Three unexpected companies now announce layoffs in New Jersey according to filings with the Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
It’s important to note that under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, an employer with more than 100 full-time workers must provide 60 days’ notice before laying off 50 or more people at a single site.
Reckitt Benckiser, the producer of well-known brands like Mucinex, Enfamil, and Lysol, says it plans to cut a total of 100 jobs across the next two months.
This decision affects employees at its U.S. headquarters in Parsippany.
The trend extends beyond Reckitt Benckiser, with two other pharmaceutical giants in the county also advising of upcoming layoffs in New Jersey.
Bayer’s Whippany office will lay off 35 people in August, while Novartis Group in East Hanover plans to cut 61 jobs in September.
These announcements come on the heels of Novartis’ previous layoff of 103 employees from its U.S. headquarters in East Hanover.
These workforce reductions, totaling nearly 300 jobs, represent a significant shift in the pharmaceutical industry landscape in New Jersey, raising concerns about the sector’s stability and future in the region.
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Other Economy News Today
Applications for unemployment benefits now surge to new highs, a sign that the white-hot labor market is starting to cool off.
First-time applications for unemployment benefits rose last week to 231,000, the highest level since August, per CNN.
Thursday’s data also showed that the number of continuing claims, or applications from people who have filed for unemployment for at least one week, was 1.78 million.
That’s an increase of 17,000 from the prior week, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The latest numbers come less than a week after the monthly jobs report showed the US economy added just 175,000 positions in April, less than economists expected and a steep drop-off from prior months.
US employers have now added an average of 245,500 jobs per month, versus 2023’s 251,000-per-month average.
Still, hiring remains strong. Although the unemployment rate ticked up to 3.9% last month, it’s the 27th consecutive month that the jobless rate has held under 4%, matching a streak last seen in the late 1960s.
Weekly jobless claims data tends to be volatile but, while one week’s worth of data “does not a trend make,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at Fwdbonds.
“We can no longer be sure that calm seas lie ahead for the US economy if today’s weekly jobless claims are any indication.”
“Company layoffs are picking up, hinting at caution on the part of companies as they weigh the outlook for the second half of the year,” he wrote in a note Thursday.
The Federal Reserve has been battling inflation by raising its key lending rate in the hopes of slowing the economy.
While the labor market has so far resisted those efforts, remaining white hot for the past 18 months despite 11 rate hikes from the central bank, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said last week that demand has “cooled from its extremely high level of a couple of years ago.”
Ian Shepherdson at Pantheon Economics said in a note Thursday: “We’d need to see at least a month of elevated readings to convince us that the trend really has turned.”
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Also Read: A Giant Company Now Announces Unexpected Layoffs in Virginia
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