Layoffs Looming for Many Workers. Are You One of Them?

Job losses continue to make headlines in all parts of the country, including here in Los Angeles. While there is hope that 2009 will show fewer layoffs than 2008, employees of major corporations, and smaller businesses alike in California are still finding themselves out of work, and our unemployment rate is now 9.3%.

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) law in California "requires certain companies with more than 75 employees to provide 60 days advance notice of a plant closing or mass layoff involving 50 or more employees," explains the Mercury-News. They've published a searchable database of companies posting layoffs in '08-'09.

Positions in industries like technology and the internet, medical and pharmaceuticals, banking, and airline are the ones that appear to be most vulnerable, with large layoffs looming at companies like Yahoo!, JP Morgan Chase, American Airlines, and United Airlines already listed. Of course, tough times haven't just hit businesses, they've also hit the state, who began borrowing money two days ago from the US government to pay out California's unemployment claims when our own trust ran out.

To see if your employer is prepping pink slips, enter your company name and location into the database search fields.