Alert reader Peggy emailed me to point me to a page on the North Carolina Employment Security Commission's site that links to a database of permanent layoffs and business closures throughout the state. The database is a compilation of filings with the state and a survey of published news stories. While the data isn't definitive (there's a disclaimer on the site stating that the data doesn't meet the Labor Market Information Division's standards for accuracy), but it does provide a good indication of what's going on out there. I ran the numbers for Forsyth County for all of 2008 and it returned 32 reported closings and 13 layoffs. What's particularly interesting is that it provides company names, industry, number of people affected, effective date and the reason for the closing/layoff.
- Forsyth Medical Center's layoff of 145 people for the stated reason of "outsourcing" in January 2008.
- Triad Appliance Center's bankruptcy in December, 2008. That case received a lot of notoriety because the store's customers were stiffed and the folks at WXII picked it up. But in all the hubaloo about the customers' problems we lost sight of the fact that 18 people lost their jobs.
- Reynolds' layoff of 1,700 people in September, 2004 for "restructuring"
- Aon Consulting's December, 2006 layoff of 100 people for "outsourcing and restructuring"
- Hanesbrands' June, 2007 layoff of 590 for "offshoring production" and August, 2007 layoff of 260 for "restructuring"
- Circuit City wins the award for harshest sounding reason with their March, 2007 layoff of 15 people for "payroll purge" I guess they didn't purge the right people huh?
I could go on and on but you get the picture.
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Befuddled 
sorry got to vent here…. THOSE 18 people that lost their jobs at Triad Appliance Center is a little off. 14 of those people are now working for Brad and since they helped BRING TAC down… I’m sure they got paid well during their down time, so let’s don’t feel sorry for them. So lets see… Only 4 people lost their jobs – the owner and 3 people who thought what Brad was doing was wrong. Most of the customers got either their money back or their appliances through the bankruptcy court. So I guess it ended well for most… except for the sweet lady that gave Brad a job against her better judgement because he really needed a job. But you know what — All of this was worth it just to get that snake out of our lives!
Smiley, thanks for the update on the status of the employees. If indeed
those 14 people kept their jobs then I guess the one silver lining of the
TAC story is that there are 14 fewer unemployed than we thought. I can’t
speak to how it happened, and I’m sure there’s a story to be told there, but
one way or another I’m glad that there are 14 fewer people wondering how
exactly they’re going to make ends meet.
Thanks for the comment.
Jon