downsizing

Lots of folks have reached retirement by surprise, thanks to the Great Recession. So, if you're scrambling to come up with a Plan B and plug the financial gap created by an unexpectedly early end to your career, here are some good ideas.

Companies that develop medicines have been bleeding jobs in the last few months, with three -- Biogen Idec, Charles River Laboratories and NicOx -- announcing about 1,000 new workforce cuts this week. When will the bleeding stop?

Just call this week%u2019s labor report a wash: Initial jobless claims unexpectedly jumped 13,000 to 462,000, but continuing claims plunged another 112,000, and the trend in state-level claims continues to provide evidence that the period of layoffs is subsiding.

Employers who used job cuts to save money during the economic crisis knew that layoffs would put strains on the workers who remained. But now, those cost-cutting measures are impairing their ability to attract the top talent they'll need to rebound in the current sluggish economy.

The Weinstein Company's soon-to-be-released drama The Company Men is the story of three corporate executives who are downsized as victims of the beaten-down economy. It has a top-flight cast and director, but is America ready to show cinematic sympathy to the villains of the Great Recession?

Playboy Enterprises is downsizing again as it continues its transition from a lifestyle and media business into a brand-management company. The company expects to save more than $3 million annually.

Gale C. Steves, home industries consultant and former editor of Home Magazine, spent some time with us recently outlining ways to make the best of the home you have rather than downsizing or upsizing. Steves calls it "right-sizing," which is also the title of her new book, "Right-Sizing Your...

In just four years, roughly one fourth of the U.S. population will be 55 or over -- that translates into some 85 million Americans. So it is little wonder that home builders are reportedly taking aim at these aging baby boomers in an effort to increase sales at a time of great uncertainty and...

A recent WalletPop post on the trend toward smaller homes prompted lively debate, and its associated poll, asking whether you were considering downsizing for financial reasons, currently shows "yes" nosing ahead of "no." Fewer rooms, less square footage and, often, less storage mean paring back, a...

As sexy workplaces go, Forbes ranks somewhere far below Vogue, the (fictionalized) setting of The Devil Wears Prada. But the venerable business title is the subject of a tell-all currently being written by one (or more) of the many staffers whose jobs it has eliminated over the past two years,...