Weekly Layoff Report:

Layoff Tracker
Double-Digit Days
03.27.09

Layoffs are causing tension everywhere now. The manager of a 3M plant in France was held hostage by angry workers for more than a day this week after it was announced that 110 of the 235 employees at the plant would be let go.

According to U.S. Department of Labor data released Friday, seven states are now enduring double-digit unemployment. In California, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island and South Carolina between 10.1% and 12% are out of work. (Highlights of the week's activity are recorded by the Forbes.com Layoff Tracker, which counts the layoffs at all the nation's 500 largest corporations.)

IBM led the week by planning a cut of 5,000 jobs. That's about 4% of the company's U.S. workforce, and it follows a 2,800-worker layoff in January. IBM shares have fallen only 19% over the past year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 has lost almost 40%. IBM has held to relatively strong projections for 2009, despite ongoing worries about consumer spending. But almost no business can escape layoffs now.

Agilent Technologies isn't so optimistic with its projections. Expecting a 30% drop in some of its revenue streams, the company is cutting 2,700 jobs. That was the only other four-figure workforce cut announced this week. Agilent is also freezing its share buyback program until at least the end of this year.

Wal-Mart is closing an Ohio unit that supports the eye-care centers in the company's stores. That means a layoff of 650 employees. It's part of ongoing cutting at the company, including 1,200 layoffs announced in February.

Shaw Industries, a carpet-weaving subsidiary of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, is feeling the housing industry's woes and is closing two plants. That will end up idling 600 workers.

Even products for drowning one's woe are struggling due to the consumer spending crunch. Wine company Constellation Brands is slashing 5% of its workforce--roughly 400 workers. The company cites slumps in wine sales in Britain and Australia at the end of last year.

Other lesser players in layoffs this week: Google, 200; Synovus Financial, 200; Cummins, 127; Legg Mason, 120; and Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, 50.

The Forbes.com Layoff Tracker, updated daily, currently counts 524,801 layoffs announced at America's 500 largest public companies since Nov. 1, 2008.