Mazda to Cut 250 Jobs

If you know the Mazda Motor Corp. then it is probably by their cars. Unless, you work for the company, in which case you may soon know them as the benefactor of your latest layoff. The company is getting ready to cut back on staff in a big way. The company is expected to cut back on staff by about 250 workers between now and the end of the current fiscal year.

The company is going to cut back on workers in the US and Europe in sales-management rolls.  While for the time being the company is not giving out any official word on the exact date of the job cuts we do know some things about who will be cut and where the job losses will come from exactly. In Europe the company will be cutting workers primarily in the nation of Germany. In the United States the company is getting rid of workers in two states. The impacted positions will come from the state of California and the state of Michigan.

This means that it is likely that not one, but two different states will be facing a mass layoff action in the near future. For those of you who are not familiar with the idea of a mass layoff action, here is a look at how the federal government defines the term, “Monthly mass layoff numbers are from establishments which have at least 50 initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) filed against them during a 5-week period. Extended mass layoff numbers (issued quarterly) are from a subset of such establishments—where private sector nonfarm employers indicate that 50 or more workers were separated from their jobs for at least 31 days.”

While these job cuts are going to be hard on the impacted workers they do seem to be part of a larger plan by the company to restructure. On the 1^st of June the company put out a press release describing in detail some of the job changes it is making to people who are not going to get the ax in the next couple of months. These changes reflect a significant number of changes, across many departments in the company, to the way that tings work at this carmaker.

It is no shock that the company is getting ready to make some major changes to the way that they work. After all the company has not posted a profit on their car sales in more than four years. Even in the current economy this is enough to out even large companies in a fairly rough fiscal spot. This reorganization and round of job cuts may be needed. Hopefully this is the only round of cuts that the company needs to make in order to set things to right.

Currently there is no information on what kind of severance benefits or job placement assistance the company may give the soon to be displaced workers. For the time being all workers can do is wait and watch to see if they are going to be one of the ones who gets the axe.