Cisco Systems is laying off about 500 of its employees.

A company spokeswoman said the company is not commenting on the exact number of people let go or the locations where the employees worked, other than to say those affected were across the company's locations and countries.

“We routinely review our business to determine where we need to align investments based on growth opportunities," a spokeswoman said in a statement. "Earlier this week, Cisco performed a limited restructuring that will impact approximately 500 employees which is less than 1 percent of our population globally.”

Cisco's campus in Research Triangle Park houses more than 5,000 employees and contractors, making it the company's second-largest site behind its San Jose headquarters.

The company has been under pressure to improve its performance as corporations and governments reduce spending on Cisco's networking gear.

Last summer Cisco announced plans to eliminate 1,300 jobs, or about 2 percent of its workforce. That was on top of an earlier reduction that cut about 6,500 workers globally.

AT&T is eliminating 66 call center jobs in Greensboro as the telecommunications company consolidates operations in Birmingham, Alabama.

AT&T notified the N.C. Department of Commerce this week that it is eliminating the positions on March 30. The slots include 59 collections representatives and 7 office assistants.

AT&T spokesman Josh Gelinas said the company is closing the Greensboro office but added that all affected employees are being offered similar jobs in Alabama, along with a relocation allowance. The workers at the Credit and Collections Call Center are represented by the Communications Workers of America.

AT&T has other offices in Greensboro that are not affected by this closure.

Gelinas also suggested that the staff cut should be seen in perspective. Last year, he said, AT&T hired more than 400 technicians and retail employees in North Carolina. "These are good union jobs with competitive wages, and good benefits," Gelinas said.

The private contractor that has handled Medicaid claims for North Carolina for the past decade is laying off 97 people in the wake of a contract cancellation.

ValueOptions has notified the N.C. Department of Commerce it plans to lay off 77 workers in Morrisville and 20 in Charlotte between January and April. The workers, mostly care managers and clinical services assistants, perform utilization review of higher levels of Medicaid behavioral health services.

The N.C. Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services is transferring the Medicaid contracts to local government organizations that will manager services for specific regions of the state. The organizations could hire some or most of the ValueOptions workers who will be laid off, said ValueOptions spokesman Tom Warburton.

ValueOptions staff reviews utilization of services for mental health and substance abuse, as well as inpatient, residential and outpatient care.

Norfolk, Va.-based ValueOptions employs 220 in North Carolina and will keep about 120 in Morrisville after the layoffs. The remaining employees manage employee assistance programs and other behavioral healthcare services for commercial and other insurers.

Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center announced this morning that it will eliminate 950 positions by June 30 of next year.

About half the reductions will be achieved by eliminating vacant positions, attrition, retirements as well as by eliminating temporary and contract worker jobs.

About 475 of the 950 positions are currently filled with full-time employees. Those employees account for about 3.5 percent of Wake Forest Baptist's total workforce.

The Winston-Salem medical center laid off 76 workers this week.

Maysteel is closing its Creedmoor facility and laying off about 100 people.

The Allenton, Wis.-based company announced the cuts in a notice filed last week with the N.C. Department of Commerce. The layoffs are expected to take effect between Dec. 1 and April, when the plant is scheduled to close.

Maysteel said it is transferring the work done in Creedmoor, about 30 miles north of Raleigh, to the company's other facilities.

Reuters  reported last week that Swiss investment bank Credit Suisse is planning another round of heavy layoffs in Europe as part of its previously announced plan to cut 3,500 jobs from its worldwide workforce of around 50,000. Sources told Reuters the new cuts would include senior management positions in the bank's investment banking division.

Credit Suisse spokeswoman Marcy Frank declined to comment Monday whether the worldwide cuts will affect the bank’s workers at its Research Triangle Park location.

At the end of 2010, Credit Suisse employed 1,100 workers and 200 contractors at its Morrisville tech support facility, which has expanded several times in the years since it opened in 2004.

In a rare move in June, the Swiss central bank warned Credit Suisse and rival UBS that both investment banks need to build up more capital to prepare for the possibility of the European debt crisis getting worse.

Source: Reuters

http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/06/25/creditsuisse-jobs-idINL6E8HPCCB20120625

A Mebane furniture maker is going out of business after 66 years of operation.

Craftique Furniture said today it will wind down operations in May when it fills remaining orders for its "heirloom quality" mahogany furniture.

On Thursday Craftique will hold a liquidation sale in Burlington, at 2679 Ramada Road, the site of its factory store.

The shutdown will cost about 28 jobs at the company's manufacturing facility in Mebane and the factory store, said co-owner John Erwin.

The estimated number of casualties from Monday's layoff at IBM has risen to 1,440 and is likely to be close to the final tally, according to a labor union that is trying to organize IBM's workers.

"This is a big one," said union organizer Lee Conrad in New York. "It's close to the final number."

Conrad said that a half-dozen anonymous emails from IBM's site in Research Triangle Park indicates that North Carolina was not spared in this round of layoffs. The jobs being eliminated in this country are being sent to other countries, the posts say.

The Alliance@IBM began reporting IBM's layoffs on Monday as reports began trickling in from affected workers. The Alliance was able to estimate the layoff totals because affected workers receive notices disclosing how many workers in their units were let go and how many spared.

IBM is going through another layoff that could last all day and into the week, according to a labor union trying to represent the company's workers.

The Alliance@IBM in New York state, where IBM is based, began receiving calls and emails from IBM workers this morning. The layoffs are scattered across various sites and affect numerous divisions, said Lee Conrad, the union organizer.

The scale of the layoffs won't be know for days, but the union reports 350 layoffs as of late afternoon, based on reports received from affected employees. The employees receive layoff notifications that reveal how many colleagues in their departments were affected and how many spared, but don't identify the other employees.

Conrad said he didn't know if anyone lost work today at IBM's Research Triangle Park site, where the company is estimated to employ about 10,000 people.

Industrial oven manufacturer Turkington USA, which moved its manufacturing plant to Clayton just two and a half years ago, is shutting down the facility and laying off 101 people.

The company detailed the layoffs in a notice filed Monday with the N.C. Department of Commerce. The notice said a temporary receiver has been appointed to wind down or sell the business.

Turkington officials could not be reached for comment Thursday. The announcement marks a quick fall for the business, which is the U.S. subsidiary of United Kingdom-based Turkington Industries.