Layoffs

Burbank's Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center said Tuesday that it had laid off 95 of its 2,517 employees and closed four hospital programs as a result of rising costs at a time of economic turmoil. Providence spokeswoman Patricia Aidem said the cutbacks marked the end for units offering urgent care, foot care for diabetics and treatment for workplace injuries -- as well as a transitional-care unit, which prepares patients for care elsewhere.

In a dramatic cost-cutting move, home furnishings retailer Williams-Sonoma Inc. said Wednesday that it would cut 18% of its workforce, reduce its inventory and close a call center and distribution facility. The San Francisco-based company, which is also parent of the Pottery Barn chain, said the series of actions would reduce costs by about $75 million in fiscal 2009. The announcement came on yet another day of bad news for the retail industry. Women's retailer Charlotte Russe Holding Inc.

No teachers will lose their jobs this school year, Los Angeles Unified School District officials announced Friday, a calculated gamble that will preserve classroom continuity in the short term but lead to a larger deficit next year. The decision reverses course from last week, when the school board voted to give Supt. Ramon C. Cortines the authority to send pink slips to nearly 2,300 instructors.

Nancy Craven, 52, shook as she introduced herself, tears in her eyes. "I am a county worker with the Social Services Agency," she said. "Or, I will be, for the next two weeks. I just got my layoff notice yesterday."

Discount retailer Target Corp. said Tuesday that it would cut 9% of its headquarters staff, close a distribution center and reduce planned store openings as it battled the weak economy. The staff cuts include 600 employees and 400 open positions, mostly in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota where Target is based. This year the company also plans to close its Little Rock, Ark., distribution center, which employs an additional 500 people.

Panasonic Corp., sinking into what it expects will be its first annual loss in six years, said Wednesday that it was slashing about 15,000 jobs and closing 27 plants worldwide. It joins a string of Japanese companies making deep cuts as they cope with the global slowdown. Plunging consumer demand, lower gadget prices and the soaring yen, which erodes overseas income, are battering Panasonic, the world's largest maker of plasma TVs. It said Wednesday that it swung to a loss of 63.

International Rectifier Corp. said Thursday it would close its El Segundo semiconductor plant as part of a plan to slash its global workforce 18%. The El Segundo company announced the closure after reporting a fiscal second-quarter loss of $186.1 million, or $2.56 a share. The company reported a profit of $313,000 in the same quarter a year earlier. International Rectifier said it planned to eliminate 850 jobs in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.

One day after FedEx Corp. announced it would trim 900 jobs from its hardest hit shipping arm, Chief Executive Fred W. Smith said Tuesday that he expected the U.S. economy to improve by late summer or early fall. The 900 workers amount to less than 3% of the roughly 35,000 employees of FedEx Freight, one of the Memphis, Tenn., package delivery company's major segments dealing with automotive, industrial and home construction materials.

Bullish on the prospects of winning approval this weekend of a budget to close California's deficit, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger delayed plans Friday to dispatch layoff notices to up to 20,000 state workers. But as the clock ticked toward a planned vote today by the Legislature, the odds appeared mixed for endorsement of a spending blueprint said by battle-worn officials to contain something that everyone can hate.

Univision Communications Inc., the nation's largest Spanish-language broadcaster, on Friday became the latest media company to cut its ranks because of the weakening economy and a sharp downturn in advertising spending. A spokeswoman said the company, which owns the top-rated Los Angeles station, KMEX-TV Channel 34, had laid off 300 people, or 6% of its workers. It was unclear how many jobs would be lost locally.