Illinois : Companies announce over 700 job cuts

Nine companies, including Comcast Corp. and software firm Intuit Inc., warn of 738 Illinois job cuts in a new state report.

More than 500 of the cuts are in the Chicago area, according to the July WARN report from the state's Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

• Philadelphia-based Comcast plans to lay off 112 workers in southwest suburban Romeoville starting Sept. 14.

• Mountain View, California-based Intuit will lay off 104 workers in Arlington Heights starting Sept. 15.

• Commercial real estate company Equity Office Management LLC will cut 48 workers in Chicago starting at the end of September.

• Fairfield, California-based confectionery maker Jelly Belly Candy Co. is cutting 66 workers in North Chicago. The company said laid-off workers will receive outplacement services and also will be able to explore job transfers to other company locations.

• We Clean Maintenance & Supplies Inc. in Bedford Park will lay off 107 workers in Chicago. The layoffs come at the request of a client, a spokeswoman said.

• Chicago-based Geralex Janitorial Services Inc., which provides janitorial services at airports and schools, is cutting 67 jobs in the city.

• Janitorial and property services firm RJB Properties Inc. in Orland Park is laying off 41 workers in its Chicago office.

• Kraft Foods Group Inc. warned of 56 layoffs in Champaign. The Northfield-based company previously announced in April that 60 drivers and fleet support staff in Champaign were going to be laid off as part of a national plan to cut 285 jobs.

• The highest number of layoffs in the report come from Clive, Iowa-based Jacobson Warehouse Co. The company will lay off 137 workers in East Moline starting at the end of September.

Amgen plans to cut up to 2,900 jobs

Amgen Inc. said it plans to reduce its global workforce by 12% to 15% and close facilities in two states as part of a restructuring that aims to focus resources on developing new drugs.

The company was a biotechnology pioneer and is the largest biotech by sales. But the products that propelled its growth are aging and some are facing the threat of low-cost competition. In announcing cost-cutting plans Tuesday, Amgen joins the ranks of Big Pharmas who have been laying off employees and closing plants. It had already emulated traditional drug makers by doing a large deal last year to add a medicine discovered outside its laboratories.

Amgen said it plans to reduce staff by 2,400 to 2,900, beginning later this year and continuing through 2015. Most of the workforce reductions are set for the U.S. and will span the range of job types, including sales representatives, an Amgen spokesman said. The company currently employs about 20,000.

The job cuts will be combined with eliminating layers of management, using fewer buildings at its headquarters site and closing two laboratories in Washington state and two manufacturing plants in Colorado, the spokesman said.

At the same time, Amgen plans to expand its drug research-and-development in the biotechnology hubs of South San Francisco, Calif., and Cambridge, Mass., as well as retain its headquarters in Thousand Oaks, Calif., with a smaller staff in fewer existing buildings.

The company expects to record restructuring-related charges between $775 million and $950 million, primarily incurred this year and next year. It expects to save about $700 million in operating expenses in 2016, but plans to use most of the savings to launch new products, the spokesman said.

Chief Executive Robert A. Bradway said the restructuring plans were announced from "a position of strength."

Amgen reported that its second-quarter earnings rose 23% as the company benefited from higher revenue and increased profitability of its arthritis drug Enbrel. The company also raised its 2014 earnings and revenue targets.

Shares of Amgen rose 3.6% to $127.74 in after-hours trading.

Last year, Amgen bought Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. for $10.4 billion and its flagship product, Kyprolis.

The drug was approved in the U.S. in 2012 as a treatment for a blood cancer known as multiple myeloma. Amgen is betting that current studies of Kyprolis will lead to approvals for additional uses, with study data anticipated in the current quarter. In the second quarter, Kyprolis sales were $78 million, up from $68 million in the first quarter.

Amgen reported a profit of $1.55 billion, or $2.01 a share, up from $1.26 billion, or $1.65 a share, a year earlier. Excluding acquisition-related and other items, adjusted per-share earnings rose to $2.37 from $1.89. Revenue increased 11% to $5.18 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected per-share profit of $2.07 and revenue of $4.9 billion.

Sales of Enbrel increased 7% to $1.2 billion, driven mostly by higher pricing and underlying demand.

Combined sales of Neulasta and Neupogen, both of which are used to prevent infections in patients receiving chemotherapy, fell 1% as a decline in Neupogen sales offset a slight increase in Neulasta sales.

Neupogen sales fell 9%, which the company attributed to a positive Medicaid rebate adjustment in the year-earlier period. The drug is facing generic competition in the U.S. from the launch late last year by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. of its Neupogen-similar treatment, Granix.

Sales of osteoporosis drugs Xgeva and Prolia rose 20% and 40%, respectively, with both benefiting from stronger volume.

JPMorgan cuts tech worker jobs

(Bloomberg) — JPMorgan Chase & Co., the biggest U.S. lender, is cutting hundreds of technology support employees in its corporate and investment bank amid a revenue decline, people with knowledge of the move said.

Workers in locations including New York, Tampa, Chicago and Dubai were notified of the cuts this month, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren't authorized to discuss the matter. Luke Moranda, a managing director in charge of clearing technology, and Dan Cronin, an executive director, were among those let go, the people said.

Wall Street firms are trimming expenses by paring support employees and moving personnel to lower-cost locales amid a decline in fixed-income trading. JPMorgan's corporate and investment bank, run by Daniel Pinto, posted a 12 percent revenue drop to $17.6 billion in the first six months of 2014, while noninterest expenses declined by 1.6 percent to $11.7 billion.

“We continue to be focused and diligent on managing expenses and operating as efficiently as possible across our businesses,” Chief Financial Officer Marianne Lake said this month in a conference call.
Moranda and Cronin didn't respond to e-mailed messages seeking comment. Brian Marchiony, a spokesman for New York-based JPMorgan, declined to comment.

Severance packages came with letters explaining that the bank's staffing needs have changed along with “changes in our business,” the people said. Some workers accepted demotions to reduce compensation costs.

JPMorgan has cut about 6,000 employees in the first six months of the year, leaving it with 245,192 workers at June 30 and exceeding a forecast in February that it would reduce total headcount by 5,000. The bank, which acquired Washington Mutual Inc.'s bank units and Bear Stearns Cos. during the financial crisis, is streamlining the group's technology systems.

Low volatility in debt and equity markets and new regulations have crimped trading, leading to Wall Street's worst start to a year in trading revenue since the 2008 financial crisis. An increase in client activity in June failed to carry over into July, Lake said on the July 15 conference call.

“Our general operating assumption is that the next two quarters will continue to have low activity year-over-year,” Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, 58, said on the call. “That could change on a dime, as you know, but that's just how we're going to run the business.”

Tyson Foods to shut three factories, cut 950 jobs

(Reuters) - Tyson Foods Inc (TSN) said it will discontinue operations at three of its factories which make processed meat products such as sausages and hot dogs, affecting about 950 people.

The largest U.S. meat processor, which won the bidding war for Hillshire Brands Co (HSH) in June, said the closures were not related to the acquisition.

"The closings were under consideration long before our decision to pursue Hillshire Brands", Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson told Reuters.

Tyson outbid Pilgrim's Pride Corp (PPC) with its $63 per share offer for Hillshire, valuing the Jimmy Dean sausages maker at $8.55 billion.

The closures were due to changing product needs, an aging Cherokee, Iowa factory and the distance of the Buffalo, New York and Santa Teresa, New Mexico plants from their raw material supply base, the company said on Friday.

"The consolidation helps them get transportation efficiencies," Chris Hurt, an agricultural economist with Purdue University, said.

The number of beef cattle in the United States is at its lowest level in 63 years due to severe droughts, reducing the amount of meat available to process.

The Cherokee factory will close on Sep. 27, while the other two are expected to stop operating in the first half of 2015.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration had cited the Buffalo factory for workplace safety hazards last November and proposed fines of about $122,000.

Tyson contested the citations and settled the case in May, agreeing to pay $105,000 in fines.

The closures will affect 450 employees at Cherokee, 300 at Buffalo and 200 at Santa Teresa. The company had about 115,000 employees as of last September.

Shares of the company, which will report quarterly results on Monday, were little changed at $39.49 in extended trading on Friday.