The pace of officially announced layoffs and furloughs in the Bay Area is showing continued signs of easing compared with the ferocity of job cuts during April and May amid coronavirus-linked business shutdowns, an analysis of notices on file with the state’s labor agency shows.
Nordstrom has filed plans with the state agency for layoffs affecting thousands of Bay Area workers, while Six Flags Discovery Kingdom has proposed layoffs for several hundred employees in Vallejo, according to formal WARN notices received in early June by the Employment Development Department.
The WARN notices provide only a partial snapshot of the economic consequences of business shutdowns imposed by state and local government agencies. A monthly EDD report provides the official status of the job market in the Bay Area and California. However, the WARN notices do indicate which California companies have informed the EDD officially of plans to lay off workers on a temporary or permanent basis.
Nordstrom’s layoffs — all described as temporary — affected just over 2,500 of the upscale department store’s workers in the Bay Area, the company’s WARN notice showed. The Nordstrom WARN notice, dated April 15 and posted on June 2 and June 3 by the EDD, stated the layoffs began around April 5.
“These furloughs will continue indefinitely but are intended to be temporary and last less than six months,” Michelle McCray, Nordstrom’s director of HR administrative services, wrote in a letter to the EDD.
Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo notified the EDD of temporary layoffs that affected slightly more than 900 workers. The Vallejo theme park WARN notice, dated April 18 and posted on June 2 by the EDD, stated that the staffing reductions began in mid-March.
“The shutdown and furlough at the theme park are expected to be temporary,” Kimberly Beiner, director of administration at the Six Flags complex in Vallejo, stated in the letter to the EDD.
