By Stacie N. Galang
Staff Writer
March 07, 2009 05:48 am PEABODY — Brooksby Village is the latest company to issue pink slips. The retirement community cut 18 full-time jobs Thursday as part of a layoff under parent company Erickson Retirement Communities. The job losses account for a 2.04 percent reduction at the Peabody campus, bringing the number of employees to 864, according to Erickson spokesman Mel Tansill. "We continue to evaluate opportunities to increase revenue and reduce costs during this economic downturn," Tansill said in a prepared statement. "We recently employed new pricing strategies to drive revenue, and we have been examining our community operations to find cost efficiencies." The privately held company of 4,893 employees shed 88 positions this week at 10 of its retirement communities nationwide, Tansill said. It's the first time Baltimore-based Erickson has had to let employees go, he said. The news comes after unemployment in the state hit 7.4 percent in January, according to the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. Nationally, unemployment hit a 26-year high of 8.1 percent in February. The job cuts have been felt throughout the North Shore. Peabody's Analogic Corp. and Christian Book Distributors both cut jobs in recent months. Analogic, makers of high-tech medical and security imaging systems, shed 140 positions, or 9 percent of its worldwide work force, in January. About 128 of those jobs were based in Massachusetts, most from the company's Peabody headquarters. Christian Book Distributors, the largest religious catalog company in the world, cut 37 jobs, or 7 percent of the company's work force, in February, reducing employee numbers to 528. In December, Danvers and Salem held the highest unemployment rates at 6.4 percent, according to the most recent data available from the state. Not far behind were Peabody at 6 percent and Beverly at 5.8 percent. Unemployment statistics for January are expected from the state on Tuesday. In Massachusetts, Erickson also operates Linden Ponds in Hingham, which did not face job cuts. Tansill said the 18 laid-off Brooksby workers were offered severance packages, but he did not go into detail. He said the cuts would help keep residents' monthly fees "as affordable as possible while preserving the programs that directly impact" residents' lifestyles. The cuts would "better align" Brooksby Village to current occupancy levels and optimum staffing ratios, but Tansill would not elaborate further. In December, John DeCecca, Brooksby's director of sales and marketing, told The Salem News that the Peabody campus had an occupancy rate that tops 99 percent and that in a given month less than 13 of its 1,349 apartments went vacant. The impact of the stock market almost certainly hurt Erickson, too. The company takes the proceeds from its residents' home sales and invests it for as long as the sellers live at Brooksby Village. Brooksby keeps whatever interest the sale money earns. When a resident leaves, the sale price of the house is refunded to them or their heirs. As of December, residents paid between $1,300 and $2,400 a month, depending on the size of their apartment. Tansill said the company did not anticipate increases in its monthly fees, at least as of yesterday. Peabody Mayor Michael Bonfanti said he was not surprised by the layoffs given the way the economy was going. "This is unfortunate," he said. "It's everywhere, not just the city of Peabody." He pointed out, however, that the city is welcoming new employers like high-end retailer Nordstrom and Children's Hospital. "It's not all awful news," he said. Unemployment on the north shore The Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reported Thursday that Massachusetts' unemployment rate jumped from 6.4 percent in December to 7.4 percent in January. Job cuts across the state numbered 4,900 in January alone. Jobs in Massachusetts are down 72,600 from a year ago. December unemployment CommunityLabor forceUnemployedRate (%) Beverly21,6771,2615.8 Boxford4,1631884.5 Danvers14,0338966.4 Hamilton3,9832155.4 Ipswich7,4213705 Manchester2,7891384.9 Marblehead11,0985665.1 Middleton4,2912315.4 Peabody27,5441,6666 Salem23,4521,5086.4 Swampscott7,6794185.4 Topsfield3,0301434.7 Wenham1,7981055.8 Source: Massachusetts Department of Workforce Development
—
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.