Borders to close the book on 10 percent of corporate jobs

Borders, the second largest U.S. bookstore chain, plans to cut 10 percent of corporate jobs in an effort to lower costs.

The company, based in Ann Arbor, plans to layoff 124 workers, primarily in the finance and information technology divisions, Reuters reports. About 88 of the jobs are at Borders' headquarters, while the remaining 36 jobs will be cut elsewhere. Executives will not be affected by this mass layoff.

About 40 positions will also be cut from distribution centers in California and Tennessee.

"There's an ongoing need to balance the payroll and the overhead with the sales performance," Borders spokeswoman Anne Roman told Reuters.

The company has reported dwindling sales as consumers purchase more books and music online. Reuters reported Borders' sales dropped 14.6 percent during the 11-week holiday period that ended January 16.

Borders currently employs about 22,500 workers, mostly in the United States. The company operates 515 stores between it's namesake superstores and the Waldenbooks chain. However, the book-selling company is in the process of closing 183 Waldenbooks stores, and therefore, will only have 148 Waldenbooks stores open by early February.

Michigan is among Top 5 states for 2009 mass layoffs

Although Michigan has the highest unemployment rate in the country at 14.6 percent, it does not top the list for the most mass layoffs in 2009.

California suffered the largest number of mass layoffs with Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Ohio rounding out the top five, as reported by the Detroit News.

Nationwide mass layoffs — firings by a single company of 50 or more employees, whether temporary or permanent — reached 28,030. The Detroit News reported this is the highest number of mass layoffs recorded since 1996, when records of mass firings were first kept. About 2.8 million workers nationwide lost their jobs during last year’s layoffs, according to new government data released Wednesday.

Michigan’s mass layoffs increased 12 percent in 2009, after spiking to a 23 percent increase in 2008. Although the percentage of mass layoffs is down from 2008, the Detroit News reported the average number of laid-off workers per mass layoff increased from 31 in 2008 to 140 workers in 2009.

According to the Detroit News, 2001 was the only year worse for Michigan due to the recession and terrorist attacks that year.

While this data shows how many workers lost jobs in the mass layoffs, it does not state how many of those layoffs were temporary or permanent.

"My gut says that were getting more permanent downsizing than we had in 2001," economist Don Grimes of the University of Michigan's Institute for Research on Labor, Employment and the Economy told the Detroit News. For more information from The Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100128/BIZ/1280351/1001/Michigan-in-U.S.-top-five-for-layoffs#ixzz0dtFvt9mA