Per the New York Times, bad news symptomatic of low returns this winter continues to pour in on the retail front. Joining Macy’s, JC Penney, and Sears, Walmart announced on Friday that it will be closing 269 stores, 154 of which are in the United States (102 of these are Walmart Express stores). As many as 10,000 domestic employees and 6,000 empoyees abroad could lose their jobs. Weak holiday sales are not just attributable to warmer weather but also a notable shift in the way consumers prefer to shop – Amazon and other online merchants continue to enjoy substantial sales even despite the warm weather. The stores are scheduled to shut down by the end of January.
The NYT reports that Morgan Stanley is pushing forward with its plan to lay off hundreds of employees from its fixed-income division (bond and commodity desks). On Thursday, the firm announced that it will be making changes to the division’s managemant ranks. Since 2010, the firm has run through four different leadership teams in the division with little success.
The Wall Street Journal’s Robert Litan adds to the conversation about wage insurance inspired by Obama’s brief reference to the idea in his State of the Union address. In his view, such a safety net system has potential to attract bipartisan support – Democrats worried about falling incomes triggered by unemployment would view this as an effective way to subsidize those cornered into taking jobs that pay less than their previous positions while Republicans would appreciate the resultant decrease in unemployment costs (wage insurance would only kick in when those who are unemployed obtain another job).
Boston.com highlights General Electric’s announcement that it will be relocating its headquarters from Fairfield, Connecticut to Boston, Massachusetts, bringing about 800 employees with it. GE is currently looking to fill about 33 open positions in Boston (mostly software engineering and product management).
Daily News & Commentary
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September 16
In today’s news and commentary, the NLRB sues New York, a flight attendant sues United, and the Third Circuit considers the employment status of Uber drivers The NLRB sued New York to block a new law that would grant the state authority over private-sector labor disputes. As reported on recently by Finlay, the law, which […]
September 15
Unemployment claims rise; a federal court hands victory to government employees union; and employers fire workers over social media posts.
September 14
Workers at Boeing reject the company’s third contract proposal; NLRB Acting General Counsel William Cohen plans to sue New York over the state’s trigger bill; Air Canada flight attendants reject a tentative contract.
September 12
Zohran Mamdani calls on FIFA to end dynamic pricing for the World Cup; the San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement opens a probe into Scale AI’s labor practices; and union members organize immigration defense trainings.
September 11
California rideshare deal advances; Boeing reaches tentative agreement with union; FTC scrutinizes healthcare noncompetes.
September 10
A federal judge denies a motion by the Trump Administration to dismiss a lawsuit led by the American Federation of Government Employees against President Trump for his mass layoffs of federal workers; the Supreme Court grants a stay on a federal district court order that originally barred ICE agents from questioning and detaining individuals based on their presence at a particular location, the type of work they do, their race or ethnicity, and their accent while speaking English or Spanish; and a hospital seeks to limit OSHA's ability to cite employers for failing to halt workplace violence without a specific regulation in place.