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Wednesday, May 24, 2006

More Banking Job Shrinkage

More mortgage job losses for Washington State:

Washington Mutual Inc., the nation's largest savings and loan, notified 1,400 workers in Washington and Florida on Tuesday that they will lose their jobs as part of the company's cost-saving strategy.

About 850 workers at the company's call center in the Seattle suburb of Canyon Park were told they will be laid off by the end of July, spokeswoman Darcy Donahoe-Wilmot said.
...
"It's part of our strategy announced last year to move back-office jobs to lower-cost locations," Donahoe-Wilmot said.
I certainly wouldn't call a shifting of employees from one part of the country to another much of a portent of industry trouble, but it still translates to 850 jobs lost in Washington, and at least bears mentioning.

(Associated Press, Seattle P-I, 05.23.2006)

20 comments:

Eleua said...

I wonder if this is factored into the rosy scenario of 10,000 new jobs coming to the PNW every year for the next ten years?

The Tim said...

Canyon Park

Anonymous said...

Washington is still bringing in knowledge workers. http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/18/real_estate/reguide_what_up_in_washington/index.htm?section=money_latest

As for the call center workers laid off in Bothell, it is unfortunate, but they are not driving the market in Seattle.

Anonymous said...

Love to hear from the bulls like the Anon above. No bad news is bad news. Unbelievable faith.

Every time WA. lays off more mortgage workers, they jump on to tell us how it doesn't matter. Won't affect WA state RE. Won't affect Seattle RE.

It really makes you wonder, when DO these people start thinking that all of these job losses in a RE related industry just may matter?

Three major Seattle area companies in about a month and a half: Merit, Ameriquest and WAMU.

How bad does it have to get before they say "OK, that's a bad sign." ? Or even "Ok, well MAYBE that's a bad sign" ?

Anonymous said...

Anon 10:23-

Like Bothell is in another universe! Jeez it's right up the street! Really nutty!

meshugy said...

I'm not sure which direction we're going with jobs...the refi business is laying off just about everyone now. But the tech industries seem to be hiring..

I talked to a friend of mine who is senior veteran of Microsoft's marketing dept. He said he just looked at their job listings yesterday and there were over 11,000 unfilled positions.

'm

Jackson Wallace said...

I thought MSFT just announced uesterday that they gave warnings to a good ly section of their employees. Just because they have tons of positions that any major IT company would like to fill, doesnt mean less desireable employees cant be frozen or let go.

Anonymous said...

Merit and Ameriquest, major companies in Seattle? Please. How about Amgen hiring 750 employees? They make more than your average call center workers. http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=amgen29&date=20060329&query=amgen+hiring

Yes there is a nationwide bubble but Seattle will be near the end of the line for an adjustment.

Anonymous said...

Wow! Did I just hear someone admit that Seattle may be in for an "adjustment"?!

Anonymous said...

Hey there meshugy. Your "senior veteran of Microsoft's marketing department" friend would be wise not to violate his confidentiality agreement to someone such as yourself who goes and posts the information publicly.

You can verify for yourself how many jobs Microsoft has open by going to http://www.microsoft.com/jobs.

meshugy said...

The Microsoft page shows 4631 jobs nationwide.

3951 of those jobs are for WA, mostly Seattle and the Eastside.

Anonymous said...

MS jobs?
Back to year 2002, there were also a lot of "unfilled" positions (it has always like this) - but MS froze hiring. Also, in that year, MS said it would hire 7000 people. The actual number?

It's not the number matters ... the salary leve matters.

Anonymous said...

Since MS hiring estimates vary so wildly, from 800- 10,000 near as I can tell, how about we quit talking about how many people MS MIGHT be hiring in Seattle and just stick with reporting numbers of how many they hired today?

The whole MS projected jobs things is proving to be a worthless, futile excersize, don't you think?

Anonymous said...

Never forget that Microsoft is playing the H1B game -- they have a vested interest in making it appear as though there is a vast, unfilled demand for skilled tech workers, so that they can convince congress to allow more wage-slaves (err...H1B immigrants...sorry...) into the country.

Bill Gates goes before congress on a regular basis to make this claim.

Anonymous said...

Good point Anon. Between that and the Bellevue realtors, no wonder the rumors got out of hand.

Anonymous said...

Don't forget that often times companies like to have a nice database of talent ready to contact. It may be that a very large number of the MS postings are actually looking to scout for talent. It wouldn't surprise me if every dept. had at least one posting for a position just to stock their talent pipeline database and make offers to only the very most talented and desirable candidates.

Anonymous said...

The Sky is Falling. Seattle housing is about to Crash. Microsoft is a shifty company that only hires H1B folks. And then lays them off. Certainly not a positive force in our region. I am a whiner because I only earn the median King County income and can't afford a house in Seattle within walking distance to downtown. (all I can say is, at Meshugy seeks truth on this board, the rest of you are all emotion)

Anonymous said...

Nervous, Anon ?

Anonymous said...

Actually, this blog IS kind of whiny. Go to the Northern New Jersey or Marin Bubble spots if you are looking for more factual info. on why people believe housing will crash in the US- and not just float!

The Tim said...

I earn above median income, and I can't afford a house anywhere within 20 miles of the city. If it makes me a whiner to point out that I think that's out of whack, then so be it.