Layoffs related to outsourcing, Labor training requests show [Tampa Tribune, Fla.]

Feb. 11--TAMPA -- Even as Florida faces near-record unemployment, some companies continue to lay off workers and move work overseas.

U.S. Department of Labor documents obtained by The Tampa Tribune show that Apria Healthcare, a company that distributes diabetic and respiratory supplies to patients, is cutting as many as 79 jobs in Tampa by next month and shifting at least some of the work overseas.

Meantime, a second Bay area company, Essilor Laboratories of America, said a year ago that it was cutting 159 positions in St. Petersburg. At the time Essilor told a local media outlet that the layoffs resulted from the loss of business. The Labor Department documents show that the layoffs related to the shifting of work to Mexico.

In Essilor's application for employee training assistance, human resources director Ryan Murry says the company's outsourcing of work to Chihuahua, Mexico, decreased the need for manufacturing in the United States.


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