Region weathers job losses - Philadelphia Business Journal:

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Nationally, initial jobless claims last week increased to the highest levelsince 1982.U.S. employers cut 533,000 jobs in according to the U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor which said the figure is the largesgt loss of jobs in one monthsince 602,00 vanished in December 1974. It puts the nation’x unemployment rate at 6.7 In October, the most recent monthj for which local figuresare available, the region had an unemploymentt rate of 5.7 percent, 0.8 percentage points below the then-national rate of 6.
5 percent, the BLS One measure of job loss in New Jersegy and Pennsylvania is the number of employeews listed in notices filed under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, Act, which requires most employerws with 100 or more workers to give workers and loca and state governments 60 days notice of plannes plant closings or mass So far this year, 35 companies in the five-county Philadelphia area have filef WARN notices covering 4,210 workers with the state.
That comparez to 38 companies warningabout 4,480 job cuts by this time last In Burlington, Camden and Glouceste counties, 14 companies have filexd notices affecting 2,540 workers with the New Jerseu Department of Labor and Workforce Development, comparedx to only eight companies warning of 781 job lossee over all of last year. Companies that have major operations in the area have implementeds or announced atleasyt 19,500 job cuts, including more than 1,600 in the this year. The vast majority come from four largewpharmaceutical companies, which plan to shed 14,009 jobs. of Berwyn announced just Wednesday it woul d layoff 2,500, but didn’t say how many wouldd be local.
The cuts also include 900 loca jobs byWest Chester-based ; 190 jobs by Wayne-baseed recruiting software company , which didn’tg specify location; and 150 by the National Football which include a yet-to-be-determined number in Mount N.J. One reason the region seems to be faringy better than the nation as a wholed is its strength in the educatiohn and healthservices sector. It’s the area’s second largesty of 10 sectors, with 18.1 percent of the according to SelectGreater Philadelphia, whicb promotes the region to businesses.
Only two of the five broadf sectors delineated in the nationwidd BLS release gained jobs inNovembet — education and health which added 52,000; and government, which added “I used to say the Philadelphia regiob suffered from negative if industries would have a problem, it alwaye seemed that it was industries we had. In this case and in this the exact opposite seem to bethe case,” said Joel Naroff, chief economisy for . In education, the area’s colleges and universities haven’t announced any layoffs, although has implementer a hiring freeze and the has put in placesomethingh that’s quite close to one.
Big Pharma, big cuts In healty care, the pharmaceutical industry has been hit hardest by job Four big pharmaceutical companies with large operations in theregion Wyeth, plc, plc and — this year have announced plan s to shed more than 14,000 jobs throughb layoffs and not filling vacancies over the next few Wyeth of Madison, N.J., which has the headquarters for its pharmaceutical operations in Collegeville, said 360 Pennsylvaniqa jobs have been eliminated this year. AstraZeneca, whicgh is based in Londobn and hasits U.S. headquarters in said most of its layoffs occurrer outside of theUnited States. Merck of Whitehouse N.J., and GSK, whicnh has its U.S.
headquarters in Research Triangle Park, N.C., wouldn’ft say how many localo jobs theyare cutting. As city makees cuts, retail shrinks Although the government sector added jobs the city ofPhiladelphia wasn’t so lucky. It planws to lay off 220 employees and eliminater nearly 600unfilled positions, more than 1,660o seasonal part-time jobs and about 570 contractual, non-city jobs. Government is the fourthb largest sector inthe area, with 13.9 percent of the region’zs jobs. The largest sector is trade, transportation and which makeup 18.8 percen t of the region’s jobs.
It includes wholesalers and retailers, the latter of whicu have cut positions in the The biggest retail blow came in Augustwhen ’sx Department Store LLC of Reading closed its stores in the Oxforde Valley and Montgomery Malls, which employed 135 and 146, Tweeter, the Canton, Mass., electronics retailer that file d for bankruptcy reorganization last liquidated six area stores that employer 96 earlier this month. The professionalk and businessservices sector, whicbh is the area’s third largesgt with 14.9 percent of workers, has faredc relatively well so far.