials that it may lay off as many as 1,045 workers from 25 of its restaurants in Chicago and its suburbs. The news was made public last week by Illinois officials via its monthly WARN reports, a state summary of potential mass layoffs. COVID-19 was marked as the reason for the layoffs at each restaurant. Read more at Eater Chicago

Atlantic City's top casino is laying off or cutting the hours of 422 workers in what it says is a direct reaction to strict new indoor dining limits imposed by Gov. Phil Murphy. The Borgata sent a letter to workers Friday afternoon outlining the cuts. Casino president Melonie Johnson said the cuts were in response to limits that took effect Thursday night under which indoor dining must halt from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. The casino is laying off 73 workers and reducing the hours of 349 others. Read more at Fox29

The Frankfurt Book Fair, which employees a robust staff year-round, announced “a restructuring program for its operating company” that will include both layoffs and organizational changes. “It is already clear that the existing structures are to be streamlined, for example by merging departments. This will also involve job cuts,” they said in a statement. Read more at Publishers Marketplace

Strategic Property Partners, the developer of Water Street Tampa, said Friday that it was laying off some of its staff and is moving its chief executive to a new role. The company said the changes were prompted by several buildings nearing completion in its first phase of development, which was its “largest and most intensive phase, representing a total investment to date of approximately $2 billion across 10 distinct new buildings.” Read more at Tampa Bay

Last month, the Walt Disney Co. revealed it was laying off 28,000 employees across its U.S. theme parks division, but the company wouldn’t break down exactly where the cuts were coming: Disneyland or Disney World? New federally required government filings give more insight: Orlando’s numbers are much higher than California, where Disneyland remains closed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Nearly 18,000 people are getting laid off in Florida, according to the report, or nearly a quarter of the resort’s Orlando workforce of 77,000 a year ago. Read more at Orlando Sentinel

Epiphany Farms Restaurant Group in Bloomington laid off more than 80 people Friday. Three of its four restaurants are effectively closed. Co-owner Ken Myszka said takeout will continue from Anju Above, with some menu items from the flagship restaurant Epiphany Farms in downtown Bloomington. Bakery and Pickle in Bloomington closed earlier this year. The Old Bank Inn in LeRoy closed early in the year, reopened and served outdoors and takeout through the summer, but has closed again at least until next spring. Read more at WGLT

The transit district that runs the Golden Gate Bridge, buses and ferries decided Friday to lay off 146 employees, mostly bus drivers, rather than pursuing an option to raise tolls on the bridge as it grapples with a looming budget crisis. The board of the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District voted 11-5 for the cuts, postponing them from Dec. 5 as originally proposed to Jan. 4 after the holidays. The district chose to make the cuts as it runs out of federal emergency funds at the end of this month that it has largely been using to pay its employees. The district needs to fill a $48 million shortfall this fiscal year. Read more at SF Chronicle

More than 100 workers will be permanently laid off at Liberty Steel in Georgetown by the end of the year. All employee separations are expected to occur by Dec. 28 according to a letter from the corporation. Read more at WPDE

ESPN is shutting down its esports division - a victim of the recent round of layoffs, and a bit of a backing off from a hot sports/gaming convergence area. The division will no longer publish news and its social media will go dark in coming days, SBJ Daily says. Read more at Seeking Alpha

The latest round of layoffs in Illinois means thousands of lost jobs in restaurants, hotels and other hospitality businesses. According to WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) notices issued Oct. 31, an additional 3,468 jobs are being cut, including more than 80 additional layoffs at companies previously hit by job cuts. Most of the cuts involve Chicago-area restaurants. Read more at Patch

WarnerMedia will be facing a series of heavy layoffs as the company begins to consolidate its disparate branches into one larger entity. “Today, we have arrived at a number of difficult decisions that are resulting in a smaller WarnerMedia team. This is a function of removing layers and the impact of consolidating previously separate organizations. Starting today in North America, we will be sharing which jobs are being eliminated and which roles have changed.” These were the words of WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar in an email sent throughout the company. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, WarnerMedia is looking to cut costs by about 20%, which involves potential layoff numbers in the thousands. While sources indicate that the actual final result will not be as severe as reported, but will still affect around 5-7% of the workforce. Since the company's acquisition by AT&T, the restructuring aims to bring Warner Bros., HBO and Turner Broadcasting, which were once largely autono...

Seasonal layoffs in restaurants, lodging and construction drove an increase in new jobless claims last week, the Maine Department of Labor said Thursday. There were about 2,300 initial claims filed for state unemployment insurance and another 300 initial claims filed through the federal pandemic unemployment assistance program. In total, nearly 43,000 Mainers are receiving continuing aid through state and federal jobless programs. Read more at Bangor Daily News

  ABC12 first reported the closure of the Globe Fire Sprinkler factory Wednesday at 11:00. Some of its dozens of workers will be offered positions elsewhere while others will get buyouts. Mason told ABC 12 the writing’s been on the wall since a buyout around a year ago. Expected or not, more than 150 people work inside the company’s facility in Standish, which makes Globe one of the area’s top five employers. Its closure will be a significant blow to the local economy. “I think everybody knew that,” Mason related. “I mean, it doesn’t make it hurt any less.” Read more at ABC12

Cleveland radio has been impacted once again by layoffs at iHeartMedia. The nation’s largest owner of radio stations began notifying affected employees last week. The list includes on- and off-air staffers at stations in Cleveland, Akron and Canton. Corey Roetic, a nighttime host on WMMS 100.7, was among those let go. Read more at Cleveland

Wright State University will begin the process of laying off some of their faculty workforce, said the school Thursday. According to school officials, the university is in the early stages of the layoff process and do not know who will be layoff or how many. “More information won’t be available until the process plays out,” said Wright State’s President Sue Edwards. Read more at Whio

French food services and facilities management company Sodexo, headquartered in the Paris suburb of Issy-les-Moulineaux — also alerted to layoffs.  In correspondence to the Texas Workforce Commission, the company blamed the economic impact spurred by the pandemic as the reason for imminent layoffs of 80 local workers. Read more at Patch

Officials at Alorica , a California-based company providing outsourced customer service operations, alerted the Texas Workforce Commission of plans to permanently close its entire Austin site located at 7401 E. Ben White Blvd. by Dec. 31 — a move that will result in 712 job cuts.  Patch requested correspondence sent to regulators in compliance with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, a federal labor law compelling companies with at least 100 workers to provide a 60-day advance notice of plant closings and layoffs. Read more at Patch

The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment benefits fell last week to 709,000, a still-high level but the lowest figure since March and a further sign that the job market might be slowly healing.  Yet the improvement will be put at risk by the sharp resurgence in confirmed viral infections to an all-time high well above 120,000 a day. Cases are rising in 49 states, and deaths are increasing in 39. The nation has now recorded 240,000 virus-related deaths and 10.3 million confirmed infections.  Read more at NBC29