BOOMERS

"Work Ethic"

Dear Ann:  A while back, a reader from Topeka said we
have to develop a better work ethic in this country.  I've got 
news for Topeka.  We had a fine work ethic in this coutry.  
It was murdered in the '80s and '90s by thousands of layoffs 
caused by greedy corporate raiders piling up debt on
companies
in order to make a quick killing.  Solvent companies laid off
hundreds of workers just to fatten up their bottom lines so 
that Wall Street would bid up their stocks.
Why should anybody give their best effort on the job?  No 
one cares about the worker anymore.  Growing up in the
'60s, we were taught that giving your best would always 
ensure your employment. That's baloney.  It's all a matter of
random chance whether or not your job continues.  This is
why there's no work ethic in this country.
                -Disgusted in Merrick, N.Y.
                S.J. Mercury News; 2-13-98


"Layoffs leaped in January"

       Job cuts soared to 72,193 in January up 24 percent 
from December and 66 percent from January 1997, the
outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. said. 
Nearly 40 percent of last month's cuts were at AT&T Corp. 
and Seagate Technology Inc. of Scotts Valley.  Over the last
four months, the number of layoffs announced has averaged 
about 56,000, compared with an average 36,000 for all of 
1997.  The report came on the same day the government 
said new claims for unemployment benefits edged up by 
3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 303,000 in the last of 
January.[B961]
                S.J. Mercury News       2-6-98.


"Learning and earning collide in high-tech America"

An over-50 engineer in Silicon Valley asked me last week 
how  the U.S. government can claim that a shortage of 
high-tech workers requires a massive education initiative,
when companies won't give him a chance to learn the skills
he needs.
His plight shows that the debate over whether the United 
States can supply enough high-technology workers to meet
demands of the labor market potentially affects all of us.  
Despite the rosy economic picture and the very low un-
employment rate, there's a tension between companies 
and employees that is unresolved, and it revolves around 
company investment in employee development.  After the 
massive downsizing and renewed growth of the past decade, 
we still have not arrived at a conventional wisdom over how
much organizations will invest in training and re-training their
employees.
In order to avoid the traps:
 
-You must keep learning.
-Some companies fell less able to invest in employee 
development than in the past.  Because organizations have 
gone through such pain to become leaner and more agile.
-The basis for a continuing relationship between workers and 
companies is being redefined. 

        By John Epperheimer; S.J. Mercury News 2-13-98


"A gentler pink slip"

-National trend
Still, the push toward gentler severance has been picked up 
nationally.  In 1996, companies tracked by Challenger, Gray 
& Christmas, and outplacement firm based in Chicago, gave 
workers who were being laid off severance pay worth an average 
of 12.75 weeks' salary.  Last year, that figure soared to 21.75
weeks.

-Voluntary retirements
-Shrinking to fit at AT&T:  AT&T has announced five rounds of 
job cuts in less than five years attempting to streamline its 
operations.
Date          Job-cut   # of employees, Jan.    Charge taken 
Announced      goal     1 of each year           in billions    

Aug. '93      4,000         313,000              No charge
Feb. '94      15,000        309,000              No charge
Sept.'95      8,500         302,000              $1.6*
Jan. '96      40,000        301,000              $6.0*
Jan. '98      18,000        128,000              $1.0 (estimated)

* Total charge includes restructuring and consolidation.
source AT&T  New York Times
        
- AT&T tries techniques for less-painful layoffs
- "Companies are recognizing that they run a real risk of
losing the good will of the employees who remain."  

John A. Challenger
                S.J. Mercury News 2-13-98  



1400 layoffs at National Semi-conductor, most are
local employees including 160 from the old 
manufacturing factory.

4/22/98.


"Help Wanted"

One of the loudest laments heard around Silicon Valley these 
days is that it's harder than ever to find good help.  As 
difficult as it may be for major corporations to hire all 
the engineers and middle managers they need, however, they 
are largely able to buy their way out of the problem.
So, who's suffering most?  The small businesses struggling 
to compete.
More jobs than ever:  annual job totals in major high-tech 
sectors in Santa Clara County have grown steadily for the 
past several years.

Computer Hardware:                   	 '92  47,000 jobs
		                    	 '97  52,000 jobs

Semiconductors and related devices:	 '92  69,000 jobs
				  '97  84,000 jobs

Software and business services:     	  '92  65,000 jobs
				  '97  121,000 jobs
	S.J. Mercury News 3-8-98


"Nike loses its footing 2nd straight quarter as profit 
plunges 69%"   
Shoe, apparel maker will lay off 1,600 of its 22,000 workers.

Also... 3Com Corp. said it will lay off 380 workers at 
two Chicago area plants and replace a top Illinois executive 
as the company struggles with product lines acquired in its 
1997 purchase of U.S. Robotics Corp.

		S. J. Mercury News 3-19-98


"2 huge S&Ls to Merge"

Banking powerhouse:  Washington Mutual to buy H.F. Ahmanson 
for $9.9 billion. 
		S. J. Mercury News 3-18-98

Nation Bank and Bank of America are merging, making it one of
the biggest.

NEW YORK (AP) - BankAmerica Corp. has agreed to merge with 
NationsBank Corp. to create the biggest bank in the nation 
with $570 billion in assets, The Wall Street Journal has 
reported. The merger, valued at about $60 billion, would 
bring the combined banks to 24 states and Washington with 
nearly 5,000 branches and about 15,000 automated-teller 
machines, the paper reported Sunday on its Web site. A 
second deal reported by the New York Times would create the 
fifth-largest banking company in terms of assets by combining 
Bank One Corp. with First Chicago NBD Corp., a merger that 
would be dominant in the Midwest.

AP-NY-04-13-98 0320EDT and CNN 4-14-98

BankAmerica,  NationsBank strike  deal

First Chicago, Banc One also link

A week after Citicorp and Travelers
shocked the world by agreeing on the
largest corporate combination ever,
two new gigantic bank mergers are
expected to further shake up the
financial services landscape Monday. 
		
		 CNN 4-13-98

I wonder when they will announce the layoffs? One bank 
already did read on:    - editor, 4/13/98...morning..

Unconfirmed source stated that there will be 8000 job
cuts.  - editor 4/14/98  evening...		


"Chase Manhattan Bank plans to lay off 2,250"

New York- Chase Manhattan Corp., the nation's largest bank, said 
Tuesday that it planned to lay off about 2,250 employees, or about 
3 percent of its workforce, as it consolidates administration and 
business functions.
The cuts are part of a plan to eliminate about 4,500 of the bank's
69,033 positions over the next 18 months by laying off workers 
and by not replacing others who depart.  When Chase and Chemical 
Banking Corp. agreed to merge in 1995, the two banks employed 
about 75,000 people.  The completion of the merger in 1996 brought 
the elimination of about 12,000 jobs.  But the number of employees 
of smaller acquisitions that Chase pursued, such as last year's 
purchase of the credit card business of Bank of New York Corp.
An internal memo circulated to employees in January indicated that
layoffs were coming.  At the time, Chase said it was freezing 
hiring in its corporate and business-support units.  Chase also 
said it planned to trim $70 million a year from its budget by 
declaring a "moratorium on the use of all management consultants,"
reducing its sponsorship of events and other measures.
Though Chase said the cuts would be concentrated among what it 
called support operations it offered few specifics about which 
employees would lose their jobs.

	S. J. Mercury News 3-18-98


"Boeing axes 6,200 in Southern California"

Boeing Co. dealt the harshest blow yet to Southern California's 
once-mighty aerospace industry on Friday, announcing plans to cut
about 6,200 jobs in the area over the next 18 months, including 
nearly a third of its work force in Long Beach.
Boeing said that it would eliminate another 2,000 jobs, most of 
them in Philadelphia and Toronto, as it cosolidates North American 
operations in the wake of two recent multibillion dollar acquisitions 
that have transformed it into the world's largest military and 
civilian aerospace company.  But Southern California will suffer
the most, through restructuring of the former McDonnell Douglas
Corp., which Boeing bought for $16.3 billion last year.
Still, word of the cuts comes on the heels of the loss of thousands 
of other jobs as a result of cutbacks by Raytheon Co. and of the
acquisition of H.F. Ahmanson & Co. by Washington Mutual Inc., two 
of the largest savings and loans in the region.

Boeing insists that most of the payroll cuts will be made through 
retirements and attrition, but the region will nonetheless feel 
the loss of thousands of high-paying manufacturing jobs.  The new 
job cuts will result from an attempt to streamline these disparate 
operations and deliver $1 billion in savings that the company said 
would result from the acquisitions.  By consolidating various 
operations, Boeing hopes to shed 18 million square feet of real 
estate by 2000.

Stopping production of the MD-11 would probably result in the 
loss of another 3,000 jobs in California and 1,900 in Toronto, 
where the plane's wings are made.

	S. J. Mercury News 3-21-98




"HP cuts 1,000 in Vancouver"

Hewlett-Packard Co. is eliminating 1,000 jobs in its Vancouver, 
Canada, manufacturing plant- part of the company's ongoing 
efforts to reduce its operational costs as prices for personal 
computers and printers continue to drop.  
The reorentation of the Canadian ink-jet printer manufacturing 
plant was announced at the same time the company released its 
financial report for the first quarter of fiscal 1998, although 
HP Chief Financial Officer Bob Wayman stressed that the two 
announcements were not related.
Like many companies, HP said in a discussion of its finances 
that it had noticed some softening in specific Asian markets  
including South Korea, Hong Kong and Malaysia.

- QUARTER HORSE:  here's a look at Hewlett-Packard's revenues 
and earnings for the last five quarters.

1997
Q1  $912 million in earnings and $10.29 billion in revenues.
Q2  $784 million in earnings and $10.34 billion in revenues.
Q3  $617 million in earnings and $10.47 billion in revenues.
Q4  $806 million in earnings and $11.79 billion in revenues.
1998
Q1  $929 million in earnings and $11.82 billion in revenues.

		S.J. Mercury News 2-18-98


"Layoffs leaped in January"

       Job cuts soared to 72,193 in January up 24 percent 
from December and 66 percent from January 1997, the
outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. said. 
Nearly 40 percent of last month's cuts were at AT&T Corp. 
and Seagate Technology Inc. of Scotts Valley.  Over the last
four months, the number of layoffs announced has averaged 
about 56,000, compared with an average 36,000 for all of 
1997.  The report came on the same day the government 
said new claims for unemployment benefits edged up by 
3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 303,000 in the last of 
January.[B961]
		S.J. Mercury News	2-6-98.




"Nike loses its footing 2nd straight quarter as profit 
plunges 69%"   
Shoe, apparel maker will lay off 1,600 of its 22,000 workers.

Also... 3Com Corp. said it will lay off 380 workers at 
two Chicago area plants and replace a top Illinois executive 
as the company struggles with product lines acquired in its 
1997 purchase of U.S. Robotics Corp.

                S. J. Mercury News 3-19-98



        

Intel is reducing its workforce by 3000 employees,
the company stated that it is using attrition and
freeze on hiring as a method of reduction.

Komag is laying off 10% of their employess which is
10% of its workforce.  

Komag is based in San Jose.  In August, 1997, Komag
cut 350 employees from their Northern California 
workforce.

The company cited lower demand force the cutback
of their production plan.

6/03/1998.