Monday, March 30, 2009

Is That Company Closing?

Would you like to know if a company you are sending your value proposition is closing its doors in the next few months BEFORE you invest time and effort into a hiring campaign with them?

The State of New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development has this great feature on their website that will show you how.

  1. Go to http://lwd.dol.state.nj.us/labor/index.shtml
  2. Type "WARN" (include the quotes and uppercase) in the search field in the upper right hand corner of the page.

  1. Click the blue/white arrow to the right of  the field to perform a search. A new tab will open.
  2. Click on the first document that reads "Department of Labor and Workforce Development | Response Team/WARN Notices..."

  1. Click on the month you are interested in. *Check at least 6 months past because some companies might have announced their closing more than a half year ago.


The LWD states...
"WARN offers protection to workers, their families and communities by requiring employers to provide notice 60 days in advance of covered plant closings and covered mass layoffs. This notice must be provided to either affected workers or their representatives (e.g., a labor union); to the State dislocated worker unit; and to the appropriate unit of local government."


For more details about how a company is added to the WARN list; go to this link to read the fact sheet: http://www.doleta.gov/programs/factsht/warn.htm

With this information, now you can decide if you are going to target a company for a permanent position (as permanent as can be expected is this economy) or pursue a consulting position, as companies that are closing up typically hire consultants to shut down their businesses.

 

While all of the information and screen shots pertain to The State of New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, I checked with one of my networking contacts in New York and another in California and it is applicable there.

Test your state and leave comment to let us know. I will compile a table and post it in the future.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for sharing this valuable information. Everyone needs to know in advance if they are headed in the wrong direction when looking for their next job opportunity.

    All the Best.
    Kevin Thompson, MPA
    http://inspiredcommunicationsllc.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. GREAT information for those in a job search! Hopefully a "target" company is not on this list!

    Thanks for posting this!
    Jayne

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