2012 Layoff Tracking Thread

[fixbot]

VMD said 4 months ago:
June 28, 2012: B.C.’s Radical Entertainment lays off 89 staff

Quote:Dozens of videogame developers in Vancouver have lost their jobs after the market failure of one of their company’s products.

Parent company Activision laid off 89 Radical Entertainment employees Thursday, saying the company’s latest gaming product, Prototype 2, didn’t sell well enough.

The Radical Entertainment studio was to cease operations immediately, Activision said.

One of the laid of staff members said the shutdown was due in part to the changing face of console game playing and the high cost of game development. He also took the B.C. government to task for what he said was the lack of a strong tax credit to keep the jobs in the province.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-co...yoffs.html

specialfx3000 said 3 months, 3 weeks ago:
Another hit to our local economy.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/20...-cuts.html

Quote:“Vancouver biotech firm QLT is cutting 146 jobs.”

That apparently translates to about 66% of their workforce.

specialfx3000 said 3 months, 3 weeks ago:
Earlier this morning I posted QLT’s downsizing news.

On this same day, another Vancouver based BIO company, Cardiome, announced an 85% reduction in their workforce. Not sure how many people that translates to.

http://news.yahoo.com/cardiome-pharma-cu...nance.html

I would imagine these Bio companies had good-paying jobs that are now disappearing.

Definitely not the time for anyone to be over-extended and debt-laden; Jobs are being pulled under people’s feet at fast and furious pace.

specialfx3000 said 3 months, 2 weeks ago:
What’s going on with the Bio and gaming companies?

Rockstar consolidates to Toronto, taking 35 jobs there.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/20...to-toronto

VMD said 3 months ago:
July 19, 2012: Capcom Vancouver lays off 20 staff

Dead Rising 2 developer trims seven per cent of employees due to ‘unsuitable fit with studio goals’
http://www.develop-online.net/news/41461...f-20-staff

VMD said 3 months ago:
July 25, 2012: Microsoft Vancouver lays off 35 staffs, cancels projects

Quote:“Microsoft Studios in Vancouver, the studio working on a AAA Kinect Shooter, has reportedly laid off all 35 members of staff and cancelled Microsoft Flight and Project Columbia.

In a statement obtained by Polygon, Microsoft said: “Microsoft Studios has decided to end development on Microsoft Flight and Project Columbia. As a result of this action, some positions within the development teams have been eliminated. Microsoft human resources is working with the affected individuals to find new roles within the company.” ”

http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/7/25...s-projects

jesse said 2 months, 4 weeks ago:
Apparently Polycom has a Vancouver-based test facility they’re shutting down. I’ll try to get more details.

VMD said 2 months, 2 weeks ago:
Vancouver unemployment rate:

Feb 2012: 6.7% (7.4% Canada)
Mar 2012: 6.6% (7.2% Canada)
Apr 2012: 6.2% (7.3% Canada)
May 2012: 6.4% (7.3% Canada)
Jun 2012: 6.4% (7.2% Canada)
July 2012: 6.8% (7.3% Canada)

(statscan: labour force survey/information pdf)

VMD said 2 months, 2 weeks ago:
August 9, 2012: Canaccord Financial slashes 76 jobs

Quote:Canaccord Financial says it has cut 76 jobs as part of a move to slash costs as it swung to a loss in its fiscal first quarter. The financial services company said Wednesday it lost $20.6 million, or 24 cents per diluted share, in its first quarter of 2013.

That compared to a profit of $13.2 million, or 16 cents per diluted share, in the year-earlier quarter.
Canaccord is an independent, full-service financial services firm, with operations in wealth management and global capital markets.

(Canaccord is based in Vancouver, BC)

http://www.canaccord.com/en/Choose_Canac...tacts.aspx

VMD said 2 months, 1 week ago:
August 21, 2012: EA’s PopCap Games cuts jobs
The company eliminated 50 jobs in North America
fyi “PopCap Vancouver is located in a converted waterfront warehouse in the heart of Vancouver’s historic Gastown District.”

http://www.ea.com/locations/vancouver

Update: The majority of the layoffs were in Seattle but jobs were also cut at PopCap’s Vancouver, B.C., studio. There may be additional layoffs later at its office in Dublin, Ireland.

http://seattletimes.com/html/technologyb..._in_s.html

VMD said 1 month, 2 weeks ago:
Vancouver unemployment rate:

Feb 2012: 6.7% (7.4% Canada)
Mar 2012: 6.6% (7.2% Canada)
Apr 2012: 6.2% (7.3% Canada)
May 2012: 6.4% (7.3% Canada)
Jun 2012: 6.4% (7.2% Canada)
July 2012: 6.8% (7.3% Canada)
Aug 2012: 6.8% (7.3% Canada)



(statscan: labour force survey/information pdf)

VMD said 1 month, 2 weeks ago:
Vancouver board to lay off dozens of staff, close school, drop 10 days
Sep 06 2012 G&M

Quote:“The Vancouver School Board says it’s poised to lay off dozens of staff, close at least one school and shave up to 10 days from the school year, citing an $18.1-million shortfall that it blames entirely on the provincial government.

The Vancouver board – the second largest in British Columbia – is the latest district to threaten layoffs and school closings. Last week, the Richmond board warned that up to 100 teachers, assistants and administrators could lose their jobs. In Prince George, officials have voted to close six schools.”

VMD said 1 month, 2 weeks ago:
Sept 13, 2012 B.C. government freezes hiring, management salaries as natural gas revenue falls

Quote:The B.C. government will immediately launch a new round of major cuts because of a three-year, $1.1-billion hit to provincial revenues caused by plummeting natural gas prices, Finance Minister Mike de Jong announced Thursday.

Speaking to reporters, de Jong promised an immediate hiring freeze across government and a wage freeze for public sector managers, including those at schools, universities and health organizations. He also signalled a possible ratcheting-up of the already tense negotiations between the province and its public sector unions.

“Call these austerity measures — they are designed to immediately curtail spending in areas where government has some discretion”

VMD said 1 month ago:
Sept 24, 2012 Canaccord closes half of its wealth management offices in Canada, cuts advisers

Quote:TORONTO – Canaccord Financial Inc. (TSX:CF.TO - News) is closing 16 of its wealth management offices across the country and reducing the number of advisers at the remaining locations in a bid to restructure the money-losing business.

The company said Monday the move will cut the number of wealth management offices by half in Canada, however would not say how many people would be losing their job.

Canaccord will have 180 investment advisory teams across Canada after the cuts compared with 269 at June 30.

The cuts came as Vancouver-based Canaccord announced a deal to acquire the wealth management business of U.K.-based Eden Financial Ltd., a boutique private client investment management business.

VMD said 3 weeks, 2 days ago:

Vancouver unemployment rate:

Feb 2012: 6.7% (7.4% Canada)
Mar 2012: 6.6% (7.2% Canada)
Apr 2012: 6.2% (7.3% Canada)
May 2012: 6.4% (7.3% Canada)
Jun 2012: 6.4% (7.2% Canada)
July 2012: 6.8% (7.3% Canada)
Aug 2012: 6.8% (7.3% Canada)
Sep 2012: 7.0% (7.4% Canada)

(statscan: labour force survey/information pdf)

[Min in Mission]

Doing an update to this info is above my head. I cannot manage the time to search all the links needed.

However, in the field that I work in, jobs are becoming harder and harder to find. I am in a "value added" industry and the prices for our finished products are under constant downward pressure. Offshore competition is brutal. Our employees would like an increase, but, there is little room left for that.

I think that layoffs / under employment / temporary work are going to become the norm.

[ice-queen]

This month, Feb 2014 net jobs were -7,000.

[url=http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/03/07/unemployment-rate-canada_n_4918416.html /url]

Unemployment rate is still only 7% though. Seems low considering all the loss and minimal gaines over the last 2 years.

[Alexcanuck]

The unemployment rate is highly misleading. Far too much history and politics involved to cover in full, but basically they do not count people who have had their UI benefits expire and are no longer officially looking for work on a daily basis, also anyone who lost their well paying fulltime career job and is a part-time Timmies server is not "unemployed".
Bottom line: In 2007 74% of Canadians over 16, under 65, not in jail, the military or school, not disabled plus a few more minor categories had a job, it dropped to 71% during the collapse and HAS NOT RECOVERED! Repeat, there has been no recovery in the percentage of employable people who actually are working. Zip, none, nada. The drop in the unemployment rate is due solely to people not being counted anymore, and that even that does not account for the loss of full-time work replaced by part-time. But you won't hear that from the media.

Job creation reports like this morning's mention the unemployment rate but are not based on or the source of it, and they also do have a major statistical error: I am not sure about Canada, I do know that someone in the US who lost one fulltime job and is now working two part-time jobs shows up as net one new job.

Edit: See below. The "74% of Canadians over 16..." should read "74% of BC residents over 16...". Canada as a whole shows a similar trend, however. And it's the same in the US or worse. There simply is not a real recovery happening, and the underlying imbalances have only gotten worse.

[Alexcanuck]

More: I urge you to read through http://tinyurl.com/kc4ep2f
It's a PDF report from the CCPC. (Yes, yes, I know, bunch of lefty loony socialists.)But despite some of their more impractical reports, this is fact-heavy and policy-light. "Just the facts, Ma'am." The factual data presented there shows a very different picture than the "don't worry, be happy" (and load up on debt, go and spend money you don't have to support the profits of our advertisers) message shrilled at us by the MSM.