Tennessee lands another big manufacturer

A billion-dollar plant to be built near Cleveland, Tenn., will manufacture the basic material used in solar-energy cells. It means 500 to 600 jobs initially.

Gaylord slashes 350 jobs

180 of the cuts are in Nashville.

Nissan to slash 20,000 jobs

The automaker is not yet saying if its worldwide job cutting will include employees at plants in Middle Tennessee. Nissan has its North American headquarters in Franklin and an assembly plant in Smyrna, which has been operating on four-day work weeks in response to poor market conditions.

Unions find signs of hope

Union membership actually rose in 2008 in Tennessee and across the nation, even as the economy shed jobs and moved into a recession.Furloughs, layoffs and buyouts have left workers worried about job security, and union representatives say workers are contacting them frequently to discuss possible organizational drives.

Stimulus may save 75,000 Tennessee jobs

About 20,000 of the jobs from the federal stimulus package could be in the Nashville area, says MTSU economist David Penn, left. But he says the impact is months away.

Looking for a restaurant job?

Chipotle Mexican Grill says it's coming to Nashville. The site on West End Avenue will be the quick-service chain's first location here.

No quick fix for Peterbilt

The Peterbilt truck factory in Madison will remain closed at least until the end of the year because of slow sales, the company says. The plant was already shut down due to a labor dispute with the United Auto Workers.

Nashville gains, Lebanon loses

Dell says it will close part of its computer manufacturing facility in Lebanon, Tenn., and move 250 to 300 employees to Nashville. It seems those desktop computers just aren't selling so well anymore.

Temp workers losing out, too

Big employers are jettisoning temporary workers in addition to full-timers.

Nashville may escape this job cut

Ford Motor Credit will cut 20 percent of its 6,100-employee U.S. work force by the end of July, but most of the 990 workers in Nashville will be spared, the company says.

50,000 are jobless in Nashville area

Employers have their pick of applicants in the state's worst job market since 1986. In this job fair at LP Field, jobs were scarce and applications were plentiful. The Nashville-Murfreesboro area reported 6.5 percent unemployment, up from 4.2 percent a year ago.

New option for filing jobless claim

Can't get through on the phone? Officials would prefer that you file your state unemployment claim online, but starting Thursday you can also choose to file in person through a small group session. Here are times and locations.

Bloody Monday

That's the headline that seems to be taking root from yesterday's depressingly abundant amount of layoff news. CNN has a full rundown of U.S. job cuts announced so far this year.

Unemployment check may not come quickly

Tennessee's unemployment offices are so swamped that they can't get all the checks issued on time. They're working on it, the state says.

If you need to apply for unemployment, check out these tips to make it easier. You might want to cross your fingers, too.

And if you're in one of those oddball situations -- you're not completely without work, but you've been furloughed for a week or two, or your boss has chopped your hours, or you've been laid off but you managed to pick up a few days of work -- then you may want to take a look at how your unemployment benefits will be affected.

A heavy dose of layoff news

More companies big and small announced Monday that they are cutting jobs or closing down. Among the news:

• Home Depot is closing down its Expo stores, affecting 150 workers in Nashville.
• Caterpillar is laying off 20,000 people. No word on the local impact.
• General Motors will halt production for several weeks at nine plants, including the one in Spring Hill.
• Sprint Nextel will cut 8,000 jobs in the first quarter.
• radius10, a restaurant in the Gulch near downtown, is closing its doors.
  

It's a lot to absorb in a single day.

Gooey jobs coming to Nashville

The company that makes Goo Goo Clusters is closing its plant in Eastman, Ga., and will relocate 250 jobs to Nashville.

DuPont Old Hickory plant to lay off up to 240 workers

DuPont will close part of its Old Hickory plant by the end of March, laying off about 140 regular employees and from 80-100 contract workers, the company announced.

Accountants, doctors come out ahead in recession

Bucking a national recession, some businesses did quite well in 2008, including doctor offices, highway construction contractors and limited-service restaurants, according to Stageworks Inc., a Raleigh, N.C.-based financial analysis company.

Stageworks analyzed financial information for more than 34,000 companies in the South, gathered from CPA clients. The company found – not surprisingly – the top growth industry in the South in terms of sales was petroleum wholesaling, which saw sales climb 15 percent in 2008.
That’s because total sales figures for oil distributors are based on the price of oil.

Others in the top 12 for sales increases include businesses involved in computer systems design, building equipment contracting (think heating and air conditioning), bookkeeping and accountanting and doctors’ offices. Worst performing industries in the South during 2008 were lumber sales, retail businesses, construction and manufacturing.

Circuit City to liquidate its remaining stores

The closures could send another 30,000 people into the ranks of the unemployed.

Vought workers end strike

After 16 weeks on the picket lines, union members agreed to a deal worse than the one they rejected in September. Vought has up to 14 days to bring everyone back to work.

Strikers feel pressure at Vought Aircraft Industries

More than 840 union workers have been on strike for 14 weeks because of proposed changes to pension and health-care benefits, but the company announced this week that it will hire permanent replacements for them.

Macy's to close Bellevue store

A company press release indicates that 76 employees there could be affected.

Clarksville's biggest manufacturing employer gets smaller

Another 111 hourly production workers are being laid off this week at Trane, which makes heating and air conditioning equipment. That's in addition to 91 job reductions announced in mid-November.

Job losses hit 'recession-proof' hospitals

Tennessee hospitals are cutting staff and increasing charity care as the economy slumps.

"The old adage used to be health care is recession-proof, and it's not," said Joel Lee, associate vice chancellor for communications at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.