Illinois: Cardinal Health cutting 650 jobs in Waukegan

Health care manufacturing and distribution giant Cardinal Health Inc. is moving production out of north suburban Waukegan, a move that will cost some 650 local jobs. 

Dublin, Ohio-based Cardinal Health disclosed Wednesday that it also would sell property in Waukegan, but the company will keep some operations there. Cardinal expects to incur a loss on the property sale, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Cardinal will sell seven of the nine buildings at McGaw Park and consolidate Waukegan employees into the remaining two, a Cardinal Health spokeswoman said.

Cardinal's decision will leave about 700 employees in Waukegan, most of them professional jobs such as marketing, customer support and IT, according to the spokeswoman.

The production of surgical kits will move to South Carolina and Mexico, she said. The company is looking to sell a mix of office and industrial property totaling about 1.2 million square feet and will keep two office buildings totaling about 267,000 square feet, an executive said. He declined to disclose an asking price. The company also is planning a reorganization in El Paso, Texas, that will result in about 80 job cuts, according to Dow Jones, which reported Cardinal's moves Wednesday.

Chicago : Sun-Times warns of layoffs

Sun-Times Media LLC, publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times and other suburban papers, has warned employees that some workers could lose their jobs as the company consolidates suburban operations in its River North headquarters.

The company told employees of the possible cuts last week in a state-required letter called a WARN notice, named after the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires disclosure whenever a company expects it may cut 50 or more workers.

Sun-Times is still deciding how many jobs may be eliminated because that depends on the number of suburban workers who agree by Feb. 25 to relocate to the headquarters, said Ted Rilea, the company's vice president of labor relations and human resources. If not enough workers make the move, the company may have to hire workers downtown, but if all of them want to move, it will have to cut employees, he said in an interview.

The company expects to complete the move by March 25, according to a note published by the Newspaper Guild, a union that represents some Sun-Times workers and is negotiating a contract with the company for about 150 employees.

The union expressed its concerns to management about the impact of the move on workers, specifically the increased costs for transportation, said Dave Roeder, a union representative and Chicago Sun-Times business reporter.

Sun-Times Media told employees last month that it planned to close its suburban offices and move news editing and production workers, including 47 editorial assistants and copy editors, to the downtown headquarters while reporters mainly would remain in the suburbs.

United Continental to cut 600 management jobs

(Reuters) — United Continental Holdings Inc. posted a bigger fourth-quarter loss on Thursday as costs rose and revenue fell, and the carrier said it expects to cut more than 600 management and administrative jobs.

The airline has been working to win back customers who turned to rivals after technology glitches hurt customer service. United made a number of changes to integrate as one carrier following its 2010 merger, including converting to a new computer reservation system.

Chairman and Chief Executive Jeff Smisek said 2012 was tough, but things were looking up. "Our operations are running smoothly  and our customer satisfaction scores are climbing," he said during a conference call.

Still, United said it was taking actions to improve financial results. The company said its officer headcount was reduced by 7 percent in December and starting next month, management and administrative staff would be cut by 6 percent.

Smisek said a portion of the cuts would come from voluntary exit programs.

United Continental has more than 85,000 employees.

The world's largest carrier said its quarterly net loss widened to $620 million, or $1.87 a share, from $138 million, or 42 cents a share, a year earlier.

It took charges of $430 million in the quarter, with much of that tied to paying off pension obligations and costs for systems integration and training and severance.

Excluding items, United said the 2012 quarterly loss was 58 cents a share, compared with a 61-cent loss expected by analysts on average, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue fell 2.5 percent to $8.7 billion. Passenger revenue per available seat mile, a measure of pricing power and how full planes are, rose 0.6 percent in the quarter.

Operating costs rose 3.2 percent. Although fuel costs edged down 0.3 percent, expenses for salaries and maintenance materials were 4 percent and 9.2 percent higher, respectively.

Superstorm Sandy, which barreled through the U.S. Northeast in late October, reduced revenue by about $140 million and profit by about $85 million in the fourth quarter. The storm caused shutdowns at major New York area airports, including New Jersey's Newark Liberty International, where United operates a major hub.

Shares of United were up 2.3 percent to $25.57 in afternoon trading.

American Express to cut 5,400 jobs or 8.5% of staff

LOS ANGELES (AP) — American Express said Thursday that it will slash about 5,400 jobs, mainly in its travel business, as it seeks to cut costs and transform its operations as more of its customers shift to online portals for booking travel plans and other needs.

The job cuts will be partly offset by jobs that the company expects to add this year.

American Express said the jobs eliminated will span employee seniority levels and divisions worldwide, but will primarily involve positions that do not directly generate revenue for the company.

All told, the company anticipates that staffing levels will end up between 4 and 6 percent lower this year than in 2012. The company currently has 63,500 employees.

"Against the backdrop of an uneven economic recovery, these restructuring initiatives are designed to make American Express more nimble, more efficient and more effective in using our resources to drive growth," said CEO Kenneth Chenault.

Shares slipped 29 cents to $60.50 in after-hours trading. They ended regular trading up 53 cents at $60.79.

American Express said it will book an after-tax charge of $287 million due to the restructuring. It's also recording $212 million in expenses related to reward points for its cardholders and roughly $95 million in customer reimbursements and other costs.

The combined charges will reduce American Express' fourth-quarter net income by 46% from a year earlier.

The company projects net income of $637 million, or 56 cents per share, compared with net income of $1.2 billion, or $1.01 per share, in the same quarter of 2011.

Excluding one-time items, fourth-quarter 2012 earnings amount to $1.2 billion, or $1.09 per share, ahead of analysts' consensus forecast of $1.06 per share, according to FactSet.

Revenue rose 5% to $8.1 billion. Analysts expected $8.01 billion.

The company is scheduled to report full results next Thursday.

Overall American Express has done well after the recession, as upscale shoppers have spent freely. That's because Amex cardholders are in general about a third more affluent than other credit card holders.

Through the first nine months of 2012, revenue grew 5 percent, while net income rose 3%.

Spending by cardholders jumped 8 percent in the fourth quarter, despite some softening early in the period due to Superstorm Sandy, the company said.

Chenault noted that, since the recession, American Express has been consistently gaining market share.

Despite that success, he said the company must embrace new technologies, become more efficient and position itself to invest in growth opportunities in a marketplace that's increasingly becoming defined by consumers' use of the Internet and mobile technology.

To that end, American Express' restructuring plan calls for overhauling its travel business to cut costs and invest in ways to cater to a growing volume of customers turning to online and automated tools to make their travel arrangements.

"One outcome of this ongoing shift to online is that we can serve a growing customer base with lower staffing levels," Chenault said during a call with analysts.

The company also will reconfigure its cardholder servicing and collections operations to focus more on online and mobile, rather than telephone and mail.

"The overall restructuring program will put us in a better position as we seek to deliver strong results for shareholders and to maintain marketing and promotion investments at about 9 percent of revenues," Chenault said.

Morgan Stanley Job Cuts: Bank Plans To Slash 1,600 Jobs In Investment Banking Unit

Morgan Stanley plans to cut 1,600 jobs in its investment banking unit, roughly 6 percent of staff in that unit, with employees being informed about job losses beginning this week, a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

The cuts will affect traders, salespeople and bankers in Morgan Stanley’s institutional securities business as well as support staff, the source said.

This round of job cuts comes in addition to a 6 percent reduction in the investment bank workforce in 2012, said the source, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

About half of the job cuts will occur in the United States, with the rest affecting international units, said the source, adding that all levels of staff will be affected, with an emphasis on more senior employees.