Yesterday, troubled brokerage MF Global fired its 1,066 employees in the broker-dealer operations as the bankrupt firm tries to find $600 million in investor funds that have essentially disappeared. And apparently some employees found out they were canned from the media. more ›

Because firing people on a Friday leaves less chance for an "incident," 672 city school employees were let go yesterday in the single largest layoff since Mayor Bloomberg took office. All were school aides, parent coordinators, or family workers that acted as liaisons between teachers and the families of students, and were fired due to tightened budgets. According to the Times, the workers "are among the city's lowest paid," with school aides making $14 an hour and parent coordinators working for a $35,000 salary, or what it costs to wallpaper one of the mayor's dining rooms. more ›

In a conference with investors earlier today, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan announced that the company would cut $5 billion in annual costs by the year 2014. This means that the bank will lay off "at least" 30,000 jobs out of BOA's 288,000 current employees. "It's taking out work we don't need to do any more, and getting it out of the company," Moynihan tells the Times. The layoffs will occur over the next few years, giving BOA employees on the chopping block plenty of time to steal as many office supplies that they possibly can. more ›

We know that New Yorkers are a bunch of slobbering salt monsters who can strip the crystals off a Super Pretzel faster than you can say "hypertension." But don't prisoners deserve a modicum of salt to take the pain away of you know, being in prison? Mayor Bloomberg apparently disagrees: buried in his much decried budget is a provision that would slash $350K from the Corrections Department's food budget, the Daily News reports. Can't we give the salt demonizing a rest since it doesn't even give you heart disease? more ›

No one is happy with Mayor Bloomberg's 2012 Fiscal Year budget, a $65.7 billion plan that will involve 5,400 city layoffs—4,100 of them coming from the ranks of teachers (a 5% reduction in city teachers). A Brooklyn teacher whose job is threatened told the Daily News, "I'm really disappointed. With the population increases, I can't imagine what class sizes are going to be next year... The most vulnerable children will be hurt the most." For his part, Bloomberg blamed a lot of the mess on Albany and Washington D.C. more ›

2011 continues to be the Year of the Tightening Belt, as Mayor Bloomberg announced yesterday that city agencies will be forced to cut 2% of their yearly funding to plug a $600 million hole in the budget. more ›

MTA head Jay Walder says that despite a proposed $100 million budget cut to the Authority, he does not want to pass the burden onto customers. “We will not look to service cuts and we will not look to fare increases. We will look, as we have been doing, for ways that we can continue to reduce our cost structure," he said in front of the state budget committee in Albany yesterday. Of course, that pretty much leaves layoffs as the most obvious way to cut costs, and he didn't rule out that option: "Well we've said and I'll continue to say is that we’re working on a plan right now to be able to deal with that." more ›

Mayor Bloomberg's "bleak budget," to be announced today, will include laying off 4,666 teachers. According to the NY Times, "The mayor, according to a preview of his budget released on Wednesday, will threaten to eliminate 6,166 teaching positions in total: 4,666 through layoffs and 1,500 through attrition. That would reduce the 75,000-person teaching force by 8 percent, and it would be the first time the city has laid off significant numbers of teachers since the 1970s." more ›

With Gov. Cuomo's first budget proposal since taking office imminent, Mayor Bloomberg announced yesterday that city schools could be facing a $1 billion budget cut, which could spell massive teacher layoffs. On his WOR radio show yesterday, he raised the specter that as many as 21,000 teachers could lose their jobs this year: "Scuttlebutt is that the education budget will be cut statewide, and New York City's share of that would be a billion-dollar cut." more ›

Governor Andrew Cuomo has confirmed that he's planning big state worker layoffs. The NY Times' sources had suggested there would be 15,000 layoffs, Wall Street Journal put the number at over 10,000, but Andy's not talking. All he said today was, "The chickens are coming home to roost. So the state is in really dire financial shape, and we’re going to have to make corrections. We shouldn’t have been doing this for years, by the way — we’ve been spending too much money for years." more ›

A day after announcing $1.6 billion in budget cuts that include thousands of layoffs, Mayor Bloomberg said that there's still going to be a $2.4 billion deficit for the following fiscal year...which means residents (and city employees) should expect to feel the crunch. He said on John Gambling's radio show," Somehow, in January, we've got to come up with $2 billion more in tax revenues, fee revenues, that sort of thing, or cuts, or what's more likely is some combination." Correction officers union head Norman Seabrook told the Post about his idea for raising money: A tax for tourists coming to NYC, "There's only one New York. Where else are they going to go?" more ›

Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg announced that he teamed up with Spider-Man, er, Marvel Comics, to produce a free comic telling unemployed New Yorkers about the city's resources to help them find jobs. Hopefully City Hall has some extra copies, because Bloomberg unveiled about $1 billion in job cuts—thousands of positions are being eliminated—and other cost savings measures. more ›

Governor Paterson announced today that he'll be laying off 898 state workers by the end of 2010, in order to reduce the state's work force and save $250 million (the state plans to decrease the work force overall by 2,000). And Paterson laid the blame on unions, for not accepting pay lags or furloughs, "I'm not proud of that, but that is significant progress in trying to make sure there is a shared sacrifice in the deficit reduction and in an attempt to keep our budget balanced. I know that I'll get blamed, and I'll accept it, but the people in the leadership of the public employee unions know that they escorted me here." more ›

Yesterday, the NY State budget director issued a memo to stage agency heads, telling them to start firing, "Despite our best efforts the state is falling short of its financial plan targets... You will be given the discretion to use layoffs as a part of this reduction in work force." The memo also said, "We must acknowledge the continued weakness in the overall economy and in state revenue. It is our responsibility and imperative to achieve greater efficiencies in all aspects of our operations, including the work force." However, the Civil Service Employees Association union says the state promised not to lay off employees. more ›

Could the power of the media be working its magic for the everyman too? Back in July, two sergeants who were laid off from the MTA while they were overseas managed to get their jobs back, and now the MTA has rehired about one third of the drivers they laid off earlier this year. J.P. Patafio, an official with Transport Workers Union Local 100, told the Daily News, "It's good to see people back to work, especially with this economy. We never understood why they were laid off to begin with." It was to save $500 million. more ›

Financial forecaster Meredith Whitney expects Wall Street to see massive layoffs in the coming months. She states that firms will be seeing up to 80,000 job losses, a number that translates to 10% of the current payrolls. She also says that increasing costs coupled with lower revenues will act like a catalyst, hurrying the process of layoffs along. A rough timeline of events that she gives is "dramatically" reduced pay by the year's end followed by a bevy of layoffs in 2011. Given what we learned about Wall Street employees and tall buildings during the Great Depression in history class, we hope that this news doesn't boost these stats. more ›

Today, over 200 MTA workers are turning in their work badges to comply with the agency's layoffs. The Transit Workers Union, which is planning a mass protest today, says that 202 workers are turning in their IDs today (WABC 7 reports 194 are station agents). The MTA issued the layoffs to deal with its huge deficit. TWU president John Samuelson told NY1, "Our members that lost their health insurance, we just came up with a plan within ourselves and we all kicked in $10 a pay period just to keep our 3,500 members that are laid off with health insurance all right. It shows you the fortitude of our membership and it was done in a very quick motion." more ›

Last month, it was reported that MTA Chairman Jay Walder had purchased a $1.6 million condo at Central Park West and 96th Street. The three-bedroom abode is near five subways (the B/C and 1/2/3), not to mention a number of buses, which makes it easy for Transit Workers Union members to protest! TWU Local 100 president John Samuelson told the Daily News that Walder's pricey home, high salary and vacation home in France "demonstrates he's a rich elitist completely out of touch with New York City transit workers and riders." more ›

As the MTA sets out to trim its ranks as a money-saving measure, it's the usual suspects in our cynical world who are getting shafted: the middle and lower-level employees. According to the Daily News, out of the 200 employees earning between $100,000 and $350,000, only five got the axe in the MTA's most recent administrative purge, while 22 employees making $55,000 or less, including seven secretaries, were fired. more ›

The story reads like a Bruce Springsteen song: hardworking Americans sent to fight for their country, only to come back and find they don't have jobs. That happened to Sgts. Alvin Taylor and Anddy (Angel) Moreno, who both lost their jobs as bus drivers when the MTA began downsizing. TWU Local 100 President John Samuelsen called the layoffs "despicable." He told the Daily News, "[The MTA] should honor their military service and not lay them off." more ›

Last month, the MTA laid off hundreds of station agents, as part of its cost saving measures, only for a judge to block the decision. Now, a judge has ruled that the agency "violated the law when it closed booths and laid off about 260 agents last month without holding public hearings," according to City Room. more ›

Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg announced that the city would save 4,400 teachers slated to be laid off (due to budget issues) by canceling their raises. At first, United Federation of Teachers union president Michael Mulgrew objected to the news, saying the mayor doesn't have the power to freeze pay, but he later said, "We're very happy that 4,400 members will not be getting layoff notices," adding, "But we haven't agreed to anything. We have got to stay focused on getting money from Albany and Washington, D.C." more ›

After Mayor Bloomberg warned that the city's dire budget situation might force 4,400 teachers to be laid off, he announced today that he would move to block teachers' and principals raises in order to save some of the jobs. However, United Federation of Teachers president Michael Mulgrew said the mayor doesn't have that power, "He does not have the power to unilaterally decide on the teachers’ contract, and we have reached no agreement on his proposal to freeze teacher pay." more ›

Backing down from the furlough plan, Governor Paterson announced he is creating a plan that would lay off thousands of state government workers, just like the Lt. Governor warned. He will be asking agencies to pick positions that could be eliminated on January 1st—the day his no layoffs pledge expires. Paterson said, "It's the only way we're going to get $250 million in work force reductions from public employees...The reality is right now it takes a long period of time to schedule the layoffs. I want this ready to go for the next governor." more ›

Because of some tricky wording in the restraining order, the MTA is will still lay off 250 station agents next week. The restraining order against the MTA orders them to keep 42 station booths open, but has no language requiring them to keep all 475 potentially unemployed station agents from getting the ax. The MTA announced yesterday that 250 of the station agents "are not required to keep those subway booths open, and those layoffs are now scheduled for next week." The layoffs would save the MTA $21 million, but could mean more crime in unsupervised stations. more ›

Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg revealed his "bleak," $62.9 billion budget which includes laying off 11,000 workers, closing fire companies, senior centers and pools and no new tax increases. And he laid much of the blame upstate, "We face a terrible price for Albany’s irresponsibility," accused the state government of "starving" the city, and added, "I will remind everybody who, unfortunately, may lose their jobs that it is because of Albany's fiscal irresponsibility." more ›

A judge has issued a restraining order preventing the MTA from laying off 475 token booth clerks (also known as station agents) last night. According to the Daily News, "union lawyers argued the Metropolitan Transportation Authority failed to follow legally required steps like holding additional public hearings." Originally, the workers were supposed to go to a training center today to turn in their badges. more ›

As part of its cuts, the MTA recently mailed out nearly 500 layoff letters to station agents across the city, calling for agents to turn in their badges and uniforms and to attend an "exit session" before the layoffs become official. The layoffs will go into effect on Friday, causing about 70 station booths to close but it will save the MTA $21 million a year. Booth clerk Jhesky Vega, who worked his last shift on Wednesday, told the Daily News, "I'm feeling lost and dazed. I'm walking around like a zombie." more ›

St. Vincent's hospital officially closed at 8 a.m. today after a morning mass in the hospital chapel and a barbecue in the cafeteria. The closing has left 3,500 workers out of jobs and with few new prospects. One 56-year-old EMT told the Daily News, "This is a young man or young woman's job. I don't know what I'll do next." The workers are also worried about the health of the neighborhood. Ambulances have already been diverted across town to Beth Israel for many emergencies, and the FDNY said they would boost ambulance coverage by 15% on the West Side, but former employees say the services are still stretched too thin. more ›