Layoffs at Yale

Yale University may soon be laying off up to 300 staff members. As the Yale Daily News tells it:

New projections on staff attrition indicate that as many as 300 employees could be laid off as Yale copes with the economic downturn, though administrators said today that the University will double severance benefits for those who lose their jobs in the next six months.

The grim economic outlook has forced the University to cut deeper into staff salaries, slating the equivalent of 500 to 600 positions for elimination. But in a letter to Yale managers today, Vice President for Human Resources and Administration Michael Peel said that the typical annual rate of attrition and turnover is only between 300 and 500. Since the gap cannot be closed by simply leaving open positions vacant, the difference will have to be made with some involuntary layoffs, administrators said.

There’s no word yet on “which departments will be affected by the cuts,” but “[b]efore eliminating regular staff, Peel recommended that managers first turn to eliminating overtime, temporary workers and contractors,” the student newspaper reports. In addition, Yale will offer placement assistance to laid-off workers and give priority to hiring them if there are openings elsewhere in the university.