Allstate to Lay Off 3,800 Employees

Allstate Corp., one of the U.S.’s largest home and car insurers, announced Wednesday that it plans to lay off 3,800 employees in claims, sales and support roles.

The layoffs represent about 8% of the insurer’s approximately 46,000 workers.

Of the job cuts, about 1,000 are tied to the company’s pandemic-related refunds to policyholders.

American Airlines and United Airlines to furlough a combined 32,000 workers

American Airlines and United Airlines plan to furlough a combined 32,000 workers starting Thursday, when federal aid expires.

 “I am extremely sorry we have reached this outcome,” the American Air CEO said in a letter to employees. “It is not what you all deserve.”

Both airlines said they would reverse course if lawmakers and the Trump administration reach a deal for a new coronavirus stimulus that includes more airline payroll support.

The terms of $25 billion in federal payroll support Congress passed for the ailing sector in March prohibit airlines from cutting jobs until Oct. 1. The aid was meant to help airlines cope with a sharp drop in bookings until there was a significant recovery in demand, which hasn’t materialized. 

Airlines spent the last several months urging lawmakers for another $25 billion in payroll support, a proposal that has won bipartisan support. That would have preserved jobs through the end of March, despite weak travel demand.

United Airlines to cut 16,000 jobs

The Chicago-based airline's workforce will be about 26 percent smaller than the roughly 91,000 employees it had before the coronavirus outbreak.

United Airlines on Wednesday said it is planning to cut more than 16,000 jobs as early as next month, after federal coronavirus aid that protects aviation jobs runs out.

Those involuntary cuts, many of them furloughs that mean employees can be called back if demand returns, make up close to 17% of United’s staffing level at the end of 2019.

The number, however, is far lower than the 36,000 staff Chicago-based United warned in July that their jobs were at risk. The reduction is thanks to thousands of volunteers who accepted buyouts, early retirement packages and more than a dozen other forms of temporary leaves or reduced schedules. Airlines pleaded with employees to take such options to reduce their headcounts, offering perks like continued health care in some cases, a selling point during the pandemic. More than 7,000 United employees opted to separate from the company.

MGM Resorts: laying off 18,000 furloughed workers

MGM Resorts announced Friday that it is laying off 18,000 previously furloughed workers as the casino industry struggles to stay afloat during the ongoing coronavirus slowdown. 

• The cuts will be effective starting Monday, according to a letter sent to employees reviewed by the Wall Street Journal. 
• According to the letter, MGM will seek to recall workers as demand returns. 
• The separation notices were sent because federal law requires that workers who have been furloughed for more than six months receive an official separation date.
• At the start of the year, MGM Resorts employed about 70,000 people—the layoffs account for 25% of that total.

“While the immediate future remains uncertain, I truly believe that the challenges we face today are not permanent,” MGM Resorts CEO Bill Hornbuckle wrote in the Friday letter to employees, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. “The fundamentals of our industry, our company and our communities will not change. Concerts, sports and awe-inspiring entertainment remain on our horizon.”

United Airlines warns it may furlough a third of its pilots

(Bloomberg)—United Airlines Holdings Inc. warned that it’s considering furloughs for as many as one-third of its nearly 12,000 pilots, citing a resurgence in U.S. coronavirus cases that’s weakened sales.

“In recent weeks, bookings have stalled and we continue to see an impact of the recent increase in Covid-19 cases on our business,” Bryan Quigley, senior vice president of flight operations, wrote Thursday in a memo to United pilots.

United’s planning for a further “significant reduction in business” would drive 3,900 pilot furloughs, “and that may not prove to be enough,” Quigley wrote.

United had planned to furlough 2,250 pilots this year—a number that was expected to be reduced by voluntary leave programs and an early-separation package offered to the carrier’s most senior pilots. Instead, the number could almost double as the virus rages in many parts of the U.S.

“Because Covid-19 cases continue, and demand improvement remains very slow, we may need to furlough more pilots in 2020, and in 2021, than originally planned,” Quigley wrote. The Chicago-based airline has 11,675 active pilots.

To date, 6,000 employees have agreed to quit the airline and another 26,000 have taken voluntary leave programs, the company said July 21.

Airline labor unions, including ALPA, have been vigorously lobbying Congress to extend payroll support funds for six months to avoid mass industry job cuts in October. The current payroll program—and its protections—ends Sept. 30.

La-Z-Boy to lay off 850 people, close Mississippi plant

La-Z-Boy Inc. said late Thursday it will lay off about 10% of its workforce, or 850 employees, across its business and including an upholstery factory in Mississippi. 

• Since layoffs were announced in March, La-Z-Boy had helped the community by making face masks. But it says the COVID-19 pandemic hurt its bottom line and the realignment is necessary to survive.

Production will be shifted to available capacity at the company's plants in Tennessee, Missouri, and Arkansas, La-Z-Boy said. The Mississippi plant, built in 1960, employs about 300 people and accounts for about 10% of the company's upholstery production as well as making the company's recliners and other furniture.

The coronavirus pandemic "has had a far-reaching impact," Chief Executive Kurt L. Darrow said in a statement. The company "responded quickly" and as a result "we are confident we will emerge from the crisis with strength and remain a leader in the industry," Darrow said. " Since restarting production at the majority of our plants at the end of April, we have steadily increased production and continue to bring back more employees to meet demand." It is appropriate, however, to "right size" the business, Darrow said. "Still, these are difficult decisions to make and we deeply regret the impact they will have on those employees who are affected."
La-Z-Boy expects to spend about $5 million to $7 million in fiscal 2021 in pre-tax charges related to these moves.

AutoNation cuts 3,500 jobs

AutoNation, the country’s largest auto dealer, is eliminating 3,500 workers, about 50 percent of them furloughed due to the coronavirus.

Marc Cannon, executive vice president, confirmed to FOX Business the impacted employees were part of the initial 7,000 furloughed as efforts were made to become more nimble.

“The actions are a result of a successful move to digital and store efficiencies,” Cannon explained.

Tui to slash up to 8,000 jobs

European travel giant Tui plans to slash up to 8,000 jobs as the coronavirus crisis forces it to cut costs.

That number includes positions that “will either not be recruited or reduced” under a plan to trim overhead costs by 30 percent, the Germany-based conglomerate said Wednesday.

The company with more than 70,000 employees around the world called the pandemic “the greatest crisis the tourism industry and Tui has ever faced.”

“Tui should emerge from the crisis stronger. But it will be a different Tui and it will find a different market environment than before the pandemic,” CEO Fritz Joussen said in a statement. “In order to return to the successful development of the past years after the crisis, we must now implement the realignment quickly.”

Tui, which owns airlines, cruise ships, hotels and travel agencies, reported a 10.1 percent drop in revenues for the first three months of 2020 as the virus destroyed demand for travel.

Business was strong before the crisis hit, with revenues growing 6 percent from October through February before virus-related travel restrictions forced the company to “largely discontinue” its business, according to a press release.

While the company said it’s getting ready for travel activities to resume in Germany and Europe, it recently got a loan of 1.8 billion euros (about $1.9 billion) to shore it up until business can get back to normal.

Airbnb laying off 25% of staff

Airbnb (AIRB) plans  to lay off 1,900 employees, or roughly a quarter of its total work force, CEO Brian Chesky told employees Tuesday, as the coronavirus pandemic takes a brutal toll on the travel business.

Revenue this year is expected to be less than half what it was in 2019, Chesky said in a memo. The company had $4.8 billion in revenue last year. Chesky also said that Airbnb will narrow its focus, suspending projects related to transportation and television production and scaling back efforts to market hotels and luxury properties.

Airbnb's bookings have plummeted due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the company's liquidity improvement efforts have included a $1B debt and equity financing and a new $1B loan.

Uber to lay off 3,700 employees, about 14% of workforce

Uber Technologies Inc. is cutting about 3,700 workers as the ride-hailing service looks to reduce costs amid the coronavirus pandemic that has led to a dramatic fall off in rides.

The San Francisco-based company revealed the job cuts Wednesday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission a day ahead of reporting first-quarter financial results. The terminations, which affect the customer support and recruiting teams, will likely result in $20 million in severance and other benefit costs, the company said.

United Airlines plans 30% cut to management ranks from October

(Reuters) - United Airlines Holdings Inc (UAL) has told employees that it expects its management and administrative ranks to be around 30% smaller starting in October, according to a company memo seen by Reuters.

United is among U.S. airlines that have accepted U.S. government payroll aid that bans job cuts until Sept. 30. United has warned that air travel demand hit by the coronavirus pandemic is unlikely to have recovered by that date, forcing it to downsize.

Royal Caribbean : Heavy layoffs

Royal Caribbean Cruises (NYSE:RCL) confirms it plans to lay off or furlough about 1.3K of its 5K workers in the U.S. due to the "no sail order" amid the pandemic.

The company says a majority of those affected fall in the layoff category.

Royal Caribbean employs about 65K people globally.

American Express : Hiring freeze, but no layoffs

American Express (NYSE:AXP) will avoid layoffs this year, says CEO Steve Squeri, but nevertheless needs to reduce costs. To that end, he's put in place a hiring freeze.

In other items, he notes that two-thirds of the company's customer-service teams (that's 60K people) now work from home vs. 10% a couple of weeks ago.

Squeri: "In two weeks, we have completely transformed our global servicing operations, going from a brick-and-mortar, traditional call-center environment to a totally distributed, home-based servicing one."

Shares and down more than 35% from a month ago.