Pink slip: CenturyLink announced plans to lay off as much as 8% of its workforce companywide by the end of the year, The News-Star in Monroe reports. Annmarie Sartor, spokeswoman for the Monroe-based telecommunications giant, says the announcement came in a companywide memo from CenturyLink CEO Glen Post on Wednesday. Sartor says she does not know how the announcement will affect the local workforce in that the company will first entertain voluntary separations before involuntary layoffs. In his memo, Post says the layoffs are related to decline in revenue in the legacy business. CenturyLink currently has about 43,000 employees worldwide. A 7-8% workforce reduction would be about 3,500 employees companywide. Read the full story.
Lowered expectations: U.S. retail sales fell more than expected in August amid weak purchases of automobiles and a range of other goods, pointing to cooling domestic demand that further diminishes expectations of a Federal Reserve interest rate increase next week. Reuters reports that the economic growth outlook also took a hit from other data today showing a drop in manufacturing output last month. The reports, which extended August’s run of weak data, prompted economists to cut their growth estimates for the third quarter. The Commerce Department says retail sales declined 0.3% after edging up 0.1% in July. Sales were up 1.9% from a year ago. Excluding automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, retail sales slipped 0.1% last month after a similar drop in July. These so-called core retail sales correspond most closely with the consumer spending component of gross domestic product. Economists had forecast overall retail sales slipping 0.1% and core sales climbing 0.3% last month. Read the full story.
Taking a hit: Lobbyists who’ve been bashing away at Washington’s latest effort to regulate Wall Street bonuses may find the Wells Fargo scandal just grabbed the hammer from their hands. As Bloomberg reports, the lender’s turmoil over fake accounts, fees that shouldn’t have been charged and thousands of firings created an awkward backdrop for House Republicans this week, as some of them hyped a bill that would repeal much of the Dodd-Frank Act. Wells Fargo’s settlement with regulators also emerged just as banks are arguing that a proposed pay rule meant to rein in excessively risky behavior went way too far. Facing allegations that demanding sales targets incentivized employees to break the law, Wells Fargo’s conduct in many ways underscores exactly what the Federal Reserve and other agencies were trying to tackle in April when they issued their proposal on Wall Street compensation. Bloomberg has the full story.
