3,400 people without jobs for Xmas. Good thing we still have Safeco.

Oh... nevermind.

Bad? sure. Unexpected? No.

I am really loving the fact that I also got laid off two weeks ago. It is a great time to be looking for a job.

Ooh, that's going to hurt. Each one of those jobs accounts for several more. And who owns that fancy new office tower of theirs?

I know two people who have lost their job at WaMu. I hate them both. In an odd way, this news feels good.

The first round of job eliminations come with a 60 day working notice, so they will be employed through 1/31. Still unemployed, but at least they'll be working through the holidays.

@4 : JPMC now owns the WaMu Center.

plus the jobs going are presumably the higher paid ones (IT, legal, Op's, etc.) while the branch ones remaining are presumably lower paying.......

q: When does one cease to work for the system?
a: Presumably after the system ceases working for the one(s).

It continues to amaze me how as we get farther and farther into this economic clusterfuck, analysts and economists continue to point to the consumer as the driver of the american economy..."2/3 of the american economy is consumer driven, consumers will save retailers, consumption is drying up..."

When was the last time any good news came out for the consumer(s)? Your wages are slipping, but we'll give you unrealistic credit options so you can keep buying, but at the same time the bankruptcy door is getting slammed shut behind you/us......this is fucked.

By all means, continue to waste 80 billion on a high density light rail system for a city that will become a virtual ghost town in five years...

@4, 7: Word is that Russell Investments is about to bail on Tacoma as their HQ, buy the WAMU Center off JPMC for a song, then lease back to them. Hideous for downtown Tacoma boosters if so.

OH NO! ALMOST 1% OF OUR DOWNTOWN WORKFORCE!! ALMOST 1.8% OF OUR DOWNTOWN REVENUE!!

WOE! WOEEEEEE!

@10: Yes, and there are several others who merely want to lease continuous office space with their eye on WaMu's digs (or West 8th or the new Schnitzer tower).

This is a purely psychological loss.

About half of the Seattle employees given pink slips will stay on for a lucrative transition period (with a specified and already-communicated end-date). If they stay til the end, they're paid a retention bonus equal to the amount of time they worked in 2009, in addition to standard severance.

Not a bad proposition -- until they head out to the job market and there's no chance at finding a comparable job for at least another year.

@7, are you sure? I know that's what it says on Wikipedia. But I think they just inherited WaMu's lease. The tax records are confusing; there's no taxpayer listed for the WaMu tower portion itself, but the taxpayer for the SAM side is "1301 Second Avenue LLC", which has the same phone number as the Pine Street Group LLC, which lists the building as one of their properties.

Ominously, their website (http://www.pinest.com/wamu-sam02.html) says "WaMu leases the remaining SAM space, providing revenue for SAM". I would be very, very unhappy if the evaporation of the major tenant killed the SAM. We're talking about many millions of dollars in rents here, and god knows how much debt.

Fnarf, I'm sorry, my statement was misleading. WaMu c-owned the building with SAM. WaMu itself owned almost a million square feet of the building and leased about a quarter of a million square feet from SAM. Now the portion which WaMu owned is owned by JPMC. SAM still retains ownership over their part of the building.

Ah. Thanks. That's still a monster revenue hit for SAM, I'm guessing -- a quarter of a million of the most expensive square feet in the city?

Many of the laid-off workers will be on the so-called "transition team," helping merge WaMu's business into that of JPMorgan, which bought most of the bank's assets for $1.9 billion after it failed in September.

About 1,900 of the 3,400 Seattle layoffs will be part of the transition, meaning those people keep their jobs for at least a couple of months and in some cases up to a year, Kelly said. Workers on that team will receive double pay beginning Oct. 1.

They also will receive severance pay when they leave, which sources at the bank say is equal to five weeks' pay for each of an employee's first two years of service, then two weeks' pay for every year after that.

For high-ranking employees, the package is not nearly as generous as they would have received if WaMu had not failed. JPMorgan is not paying so-called "change of control" severance, which it would have paid if it had bought WaMu from shareholders rather than from the U.S. government.

Under the change-of-control agreement, hundreds of executives would have received severance that equaled one year's salary or more, depending on their rank.

On the other hand, this marks the first time in 5 years my landlord hasn't asked for a rent increase with my lease renewal.

In other words JPMorgan currently leases some floors above the museum. They own all the other floors up to floor 42. The lease was soon to expire and then the museum is free to fill with art or lease out.

@9: Nevermind the made-up $80B figure. It's investment in things like light rail that ensure Seattle won't become a ghost town anytime soon.

Yeah, this is a great time to be dumping ultra-high-end office space on the market. What kind of debt does SAM have as a result of this project? How optimistic were they in projecting how they'd pay it?

Yeah, SAM gave up its ownership of the land the new Four Seasons is built on, in exchange for those floors of shiny office space. Seemed like such a good idea...to Matt Griffin of the Pine Street Group...and his friends on the SAM board...at the time.

On the plus side, maybe I'll be able to afford a condo in the city now.

Yes, Greg... you can buy one from one of the laid-off people from the IT or HR departments.

Getting interviewed at WaMu is interesting, to say the least.

Killing the monorail sure helped them, didn't it.

Maybe next time they'll realize we can all switch to a credit union instead of padding their CEO and exec pay packets with multi-million dollar paydays for "hedging" (aka "gambling" in the REAL WORLD).

3rd avenue can breathe more freely, as Wamu Metrosexuals take their cologne drenched satin shirts to greener pastures...

@27: They wear poufy shirts at WaMu?

pouffy
yes
very

the descent into economic hell is underway

to all who think this is a bump, how can you be so stupid and uninformed

Slog commenters who bitched about WashMut and then closed their accounts -- happy now?

#5 +1

I could care less about overpaid WaMu employees. BTW - did the CEO's house in CapHill ever sell?

So, are there any Seattle or Washington based baanks I can move my money to? I want to keep what little money I have at home. It's why I quit U.S. Bank and then BOA.