Thursday 11 August 2011

10 Cover Letter Mistakes That May Cost You The Interview (But Earn You Some Laughs)

y Sindhu Sundar
It's never too early to make a bad impression.
A cover letter or introductory email is often the first thing a potential employer sees when reviewing a job applicant. It's the first opportunity to impress recruiters and hiring managers and, therefore, the first opportunity to disappoint them. Everything from copy mistakes to inappropriate jokes in a cover letter could derail an application.
Here are the top 10 worst things to put on a cover letter:

1. Next to Nothing
While writing something that's too long is a common cover letter mistake, what can be even more damaging is a cover letter that's too short.
Bruce Hurwitz, president of Hurwitz Strategic Staffing, Ltd., a New York-based staffing firm, recalls a cover letter he received a few months ago for an entry-level IT sales position. It read simply, "Here's my resume. Call me. [Phone number]."
"I cracked up," Hurwitz says. "This person had only just graduated with a bachelor's degree. It was ridiculous."
A good cover letter should be somewhere between 200 to 250 words, Hurwitz says, and should answer the question of why a recruiter should look at the resume. "The key is to highlight one success," Hurwitz says. "For example, 'I successfully increased sales 500 percent over two years, resulting in increased, sustained revenue of $25 million.' Once I read that, I look at the resume."
From FINS.com: The Best Kept Job Interview Secret

2. Criticism of a Prospective Employer
Thumbtack.com, a San Francisco-based site that connects customers with small business services, asked potential employees to submit in their cover letters feedback about their website. One candidate, a contender for an entry-level position in April, didn't pull any punches.
"The engineering of your site looks lazy and ineffective," the applicant wrote, proceeding to describe the color scheme of the site as "disconcerting to my eyes."
Needless to say, he was not considered for the position, though not before the hiring manager got in some laughs around the water cooler at his expense.
"We forwarded the cover letter to our managers sort of as a joke," says Sander Daniels, co-founder of the site. "It was the most caustic feedback we received. But we responded kindly to him -- we didn't suggest any improvements to him in approaching other employers. We don't see it as our role to counsel failed candidates."
Daniels observed that while many strong candidates turn in well-written cover letters, some have let the demand for engineers get to their heads, as Silicon Valley romances them with six-figure salaries and other job perks.
"Maybe they think they can get away with it -- but in our company, culture is a very important factor." Daniels says. "Even if Facebook's best engineer came to us, we wouldn't hire him if he was a jerk."

3. Personal Stories
While employers are sometimes interested in personal stories, especially if they give some idea about work ethic, it's best to save these stories for the interview, says Lindsay Olson of New York-based Paradigm Staffing, who specializes in recruiting communications and marketing professionals.
"I think my favorite of all time was the salesperson who poetically told me about how he decided to run a marathon, climbed to reach glaciers to have a taste of pure water, ran at heights of 5,000 meters in Peru, and biked down the world's most dangerous road and survived (over 300,000 have not)," says Olson, of a candidate who was applying for a business development position at a recruiting firm in June last year. "All this in his opening paragraph."
If you are asked in an interview about your hobbies and adventures, be prepared with a strong answer, says Olson. "What a [job candidate] likes to do outside of work might show how they are in their job," she says. "As a hiring manager, what you don't like to hear is, 'I just like to sit around at home and read books all day.' "
From FINS.com: How To Negotiate the Salary You Deserve

4. Awkward Language
Rachel Levy, director of marketing at Just Military Loans, a Wilmington, Del.-based personal loan service for military personnel, got a letter last week from a candidate who seemed to be expressing lukewarm interest in an IT analyst position.
"My name is xxx. I am pretty interested in the IT analyst position at Just Military Loans," the letter began.
Levy says she sees many applications, especially for IT jobs, to have grammatical and other language flaws. "What I've noticed is that there are a lot of people applying to these jobs, for whom English is a second language," Levy says. "So the connotations of certain words and phrases may not be clear to them. Which is fine, but they should get someone to help word their intentions correctly."
In this case, Levy thinks the applicant meant "very" instead of "pretty," but she'll never know because that applicant didn't get an interview.

5. Someone Else's Words
Frank Risalvato, a recruiting officer for Inter-Regional Executive Search Inc., is deluged with cover letters from different candidates that all obviously use the same template from the same career coaches.
"Some of these [cover letters] we see are very obviously not written by the individual," says Risalvato. "We get 15 to 20 of these a month, and it sounds disingenuous and insincere, seeing these cover letters from Seattle one week, Chicago another, and it's all the same style."
Some career experts also warn against the tired stand-by opening lines in a cover letter. "Opening a letter with a passive and cliched statement such as 'Enclosed please find my resume highlighting my experience and skills that would help your company to grow and succeed,' " is a no-no, says Ann Baehr, certified professional resume writer and president of New York-based Best Resumes. "It's best to use something catchy and more specific such as, "If your company could benefit from the expertise of a hard-charging sales producer with a flawless record of success for closing tier-one Fortune 500 prospects in the healthcare technology market and capturing millions of dollars in revenue, please take a moment to review the attached resume."
If you're uncomfortable with that approach, make your cover letter unique to you with insights about the company you're applying to, advises Darrell Gurney, Los Angeles-based founder of career coaching site Careerguy.com and author of "Backdoor Job Search: Never Apply For A Job Again!"
"Put in a note saying something like, 'I've been following your company's progress in the last year and in February and I noticed your company was mentioned in the Journal of such and such,'" Gurney says. "That's the amazing thing about the Internet. You can spend 15 minutes online and look like you've been following them for a year."
Gurney reminds applicants to do their full research on the company if they do get called in for an interview after.
From FINS.com: Who To Trust in a Job Search

6. Irrelevant Experience
As noteworthy as an impressive Girl Scout cookies sales record may be, it's not worth trumpeting that experience when trying to break into a field like software sales. Rich DeMatteo, co-founder of Philadelphia-based Social Media Marketing firm Bad Rhino, remembers a candidate who did just that when DeMatteo was working as a corporate recruiter at a software company.
"I was recruiting for a software sales position, and one candidate was sure she was qualified because of her success selling Girl Scout cookies when she was a young girl," DeMatteo says. "I think she was young and didn't realize how important it is to state the right experience. Younger applicants tend to reach for skills, and try to find them anywhere in their life."
Some candidates take it even further, acknowledging they have no relevant skills, but pushing to be hired anyway.
"I read one for an IT analyst position that says, 'Although my qualifications do not exactly match your needs, the close proximity to my home is a big bonus for me,' " Levy of Just Military Loans recalls. "You have a lot of underqualified people, just out of college, just throwing resumes at the wall, and hoping something sticks."
DeMatteo suggests trying to focus on specific sales figures or experience in relevant projects. "A lot of sales, for instance, is numbers-based. Stick to that."

7. Arrogance
It's one thing to promote yourself favorably in a cover letter, but watch that it doesn't degenerate into overt bragging.
This is especially true when it comes to ambiguous skills, says Jennifer Fremont-Smith, CEO of Smarterer, a Boston-based tech startup aimed at helping IT applicants improve their resumes.
"People claim to have things like, 'superior Internet skills.' What does that even mean?" says Fremont-Smith. "I saw an application from a Web developer about a month ago where he described himself as a 'rockstar in design tools,' and an 'expert in developer tools.' That kind of inflated language doesn't really tell your employer much about your skills."
Fremont-Smith recommends carefully personalizing your cover letter to the employer and listing the skills most relevant to the job you want, and why you want it. "The cover letter is the place to tell your story about why it is that you're the right person for the company," she says. "It's about really crafting a narrative that answers the question of why the employer should talk to you."
From FINS.com: The Best Kept Job Interview Secret

8. Wrong Company Name/Wrong Cover Letter
Talk about mistakes that are easy to avoid.
"The biggest mistake I see on a regular basis is that candidates either misspell the name of the company or get the name wrong," says Gary Hewing of Houston-based Bert Martinez Communications LLC. "If it's a small misspelling like 'Burt' instead of 'Bert,' I'd be willing to overlook that. But the big, unforgivable mistake is when someone copies and pastes a cover letter without the name or address to the correct company. That, to me, is someone who's lazy and not paying attention."
Hewing says that sometimes it's hard to tell if a cover letter was meant for a particular job, even if the candidate got the company name and position right, if they talk about disconnected experience without explaining themselves.
"We're a sales organization, but at least twice a month, we'll get a cover letter with someone talking about their banking background instead of sales," says Hewing. "It's a complete disconnect to the job description and it doesn't even explain if the candidate is seeking a career change. It tells me that they're just not paying attention."

9. Cultural Preferences
Job hunting is often compared to dating: It's about finding the right match; and success hinges on staying cool under pressure and masking anxieties to appear confident instead of desperate. But a few candidates take the dating analogy too far, subjecting hiring managers to long lists of personal likes and dislikes in cover letters.
"This one guy wrote the first part of his cover letter talking about his interests like it was an ad for an online dating site," Olson of Paradigm Staffing says about an applicant trying for a PR job. "He likes all types of music, but 'never got into country.' "
While potentially charming to a possible mate, those tidbits are not helpful in a cover letter.
From FINS.com: How To Negotiate The Salary You Deserve

10. Jokes
Breaking the ice with humor isn't necessarily a bad idea, but jokes in cover letters are usually a turn-off for busy employers, say recruiters. It might be better to save them for the interview, if they are to be used at all. Olson recalled a candidate for a communications executive position who rubbed an employer the wrong way with an off-color joke.
"She decided in her interview, for some reason, to compare kids to Nazis," says Olson. "She thought she was being funny, but the interviewer happened to be Jewish and didn't think she was very funny."
Recruiters agree that it's best to stick with tried-and-true, unfunny but effective, conventional pitches about your education and work experience.
"The thing with trying to be chummy and funny is that you lose credibility," says Gurney of Careerguy.com. "It looks desperate. And the worst thing you can do in job-seeking is looking desperate or needy."
Write to Sindhu Sundar here.
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By FINS.com,
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Verizon Strikers Weather Storm

Around 40 red-shirted, poncho-wearing strikers stood in the pouring rain in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday, the third day of the Verizon strike. Collective bargaining negotiations broke down over the weekend, after representatives from the Communication Workers of America and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers refused Verizon's proposed cutbacks. When contracts expired Saturday at midnight, 45,000 workers walked out, and took up rotating shifts at picket lines from Virginia to Massachusetts.

"It's my third tour of duty," said Troy Woodson, a Verizon employee of 22 years, from under his umbrella. Two strikers even set up lawn chairs in the flooded gutter, facing Verizon headquarters' regal art deco facade.
According to strikers, Verizon is demanding an excessive reduction in benefits, including a pension freeze, a cut in paid disability leave, and $100 monthly healthcare contributions. This has particularly offended some New York strikers, whose West Street offices were badly damaged on 9/11. "The next day people came in," said Jackie McLaughlin, who has worked for Verizon for 28 and a half years. "And during the blackout that followed, we made sure your landlines were up."
According to McLaughlin, a number of Verizon employees have contracted cancer since then, which she believes is linked to working three blocks from Ground Zero.
Only Verizon's unionized traditional telephone workers are on strike, and not the more profitable non-union wireless division. Verizon claims it is trying to bring its benefits in line with the industry, and faced with fierce competition from Internet services like Skype and nonunion cable companies like Comcast, it requires major concessions from its wire-line employees.
Strikers counter that Verizon makes profits in the billions annually, and earned a net income of $6.9 billion in the first six months of this year.

"It's corporate greed," said Peter Burke, a Verizon employee of 23 years.
We're continuing the fight from Wisconsin," added McLaughlin. "We have sons and daughters in Iraq and Afghanistan. We're paying for our kids to go to college. This is an attack on middle class values."
It does not help Verizon's case that the company's new CEO, Lowell McAdam, was the former CEO of Verizon Wireless, which settled a class action lawsuit last October for fraudulent data charges, to the tune of $90 million.
This is the man we're dealing with here," said Douglas Heigl, a Verizon employee of 35 years.
Verizon's contract is up for negotiation every few years, and workers in fact worked through the negotiations without a contract in 2005. The last strike was in 2000 and lasted 15 days, a much tamer ordeal than the 17-week strike of 1989. The red-colored T-shirts worn this time around are in fact a tribute, one striker claimed, to blood spilled back then, when a strikebreaker wounded a picketer.
"Scab alert!" one striker yells, and the crowd bursts into a chorus of boos, kicking the dirty sidewalk puddles at a parade of workers in button-downs, sheepishly exiting the building. Verizon is committed to running its operations smoothly while the strike is in progress. According to McLaughlin, the strikebreakers are Verizon desk workers flown-in from Colorado and Texas.
For many of the striking workers, grievances go far beyond the current demands. The wire line division has been heavily downsized in recent years, with work increasingly outsourced and contracted. Verizon feels like these are necessary steps to keep their old fashioned telephone service afloat, while Verizon's employees feel hung out to dry after decades of loyalty.
"We have made this company profitable," said Al Russo, a Verizon employee of 11 years and chief steward of the Local 1101 chapter of CWA.

While most of the protesters insist that they will accept "no givebacks," Russo claimed that employees would get back to work without a contract, as long as the right chips were on the table. "They at least owe us a proper negotiation," he said.

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By Claire Gordon,
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How To Trick The Automated Screening Process And Get Your Resume Noticed

Before you apply to any job opening, before you set up any account or profile on any website, before you do anything, wouldn't it be nice to have the inside story on what the manager is looking for in a candidate? Especially the required skills or knowledge that they want you to have, so you can highlight that on your resume?
Now, I can't tell you what keywords and phrases they are going to use. But let me enlighten you on how this often gets done. You have a person sitting at a computer. Their job is to essentially screen all the resumes that are associated with a particular job.

You know what is scary? You would think that these people understand the difference between, for example, an industrial engineer and mechanical engineer, or the difference between finance and supply chain management. Many do, but a significant number may not, and some don't have a clue: They just look at the job description, then simply look for the keywords and phrases in it, type those into a search field on the computer, and press "enter."

The means that the resumes lacking those keywords or phrases are simply counted out. So you need to incorporate those keywords and phrases verbatim, because you never know the kind of screening system that you are up against.
Whether you think that's unfair or not, it's a reality at many companies. So use it to your advantage. These 7 Critical Steps can give you a far better chance of getting to the next step in the process:
  1. Don't follow the directions when a company website tells you how to apply! Before doing anything else, go to the company website and print out all the jobs that you qualify for, and not just the ones that you are most interested in.
  2. Take a highlighter and highlight all the keywords and phrases that the job description used to describe the skills, knowledge and years of experience they want or prefer.
  3. Take the keywords and phrases you highlighted and incorporate them verbatim throughout your resume.
  4. Create a heading at the very end of your resume labeled "Interest Areas" and put all the keywords and phrases you previously highlighted and list them, verbatim, under this heading.
  5. Now follow the directions of the site, which may include setting up an account online. Make sure to take those same keywords and phrases and incorporate them into your profile or the "interest areas" section, if they have that option.
  6. Apply for the job.
  7. As you apply for more openings, continually update keywords and phrases in your resume, in your profile, or interest area section.
This is called "reverse engineering" your resume. Just remember: To do it right, it will take you about 45 minutes to take your "base" resume and tailor it to each job.
Approach it this way: Each job that you apply for is the only job your resume is geared to. It may sound like a lot of time and effort, but your resume can't just be a good match, it must be a great match.
When I teach seminars on this topic, some ask, "Won't they look at my resume and count me out when they see that I just listed all the keywords and phrases in the 'interest areas' section of my resume?" The answer is: They might, especially if you haven't first incorporated the keywords and phrases throughout your resume. That's why doing both is critical.
For example, just incorporating the keywords and phrases into your resume might get you through to the next step, but might not raise your compatibility to a high enough level and you could miss the cutoff.
Remember, with online processes the way they are at most companies, there are very few ways for candidates to stand out. There could be 10 candidates that, by luck, score a higher percentage of compatibility. And although you meet all the qualifications, others might be ranked by the computer as "more qualified" and you are counted out. That is why having the "interest areas" section helps.

If you just cut and paste all the keywords in the "interest areas" section without also incorporating them into your resume, though, screeners will probably see this and count you out as well.
To incorporate the keywords and phrases into your resume, change or add bullet items in appropriate places. Change your objective to include some. The more time you spend crafting your resume this way, the more calls you are likely to get.
Finally, if you are applying online for jobs and are quickly getting counted out, that's the best indicator that you are not doing a good enough job of tailoring your resume to each job. It's then time to go back to the 7 Critical Steps, and measure your resume against them.

Remember, when you are applying to a particular job, your resume must be entirely directed toward that one job.
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By Mark Lyden,
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Job Openings Rose In June, Though Levels Are Low

By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Employers posted more job openings in June and layoffs fell, a sign that hiring could improve a bit in the coming months.
The number of available jobs rose to 3.1 million, up from 3 million in May, the Labor Department said Wednesday. It was the highest total since March.

Still, 14 million Americans remain unemployed. The weak economy is not generating enough jobs to rapidly reduce that figure. And the total number of job openings is far below healthy levels seen before the recession.
For those who are out of work, there is heavy competition for each available position. Roughly 4.5 unemployed people, on average, were competing for each job in June. That's down only slightly from 4.6 in May. In a healthy economy, the ratio is about 2 to 1.

Even if all the positions were filled, there would still be about 11 million unemployed people. That compares to the 7.7 million who were out of work when the recession began.

There were more jobs available in retail, at hotels and restaurants, and for professionals, a broad category that includes accountants, engineers and temporary help. Postings fell in construction, education and health care. Open manufacturing positions were flat. Layoffs fell slightly from a nine-month high in May.
June's total number of openings was higher than the 2.1 million posted in July 2009, one month after the recession officially ended and the lowest total since the government began recording the data a decade ago. But it is also significantly below the 4.4 million openings in December 2007, when the recession began.
The economy expanded at just a 0.8 percent annual rate in the first six months of this year, the slowest since the recession officially ended two years ago. In June, consumers cut spending for the first time in 20 months and saved more.

Companies have reduced hiring in recent months. Employers added an average of only 72,000 jobs per month from May through July, after creating an average of 215,000 jobs per month in the preceding three months.

The unemployment rate ticked down to 9.1 percent last month. Still, it has been above 9 percent in all but two months since the recession ended.
Fewer than 1.8 million lost their jobs in June, compared to nearly 1.84 million in May, according to the report known as the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. In the worst months of the recession, layoffs reached 2.5 million per month.

The report also illustrates the level of churn that takes place in the job market each month. In June, 4.05 million people were hired and 4.02 million people left their jobs, either because they quit or were laid off. The difference between those two figures is similar to the 46,000 net gain in jobs reported in the June employment report.

The Federal Reserve on Tuesday offered a dim outlook for the economy, saying it expects growth will stay weak for two more years. As a result, the Fed said it would likely keep the short-term interest rate near zero at least through mid-2013.

The move could hold down interest rates on mortgages, car loans and business loans. Lower rates may also support stock prices, since bonds are likely to make less money.
The market rallied after the Fed announcement. The Dow Jones industrial average closed 429 points higher. But on Wednesday, stocks tumbled and the Dow erased all of those gains. Many investors are nervous that the U.S. economy could be on the verge of another recession.
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By AP -
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With Weak Unions Come Less Equal Wages, Study Suggests

Wage inequality has ballooned in the last 40 years, thanks in large part to the declining power of unions, according to a study published this month in the American Sociological Review, and reported by The New York Times.
Between the years 1973 and 2007, the study found that wage inequality rose 40 percent. In this same period, private sector union membership plummeted 34 to 8 percent among men and 16 to 6 percent among women. These drops explain one third of the increase of wage inequality among male workers and one fifth of the increased inequality among their female counterparts, the study concludes.
Climbing income inequality is usually blamed on technological changes, immigration, outsourcing, and the relative increase in wages for college graduates. The studies two authors found, however, indicate that waning union power is just as significant as any of these factors.
Private sector union membership is now lower than it was in 1935, when the Wagner Act, which protects workers' right to organize, came into force. Unions swelled after World War II, but since the early 1970s, Big Labor has been steadily and relentlessly shrinking.
This has reduced the political power of all workers, according to the study. Unions have long advocated for more equalized wages for labor, by opposing, for example, the radical deregulation of financial markets and the explosion of executive pay. "Union decline marks an erosion of the moral economy and its underlying distributional norms," the study claims. "Wage inequality in the nonunion sector increased as a result.
These findings support past research, which has shown that countries with strong unions, like Canada and Germany, have a flatter economic playing field.
The declining power of private sector unions has also produced another kind of wage inequality: between public and private sector workers. 36.2 percent of government workers are unionized, and thus have greater political clout on average than private employees.
As Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker likes to say, unions are the "haves" and the largely private-sector employed taxpayers are the "have-nots." But as this study tells us, organized Labor has been critical in battling the other war of "haves" and "have nots": corporate and Wall Street interests versus the average worker.
It is these tensions that came to a head in Wisconsin's recall elections Tuesday. Of the four Republican state senate seats up for grabs, pro-union Democrats managed to wrest only two away. Republicans have successfully kept control of the senate, and are calling it a big win. But if Wisconsin is a microcosm of the country on this issue, Americans are split almost perfectly down the middle, divided on which "have not" to defend.
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By Claire Gordon,
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Bank Of New York Mellon Plans 1,500 Job Cuts

By CHRISTINA REXRODE
NEW YORK (AP) -- Bank of New York Mellon Corp. said Wednesday that it will cut about 1,500 jobs, or 3 percent of its work force, the latest sign of the banking industry's painful shrinking.
CEO Bob Kelly noted that the bank's revenue had been growing but added that "expenses have been growing unsustainably faster." The bank said it hasn't yet determined what types of jobs will be cut or where. It said it would try to minimize layoffs with a hiring freeze and by reducing the use of temporary workers, consultants and contractors.
The banking industry also resorted to layoffs during 2008 and 2009, as the financial crisis pummeled earnings and banks took government bailouts. But 2010 provided some relief, and banks even hired back some of their laid-off workers.
Banks have been cutting jobs again in recent months. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and State Street Corp., among others, each announced last month that they would lay off about 3 percent of their work forces.
What makes these cuts different from the layoffs of 2008 and 2009 is that they're coming at a time when many banks are actually posting improved profits. Analysts say the latest cuts point to permanent structural changes as the banking industry becomes smaller, less risky and also less profitable. Many of the complicated investment vehicles that fueled earnings before the financial crisis are gone, banned by new regulations meant to prevent another global collapse.
Nancy Bush, a contributing editor at SNL Financial, predicted that layoffs will intensify when banks start determining bonus payments around the end of the year. "The tendency has been to lay off when times are bad and rehire again when times are good," she said. "I don't think we're going to get Part B this time."
The U.S. banking industry employs about 2.09 million workers, according to calculations by SNL Financial. That's down about 5 percent from 2.21 million at the end of 2007.
A spokesman for BNY Mellon said the layoffs had been planned "for some time" and weren't related to the banking industry's recent hammering in the stock market or by the Federal Reserve's announcement Tuesday that it would keep interest rates near zero for at least the next two years.
The low interest rates are meant to stimulate the economy, but they can also hurt banks because the banks make less money on their investments. And though the entire stock market, not just the banking industry, has been slammed because of broad concerns about the U.S. economy, investors are especially worried about banking.
The industry's credit problems are easing, in contrast to the depths of the financial crisis, but investors are wondering how many more lawsuits and regulatory probes could be filed against the banks, particularly around their selling of subprime mortgages and mortgage-backed securities before the financial crisis.
BNY Mellon, the country's sixth-largest by assets, has flown under the radar for much of the financial crisis, losing money in the third quarter of 2009 but otherwise staying profitable. Last month it beat analysts' estimates for second-quarter revenue and per-share earnings.
Its shares fell $1.04, or 4.9 percent, to $20.05 in afternoon trading Wednesday.
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By AP,
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As Shuttle Program Continues Wind-Down, Layoffs Skyrocket

When Atlantis successfully completed its mission last month, it brought to an end NASA's 30-year-old space shuttle program and thousands of jobs.

Many of those positions ended in advance of the program's end this summer, but the bloodletting hasn't ceased just yet.
On Friday, more than 500 workers will be given pink slips at United Space Alliance, according to The Register, a British technology-news site. The employees will join 1,550 former colleagues who were cut when Atlantis touched ground on July 21.

Another 285 workers will be laid off at month's end, the Register notes, reducing USA's staff to 3,100 from its 2003 peak of 10,500.

Though the news is bleak for many alumni of the space program, the Houston Business Journal notes that USA is actually cutting fewer jobs than anticipated because some doomed employees took jobs elsewhere within the company or left before the cuts were made.

Still, the cuts aren't limited to USA. The Houston-based company's parent firms, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, are also planning layoffs this month related to the end of the shuttle program, Space News reports.
Combined, the companies will cut an additional 360 jobs -- 100 of those are at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, operated by Lockheed, which has about 400 employees.
Of the remaining 300 Lockheed employees at the plant, 200 have been assigned to work on NASA's next generation Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle.

"Approximately 100 will depart later this month as a result of the shuttle program end," a Lockheed spokesman told Space News, noting that the workers supported launch and landing operations for the final mission
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By David Schepp,
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