Category Archives: Business

Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort is laying off 1,100 employees

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With the professional athletes gone, Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort is laying off about 1,100 employees because of low occupancy and canceled events in another hit to the tourism industry because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The layoffs are coming after Major League players stayed there this summer.

The Marriott hotel between Epcot and Hollywood Studios called the economic impact “historic, swift and devastating” as it alerted the state as a requirement under federal law for mass layoffs.

The entire Swan portion of the hotel had been home to MLS teams who were staying there in the “bubble” in July and August as they played in a tournament at ESPN Wide World of Sports.

NBA players also became guests at other Disney hotels when the league restarted play in Orlando amid the pandemic.

Even though all Orlando’s theme parks are open, September has been a brutal time for the industry as thousands of employees have recently been let go or placed on indefinite furloughs.

New notices filed this week showed 5,400 Universal employees are furloughed and 1,900 employees at SeaWorld’s Orlando properties are now permanently laid off after being furloughed since March.

The Swan and Dolphin warned the economic impact will carry over into 2021.

The 1,136 positions are in multiple departments of the hotel, including 256 banquet servers, 41 cooks, 67 housekeepers and 88 loss prevention officers. The notice said the layoffs are permanent and effective Nov. 13.

Included are about 135 union employees represented by Teamsters Local 385 who work primarily as servers, housekeepers and laundry attendants. Those employees may be among the first to return if the hotel reverses course and brings back jobs.

At 11%, metro Orlando had the highest regional unemployment rate in the state in August, according to a report released Friday.

Layoffs in Central Florida keep piling up

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In the spring, as the new coronavirus began to spread throughout Central Florida, companies began shedding employees and Congress rushed in to provide some short-term relief.

Not knowing how severe the outbreak would become and how long its grip on the tourism-dependent region would last, executives hoped things would go back to normal soon.

But the layoffs haven’t stopped, and the calls to Congress for more help for the jobless and for the hotels, theme parks and other businesses that employed them have gone unanswered. It’s further evidence of the stark message Florida’s chief economist, Amy Baker, delivered to lawmakers Thursday that Florida tourism will take potentially three years to recover from this crisis.

In August alone, thousands more people were laid off or placed on furlough in Central Florida, mostly from hotels, according to a review of the state’s database.

The Hilton Orlando on Destination Parkway extended furloughs for 605 employees. The Orlando World Center Marriott laid off 601, saying it doesn’t expect occupancy to pick up until 2021. Eight Universal hotels, many of which have closed, furloughed or laid off 2,130 people.

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Amazon wins FAA approval for Prime Air drone delivery fleet

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Amazon.com is testing out the viability of drone delivery for small packages.

Amazon received federal approval to operate its fleet of Prime Air delivery drones, the Federal Aviation Administration said Monday, a milestone that allows the company to expand unmanned package delivery.

The approval will give Amazon broad privileges to “safely and efficiently deliver packages to customers,” the agency said. The certification comes under Part 135 of FAA regulations, which gives Amazon the ability to carry property on small drones “beyond the visual line of sight” of the operator.

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Hiring hurdles

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7 of the most irritating things job seekers wish companies would change about the process.

Most companies view the hiring process solely from their perspective. Applications, interviews, job offers — everything is designed to make hiring the perfect candidate easy for them. Smart business owners also view the hiring process from the applicant’s side. They realize an employee’s experience starts the day she applies, not her first day on the job. When I asked 1 million-plus LinkedIn followers to share the one thing they wish companies, hiring managers and interviewers would stop doing during the hiring process, I received a flood of responses. 

1. Failing to include the pay range.

“Not sharing expected salary ranges in the posting causes a huge amount of unnecessary work; all those candidates who require much higher compensation levels blindly waste their time crafting resumes and cover letters to get to the top of the pile … only to find out the position pays 30% less than they currently make.”

Businesses may be tempted to withhold the pay range, at least at first, in order to cast as wide a net as possible. But no matter how rewarding, fulfilling, meaningful and exciting the work, salary still matters. 

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New Job Postings Are Plummeting For White-Collar Professionals

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A good way to gauge the health of the job market is to see how many new opportunities are listed online. Indeed, one of the largest job aggregation sites, released a report indicating the direction of new job postings in the United States. 

The job site’s data revealed a massive drop in listings during March, April and May—some of the most difficult months of the Covid-19 pandemic. At that time, job postings plummeted nearly 40% compared to the same period last year. 

According to Indeed, “The trend in job postings—a real-time measure of labor market activity— is 20.3% lower than in 2019, as of August 14.” Hospitality, travel, tourism, child care and other sectors that rely upon face-to-face activities saw job listings appreciably fall. 

What’s surprising to see is that white-collar job advertisements, such as software development, banking and finance, declined. Indeed claims that job postings for higher-wage occupations have taken the biggest tumble. “Postings in higher-wage occupations are now 28% below trend, versus 12% below trend for lower-wage occupations.”

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Always read the labels on the food you buy

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With all the food and pet products now coming from China, it is best to make sure you read label at the grocery store and especially Walmart when buying food products. Many products no longer show where they were made, only give where the distributor is located. It is important to read the bar code to track it’s origin.

How to read Bar Codes ….
This may be useful to know when grocery shopping, if it’s a concern to you. The whole world is concerned about China-made goods. Can you differentiate which one is made in Taiwan or China? If the first 3 digits of the barcode are 690 691 or 692, the product is Made in China. 471 is Made in Taiwan.

This is our right to know, but the government and related departments never educate the public, therefore we have to educate ourselves. Nowadays, Chinese businessmen know that consumers do not prefer products “MADE IN CHINA”, so they don’t show from which country it is made. However, you may now refer to the barcode – remember if the first 3 digits are:


690-699 … then it is MADE IN CHINA
00 – 09 … USA & CANADA
30 – 37 FRANCE
40 – 44 GERMANY
471 … Taiwan
49 … JAPAN
50 … UK

Central Florida dominates state jobless rate ranks

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Central Florida, a tourism-dependent region walloped by the coronavirus pandemic, hold four of the top seven highest unemployment rates for July, according to state figures.
Osceola and Orange rank first and second, while Polk is fourth and Lake is seventh. Statewide, 11.3% of workers were unemployed. Here’s a look at county-bycounty jobless numbers for the month.

■ Osceola County: 20.2 percent
■ Orange County: 16.1percent
■ Miami-Dade County: 14.2 percent
■ Polk County: 13.2 percent
■ Broward County:13.1percent
■ Hendry County:13 percent
■ Lake County: 12.4 percent
■ Palm Beach County: 11.6 percent
■ Citrus County:11.2 percent
■ St. Lucie County:11percent
■ Hernando County:10.9 percent
■ Putnam County:10.9 percent
■ Hamilton County:10.7 percent
■ Lee County:10.7 percent
■ Seminole County: 10.5 percent
■ Volusia County: 10.5 percent


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Dandelion Cafe closes for good

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Dandelion Cafe closes for good – Orlando Sentinel 8_24_2020

Orlando’s Dandelion Community Cafe has permanently closed amid the coronavirus pandemic and after employees there said they were organizing to address issues with the restaurant.

The vegetarian cafe at 618 N.Thornton Ave. posted on its website that it had closed because of a “variety of factors outside of our control” including the impact of coronavirus.

Opened in 2006,the eatery had hosted art shows and live music and offered a menu of organic options. It was named the best vegetarian restaurantin Florida by Mental Floss in 2017.

“It is with a heavy heart, but clear mind,that I make the decision to per manently close our special place,” a post signed by founder Chris Blanc on the website said. “It has proven extremely difficult to operate a business in this current environment.The last few months have required an almost complete change to our
business in the way we serve our community, at great financial cost.”

The cafe’s voicemail, which was unable to accept messages Tuesday morning, said
it was closed until further notice. Most ofthe cafe’s staff had recently
signed a letter presented to management announcing they were forming a union,
according to Kyle Kern, secretary-treasurer of the Central Florida Industrial Workers
of the World labor union. The group, dubbed “The Seeds,” did not intend to move toward contract negotiations or a National Labor Relations Board election, but wanted to address grievances with the cafe directly as a group, citing issues such as low pay compared with rising rent costs, Kern said.

In an Aug. 11 Facebook post,the group said the cafe had “locked out” its staff for
organizing. Pickets were held outside the restaurant. “The owners of Dandelion have decided they will destroy their entire business to avoid sitting down with their employees to discuss serious problems with their workplace,” Kern said in an emailed statement Monday night. “This is the lowest of the low.”

Kern said about 15 hourly employees would be losing their jobs because of the
move.

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Apple reaches $2 Trillion dollar valuation

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It took Apple 42 years to reach $1 trillion in value. It took it just two more years to get to $2 trillion.

Even more stunning: All of Apple’s second $1 trillion came in the past 21 weeks, while the global economy shrank faster than ever before in the coronavirus pandemic.

On Wednesday, Apple became the first U.S. company to hit a $2 trillion valuation when its shares climbed 1.4 percent to $468.65 in midday trading, though they later declined and ended the day flat. It was another milestone for the maker of iPhones, Mac computers and Apple Watches, cementing its title as the world’s most valuable public company and punctuating how the pandemic has been a bonanza for the tech giants.

As recently as mid-March, Apple’s value was under $1 trillion after the stock market plunged over fears of the coronavirus. On March 23, the stock market’s nadir this year, the Federal Reserve announced aggressive new measures to calm investors. Since then, the stock market — and particularly the stocks of Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook — has largely soared, with the S&P 500 hitting a new high on Tuesday.

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