Job Cuts at Savannah Area Schools

The Savannah-Chatham County public school system has cut the jobs of 23 employees, and it expects to cut a total of 234 by June. School board chairman Joe Buck said Wednesday the cuts had to be made because of the economy. The 23 were certificated teachers filling administrative positions that the district does not expect to restore. The school board was legally required to notify them that their contracts will not be renewed before the state's Friday deadline. The bulk of the cuts - more than 200 teachers and non-contract employees - are expected to occur in June. Wednesday's cuts included four assistant principals.

(Associated Press)

Club Car Axes Jobs In Augusta

Golf cart manufacturer Club Car has laid-off 40 employees from its plant in Evans, and another 10 outside the state. Company officials say the reductions come at all levels and functions within its operations.

Until this move, the company had been cutting payroll through attrition, and not hiring as many temporary workers.

Club Car is Columbia County’s largest manufacturing employer, with 850 workers at its east Georgia plant.

Caterpillar To Close Plants In Jefferson, Griffin

Griffin and Jefferson will be the Georgia cities affected when heavy equipment maker Caterpillar lays-off more than 2,400 employees nationwide this year. Caterpillar Tuesday announced plans for the cuts at five U.S. plants, including two in Georgia.

The company’s fuel systems plant in Jefferson will close, putting 89 workers out of jobs by the end of June. In Spalding County, Caterpillar’s engine facility there will close its doors, putting another 200 out of work when the calendar hits May.

Caterpillar, based in Peoria, Illinois, says it is restructuring operations in the face of the economic downturn.

1-K Jobs To Be Cut At Milledgeville Plant

Rheem Manufacturing says it will close its plant in Millegeville by year’s end, putting 1,200 people out of work. The layoffs will be in phases, beginning in May. Production of heating and cooling units will continue at Rheem plants in Arkansas and Mexico. These job cuts come as Georgia deals with record-high unemployment--currently a rate of 8.6 percent.

Clayton Schools To Cut Jobs, Salaries

Clayton County will cut 200 teaching jobs from its school system and effectively slash salaries for administrators and other employees. 100 staff members are also slated to lose jobs, although a county official says the hope is to trim jobs through attrition.

The action for the county just south of Atlanta will save more than $20 million from next year’s budget. Clayton already knows it will get $23 million less in funding from the state next year.

Clayton's school board voted 8-0 Monday night to approve the plan.

Commerce Hospital Cuts Jobs

45 jobs have been cut from a northeast Georgia hospital due to what it says is declining revenue from Medicare and Medicaid. The BJC Medical Center in Commerce says it provided more than $1.3 million in services to indigent patients last year. The hospital also says it absorbed $5 million in losses from unpaid medical bills. Support staff took the brunt of the cuts, but positions were also eliminated from medical staff. The Commerce hospital has a staff of about 400.

Delta Connection Carrier to Cut 80 Pilots

Eighty pilots with Delta Connection carrier Atlantic Southeast Airlines are losing their jobs in the face of tough economic conditions. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports the furloughs are the first in the history of Atlanta-based ASA. All of the carrier’s 1,700 pilots are based in Atlanta. A company spokeswoman says those affected have been offered voluntary retirements and voluntary leaves. As Atlanta-based Delta has plans in-place to cut capacity by six to eight percent, ASA is affected by those cutbacks--being a Delta Connection carrier. The ASA layoffs take effect February 9th.

DeKalb schools weighing painful cuts

DeKalb County schools are grappling with pending job cuts. The system's proposal puts more than 200 employees in danger of losing their jobs in the county’s effort to save money. Three different options are being considered for the job cuts--ranging from mid-level administrators, to groundskeepers, to drivers-education instructors. Cuts are NOT being considered for teachers positions, janitors and media specialists. The moves could be made as early as December.

Coca-Cola cutting jobs

Coca-Cola plans to cut some information technology jobs in order to streamline operations. The Atlanta-based beverage maker would not say how many jobs would be dropped from its IT department of 1,100 employees. Coke will notify those affected by mid-November, with separations taking place by the end of the year. Coke president and CEO Muhtar Kent said earlier this year he wanted to find up to 500-million dollars in annual savings in the next three years.

State jobs cut in Macon

Twenty-five state employees in Macon are losing their jobs. The Georgia Professional Licensing Boards are headquartered in Macon. The state agency oversees licensing for many professions like nursing, dentistry and accounting. The boards are staffed by 132 employees. Now nearly 20-percent of those workers are being let go. The Georgia Secretary of State's office oversees the boards and decided to make the cuts. They go into effect on November 1st. The changes were not supposed to go into effect until next year, but the Secretary of state's office decided to implement them early following the Governor's call for a 6-percent budget reduction by all state agencies.

Synovus, Capital One cutting Columbus jobs

Columbus-based Synovus Financial Corporation said Wednesday they were cutting back 230 positions.

Company officials say that’s out of 650 posts in total among their five-state operation, and that over half the losses were due to attrition. The cutback will be spread over the next two years.

Synovus is Georgia’s second-largest banking institution.

In addition, The Associated Press reports that Capital One it will close its GreenPoint Mortgage
servicing center in Columbus, eliminating 220 jobs by the end of the year, including customer service, production support, collections and investor reporting.

Atlanta-based Simmons Bedding also plans to close its Mableton plant and lay off 103 employees this month.

Simmons Chairman and CEO Charlie Eitel says the Sept. 18 layoffs come amid "excess capacity" after the company expanded operations, and "difficult times" in the bedding and home furnishings industries.

Local manufacturing will move to plants in Waycross and Charlotte, N.C. The plant had reduced shifts from two to one this spring, cut about 50 jobs and transferred operations to a plant in Dallas.

The cutbacks come as 59,090 Georgians filed first-time unemployment claims in August, according to Department of Labor officials - a 72-percent rise since last year.

Click here for more GPB News coverage about the latest job cuts.

(The AP contributed to this report)

DHR furloughing employees as part of budget cuts

Governor Perdue has asked all state agencies to show they're cutting their 2009 - 2010 budgets between six and ten percent.

The Department of Human Resources is one of the agencies slashing costs, in order to meet a mid-September deadline.

DHR is the largest state agency, employing 19,000 people. It's ordering employees to take a one-day furlough a month, in order to save between $92 million and $150 million dollars.

DHR officials say that,

"All employees earning $35,569 or more (pay grade 15 and above), including all leadership and the DHR Commissioner, will take one furlough day each month."

Exemptions from the furloughs include:

"Child welfare and adult protective services caseworkers [DFACS] and their direct supervisors, all direct-care staff at state hospitals and employees earning less than $35,569 (pay grade 14 and below)."

DHR says they're tightening their belt in other ways, as well, including cutting:

"non-essential travel for state business, suspending all vehicle purchases until further notice, suspending non-critical equipment and supplies purchases for the next 90 days and suspending non-critical hiring unless approved by DHR Commissioner, SPA and OPB."

The new policy goes into effect on September 16th.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of the state economic crisis.

City of Atlanta budget crisis to force massive layoffs

More than 400 people who work for the city of Atlanta may lose their jobs under a new plan proposed by its mayor to deal with budget problems. Mayor Shirley Franklin’s plan to deal with an expected 140-million dollar shortfall calls for layoffs to begin today and go through Monday. The city may combine job cuts with a property tax increase and fee increases to make its budget.

Delta adjusts to rising fuel costs

Delta Air Lines today announced a partial hiring freeze among steps it’s taking to deal with soaring fuel costs.

Delta and other carriers are trying to manage the rising expense of fuel in their budgets. From a mid-January average price of $1.73 a gallon for fuel, the jump has been substantial--to an average $2.55 a gallon at the end of November.

Atlanta-based Delta says it’s holding-off on new hires for positions that are not face-to-face with the public, such as in office and administrative areas. A spokesperson says there will not be job cuts.

The airline also plans to reduce the number of flights for off-peak times on particular routes. Also, it will go ahead with the return of 13 leased jets from a fleet of around 450.

In a web-cast of an investors conference earlier today, Delta president Ed Bastian said its operating profit margins for the 4th quarter of this year, will come in flat or down 2-percent. Its earlier projections called for profits of 3-5 percent.