Macy's to lay off 374 Liberty House employees
By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer
Macy's has notified the state that it expects to lay off 374 Liberty House employees between Oct. 8 and Jan. 7 as part of an effort to eliminate duplicate positions that exist at Macy's on the Mainland.
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The planned terminations, representing 13 percent of Liberty House's 2,890 employees, will be the state's largest mass layoff in retailing in more than two years.
The planned layoffs at Liberty House will affect 13 percent of the employees and will be the largest mass layoff in retailing in the state in more than two years.
Most of the layoffs will affect merchandise buyers and assistant buyers, 73 of whom will be let go, according to a filing Monday with the state Department of Labor & Industrial Relations.
Employees in about 50 other positions will be affected, including 36 clerical workers, 12 senior executives, 30 merchandise taggers, three carpenters, 16 people in advertising, one housekeeper and 10 human resources personnel. No sales staff were among those to be laid off. No additional job cuts are anticipated, Macy's said in the filing.
Macy's had estimated that as many as 400 Liberty House employees in upper management, administration and distribution would be affected by the purchase of Liberty House by Macy's parent Federated Department Stores Inc. Federated, which paid $200 million for the kama'aina retailer, completed the deal Monday.
The number of Liberty House jobs already has fallen by about 1,660 since shortly before the company filed for bankruptcy in March 1998, when 4,550 people worked at the local department store chain.
Mass layoffs in the state's retail sector had been declining since 1997 when 1,851 people lost their jobs in nine major events. Last year, 129 were laid off in five mass firings. For the first half of this year, only one mass layoff affected 21 people in the industry.
