Boeing is cutting 27% of its workers at a defense facility in Wichita, Kansas. The layoffs will begin this week and will last through the first half of 2009. Programs affected include: B-52/Refueling Systems Support, 767 International Tanker, Mission Planning, engineering support for Airborne Laser and 747-8, and Integrated Logistics Support.

The general manager of the Wichita facility had this to say:

“We regret the need to reduce employment, however, a combination of events are limiting our business options and forcing us to reduce our current employee total.”

He’d better hope that none of the employees working on the “airborne laser” project are too hurt by this…

[Yahoo Finance] Boeing to slash 800 jobs at Kansas facility

TV game-changer TiVo will be laying off some of its 495 employees, but has not announced how many. The cuts come in response to what the company calls “a rapidly evolving retail consumer market.” TiVo has filed a document with the SEC that says cash-charges for severance pay will be close to $1 million for the layoffs. If anyone has more info on this — you know who loves you.

[DocuDrama] TiVo latest valley company to announce layoffs

Semiconductor equipment manufacturer KLA-Tencor will be trimming its workforce by 15% in response to “current market conditions.” In a statement, KLA’s CEO — Rick Wallace — had this to say:

“We will continue to monitor the demand environment and make the necessary adjustments to weather this downturn, help optimize our profitability, maintain our strategic focus and strengthen our competitive position.”

Nice attitude, Rick. What are a few hundred measly employees when it comes to “optimizing your profitability?”

[Barron's] KLA-Tencor Cutting Workforce By 15%

A higher-up at investment firm BlackRock has just circulated this internal memo that reviews the company’s situation in the troubled economy. In the third paragraph, he concedes that layoffs are inevitable and says that concrete announcements will be made this week. Read on for the full memo:

Read more »

Steve & Barry’s, which filed for bankruptcy just a few months ago, will be liquidated by the private equity firm that acquired 175 of its remaining stores. The company’s 5,000 employees will be let go and its inventory will be sold off.

The fire-sale marks a sour end for the nationally-known clothing brand that boasted Sarah Jessica Parker and Serena Venus Williams as high-profile clients. We bid farewell with a picture of one of their empty parking lots:

[WSJ] Apparel Chain Faces Closure Three Months After Rescue

The Pepsi Bottling Group has slashed its 2008 earnings outlook and announced that 3,000 jobs would be cut worldwide. The company will be closing four facilities and axing 750 employees in the U.S. in addition to “streamlining its organization” in Europe and Mexico. All of this is going down while the company is still profitable — it expects to earn $2.32 per share this year.

[CNN] Pepsi Bottling to slash 3,000 jobs

Evangelical group Focus on the Family will be laying off 202 of its employees just in time for Christmas. The cuts come just a few weeks after the ministry spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying for a ban on gay marriage in California. The layoffs represent a 20% cut of the ministry’s employees.

A Focus flack had this to say:

“Economic realities absolutely played a major role. People still crave and appreciate the things we do to help families thrive.”

Too bad they can’t make their finances thrive. Pray more?

[Denver Post] Focus on the Family to cut 202 more jobs

The largest U.S. freight railroad will be laying off and/or reducing the hours for 1,500 engineers and conductors. The cuts will be determined based upon seniority.

The struggles the company claims to be dealing with weren’t apparent in Union Pacific’s last earnings announcement — their profit jumped a healthy 32% to $703 million. The company is expecting a bad holiday season, though, with an expected volume drop of 5%.

[Yahoo Finance] Union Pacific says economy hurt 1,500 workers

Putnam Investments will be cutting 12 portfolio managers and 35 staff members in order to “get rid of complexity.” The company will be merging six of its smaller mutual funds into six larger ones. The assets of these funds have taken a beating in the last few months — falling from $172 billion to $116 billion.

Apropos of the announcement, Putnam also has one of the comprehensive career pages we’ve ever seen. Apply if you dare.

[CNN] Putnam Investments cuts 47 jobs

Virgin Mobile will be axing 45 employees in California and New Jersey after its acquisition of Helio, which was announced in June. The 10% reduction of its headcount might be viewed as a bit excessive given that the company’s CEO, Dan Schulman, took home $11.4 million last year. Nice take, Dan — we’ll be watching for 2008’s numbers.

[Yahoo Finance] Virgin Mobile to cut 45 jobs, 10 pct of work force

The flurry of activity from Citigroup was all building up to this announcement: 53,000 employees will be shed over the next few months. Citi announced the layoffs at a town hall meeting hosted by CEO Vikram Pandit where it also announced the sale of Citi Global Services and its German retail banks.

Speaking at a conference in Dubai, Citigroup Chairman Win Bischoff had this to say about the pending layoffs:

“What all of us have done — and perhaps injudiciously — we’ve added a lot of people over … this very benign period. If there is a reversion to the mean … those job losses will obviously fall particularly heavily on the financial sector. Certainly they will fall particularly heavily on London and New York.”

How direct you are, Chairman Win.

[Yahoo Finance] Citigroup to shed another 53,000 jobs

Barely a week after annoucing 1,300 layoffs, Fidelity will go back to the drawing board and throw an additional 1,700 workers overboard. The latest round of layoffs will take place in the first three months of 2009. The 3,000 positions being eliminated represent 7% of Fidelity’s total workforce.

[CNN] Fidelity adds 1,700 to job cuts

Citigroup has begun yet another round of layoffs — news organizations have said this round aims to cut at least 10,000 employees from its payroll. The company is reeling from a year in which it has lost more than $20 billion.

Citigroup has also announced that it will be raising interest rates on credit cards for 20% of its customers. A little late, don’t ya think?

[Yahoo Finance] Citigroup to Slash 10,000 Jobs: Report

Sun Microsystems is planning on axing up to 18% of its staff in a desperation move to survive. Sun’s stock has fallen so quickly that the company’s market value is less than its cash on hand, which has prompted speculation that Sun might be taken over by one of its rivals.

The layoff rumors have been orbiting Sun for awhile along with rumors that CEO Jonathan Schwartz would be ousted. One step down, one to go.

Sunny Micro:

[Yahoo Finance] Sun to cut up to 6,000 workers, 18 pct of staff

The Royal Bank of Scotland will layoff 3,000 employees from its global banking and markets divisions. Speculation on the street is that the company is facing its first-ever yearly loss, and is scrambling to cut expenses. They could always save some money on their server bill by taking down their careers page.

[Reuters] RBS to axe 3,000 jobs in coming weeks: report