Closures & Layoffs (Dec. 14-20)

by Dollars and Sense

The weekly report from Mark Heschmeyer of the CoStar Group. See Mark's note below on looking elsewhere on the CoStar site for holiday cheer--we didn't find much (it is a real-estate site, after all). Actually, the estimate that there are only 116,000 layoffs reported so far for December makes the month look better than November, when there were 533,000 jobs lost. Then again, that was after they were revised upwards by 1/3, as December's numbers surely will be as well.

Corporate Downsizings Outpace Expansions 4-to-1

High Job Losses Bode Ill for Commercial Real Estate Absorption

By Mark Heschmeyer | December 18, 2008

If you're hoping for a dose of holiday cheer, you may want to skip this for another CoStar News item. This week, we tallied the job cuts announced so far this month and made some back-of-the-envelope estimates on the impact all the cuts could have on the real estate market.

Corporations have announced more than 116,270 job cuts so far this month. Assuming each eliminated position represents an average per employee of 250 square feet across all commercial property types, the headcount reductions represent the potential vacancy of 29 million square feet of commercial space.

In the same time frame, corporations have announced or transacted just 6.44 million gross square feet of major facility expansions or relocations.

The continuing high pace of job losses likely spells big trouble for future absorption this quarter and further dims the outlook for office and industrial space absorption next year.

What follows is a list of the major layoff and closure announcements the major corporations have announced since Dec. 1 through close of business Wednesday Dec. 17.

Click here for the list.

Labels: closures and layoffs, downsizing, jobs, Mark Heschmeyer, US employment

 

Please consider donating to Dollars & Sense and/or subscribing to the magazine (both print and e-subscriptions now available!).
12/18/2008 09:48:00 PM