I saw this first on TOL:

http://www.thetreeofliberty.com/vb/showt....

and have since found little tidbits and such around the 'Net. The report is that Walmart in some states -- Illinois and Indiana are mentioned most frequently -- is already laying off seasonal workers because Christmas sales are down so much. This is NOT confirmed by any news org. The poster in the link also says that major layoffs in regular employees are expected before New Years.

See this thread:

Gallup poll: Christmas spending down 21 percent
http://tickerforum.org/cgi-ticker/akcs-w....

In my town we do not have much retail within the city limits. In 2008 one of the big discounters (not WMT) finished building a superstore and it popped the towns sales tax reciepts pretty good for the year.

This year the sales tax reciepts are seeing a constant slide and it is mystifying the city guys. IMO attributable to the discounters (as their sales volume fall and they slash price in response) I have noticed barely any seasonal hiring. They are also running occasional sales already on the high margin stuff that are clearly inventory-clearing type sales. I see lots of foot traffic and eyeballs but it is not translating into spend. people have lots of time and no dollaz.

This is really bad juju and fits with the other WMT and discounter articles that say they are seeing more pronouced swings in spending w/rt to paycheck cycles, and that people are only spending money on necessities.

I knew that with all the WMT employees i see play with their phones, that some of them would twitter.

The first one is from a person in Utah. The next two are from New Hampshire.

Quote:

chickenherder: Had a layoff scare. All is well. I'm still employee at the walmart.
about 10 hours ago from txt · Reply · View Tweet

Quote:

Prayer_Network: RT @edkruczynski Because Walmart has taken me off their schedule--not a layoff--I have no money to buy Christmas presents for family. Plea..
2 days ago from API · Reply · View Tweet

Quote:

edkruczynski: Walmart has me "on call" this week. I'm full-time but not scheduled. They will call me if they need me. Have they invented the "non-layoff"?
6 days ago from web · Reply · View Tweet

More twitter:

Arkansas:

Quote:

BigMax55: I heard a lot of the new people are getting fired already at walmart. Maybe Hot Girl will be spared.
4 days ago from Echofon · Reply · View Tweet

Florida:

Quote:

KillaBee_Rose: @ijolie_87 awwww #imiss walmart too they fired my ass too friend!!

Quote:

recrudescence: I just got fired from walmart. FML.
5 days ago from txt · Reply · View Tweet

Wyoming:

Quote:

ebonyelectric: Our walmart just fired 50 people. <3
6 days ago from txt · Reply · View Tweet

These reports are clearly incorrect because unemployment is dropping and holiday sales are quite a bit better than expected.

To the extent some of these WMT folks are really loosing their jobs or under-employed, it's good for them the job market has turned around very strongly.

They can all go to work as "Greeters" at the local Unemployment office, Gov't bennies and all that, so this is a plus!
(/sarc)

No money for Chinese knick knacks.

It just means the unemployment numbers in Q1 will be much worse than estimates because most of those geeks don't factor in temp. workers when they do their reports.

Fwiw,

My office is in a Mall. Nobody is hiring seasonal workers. During the day the mall is dead. Last Sat there were lots of cars, but cursory glance showed lots of people coming out the door w/o bags in their hands. I did hear a 'thought the sales would be better' when I ran into a patient.

Somebody needs to put Macy's out of it's misery. Zombie business, at least here anyway.

So - If you are a Walmart worker and you go to your state employment office and say - I'm not working I'd like to apply for unemployment. - What happens when they call the store and are informed you are not laid off, you just are not scheduled to work? Can they call you in just often enough to keep you from qualifying for benefits? Or do they just not acknowledge you are laid off and contest the benefits? This is a back door demotion to part time work at the very least.

You have to be employed for a certain (statutory) amount of time before you qual for benefits. Seasonal hires wouldn't.

Duh. Slaps forehead.

We're REALLY ****ed if we can't even afford Chinese ****. Maybe we can move production to Burundi.

Just go back to having the Elves at the North Pole make stuff. They work for free I think.

Plus it would nice with the fantasy economy.

@Gen, the way I read Bagbalm's question, he's asking about FT, not seasonal.

@Bagbalm, at least some states will give partial unemployment benefits to people whose hours have been reduced, but I don't know how the UE offices make that decision -- whether it's only for people who have officially been cut back, or whether it happens if someone just "doesn't get scheduled". Note also that this will depend on whether the person is really FT or is a "casual" worker who is offered hours when available.

My roommate over the summer was considered "casual" even though she had been getting 40 hours per week for some time, up until the economy tanked (then she was getting ten or less, hence she took in me as a roommate). As a result, she was unable to get UE.

Interesting, I'm a vendor for Walmart, so I'll ask the workers tomorrow if alot of seasonal workers were hired (fired) or not.

I think you could probably get unemployment if your hours were cut dramatically, but you'd have to quit altogether, file a claim, and then wait several months while the claim was contested.

You'd probably--eventually--win, assuming you had a full-time work history going back something like a year to a year-and-a-half that would allow you to qualify.

I actually went this route back in the 70s (because of hours cut) and eventually got UC, though the claim was contested for months.

I talked with the check out girl at my local Walmart and she said a lot of employees call in sick all the time but Walmart won't give the workers like her that never call in more hours.

She has never gotten 40 hours a week.

One of our friends lost his job in October and took a seasonal position with Target in Nassau County (Long Island).

He has already been informed he is more than likely to be terminated BEFORE Christmas.

My sister-in-law works at a Walmart - no cutbacks or layoffs at that one.

Told by two people who work at Kmart that the two stores here are closing after Christmas.

ditto the rumors about Kmart here in cols Ohio as well. This does not bode well for Sears most recent investment.