Fast Feed: State of the City, Walmart layoffs
Issue date: 2/4/10 Section: News
Local
Tuesday night, Mayor Harold Perrin recognized the Jonesboro's accomplishments in 2009 and stated his optimism for 2010 in the annual state of the city address.
"On behalf of my administration and the dedicated employees of the City of Jonesboro, it gives me great pleasure to report to you that the state of the city is strong and viable, and that we have an optimistic outlook for our future," said Perrin.
Perrin praised the progress Jonesboro has made despite the past year's obstacles such as the weakened economy and the ice storm last winter. He said, however, that still more work is needed to make the city even stronger in the coming year.
Perrin says city department heads are constantly looking for ways to trim the budget and increase revenue in the city. He also mentioned the importance of providing good customer service to the citizens as a way of maintaining revenue.
Perrin added that centralizing city government is also important in the upcoming years. He also plans to work on strategically spreading out police in the community to remedy slow response times this year.
- Compiled by Jarrett Clark from kait8.com and jonesborosun.com.
State
Walmart Stores Inc. announced in a memo to its employees Wednesday that it is cutting 300 jobs at its headquarters in Bentonville.
Walmart President and CEO Mike Duke said this is the final step in the company's yearlong process to eliminate duplication and streamline operations.
The 300 being laid off this month include employees in corporate affairs, human resources, finance, and legal departments. The company has cut nearly 14,000 jobs total in past 13 months including the 700 to 800 headquarters employees that were laid off last February.
Company officials say an essential piece to Walmart's culture is to always push for greater efficiency.
As the world's largest retailer, Walmart currently has 2 million employees and has changed its global sourcing network, thus eliminating 11,200 jobs in its Sam's Club warehouse division last month as well.
- Compiled by Jarrett Clark from kait8.com, washingtonpost.com and cbsnews.com.
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