Jobs, Job Cuts | featured news

American Express Co. says it will slash roughly 5,400 jobs, mainly in its travel business, and book a $287 million restructuring charge.

Dutch electronics company Royal Philips Electronics announced a further $382.7 million of cost savings and said another 2,200 jobs will be lost globally.

Conservative Republicans have long clamored for government downsizing. They're starting to get it — by default. Crippled by plunging tax revenues, state and local governments have shed over a half million jobs since the recession began in December 2007. And, after adding jobs early in the downturn, the federal government is now cutting them as well.

In early summer, before layoffs began sweeping across Wall Street, billboard-sized photos of employees were plastered on the walls, pillars and elevator banks of Credit Suisse Group AG's offices in the United States and abroad.

Bank of America Corp. is cutting 3,500 employees this quarter and working on restructuring plans that will ax several thousand more jobs, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times reported citing people familiar with the situation....

In a healthy recovery, states and localities produce jobs, expand social services and help fuel the nation's economic growth. Then there's the 2011 recovery. The U.S. economy is moving ahead, however fitfully. Yet state and local governments are still stuck in recession. Short of cash, they cut 30,000 jobs in May, the seventh straight month they've shed workers. Rather than add to U.S. economic growth, they're subtracting from it.

Private employers added 67,000 jobs, more than forecast, but governments shed jobs in August, the Labor Department reported.

The Pentagon, trying to free up cash in the face of a yawning U.S. deficit, unveiled a series of cost-cutting measures on Wednesday that will shed thousands of jobs and shut down an entire military command.

Economists say the U.S. recovery continued during the second quarter of this year with more businesses hiring workers and fewer cutting jobs, but the pace of growth has slowed, a new survey shows.

Hewlett-Packard plans to cut 3,000 jobs over the next few years as it ramps up its use of automated data centers for business customers, the company announced Tuesday.