January 29, 2009 11:05 AM

A tough Wednesday bleeds into Thursday
Posted by Jesse Nunesat 11:05 AM

Well, the layoff announcements yesterday rivaled those of Monday, making this a pretty dismal week. Again, the scope and breadth of layoffs in the state and across the country continues to hit all industries.

And the scary thing is there still seems no end in sight. Even more companies announced job cuts today, as the number of Americans claiming jobless benefits jumped to a record high.

The AP reports:

Businesses continued to hemorrhage jobs Thursday. Ford Motor Co. reported a fourth-quarter loss of $5.9 billion and said its credit arm would cut 20 percent of its work force, or 1,200 jobs. Eastman Kodak Co. said it's cutting 3,500 to 4,500 jobs, or 14 to 18 percent of its work force, as it posted a $137 million quarterly loss on plunging sales of photography products.

...

Starbucks Corp. on Wednesday said it would cut 6,700 jobs. The coffee company also said it would close 300 underperforming stores, on top of 600 it already planned to shut down.

Time Warner Inc.'s AOL division is cutting up to 700 jobs, or about 10 percent of the online unit's work force. And IBM Corp. has cut thousands of jobs in its sales, software and hardware divisions in the past week, without announcing specific numbers.

Boeing Co., Pfizer Inc., Home Depot Inc. and other U.S. corporate titans also have announced tens of thousands of job cuts this week alone.

In addition, more Massachusetts-based business also announced cuts yesterday and today. Analogic Corp. of Peabody is cutting 128 jobs, Sepracor of Marlborough is cutting 530 jobs, Cambridge Health Alliance is reducing its workforce by 300 employees and closing some clinics, and Teradyne of North Reading said it would cut 14 percent of its 3,800 worldwide workforce, or around 530 workers.