600 layoffs coming to JCPenney's Texas headquarters

By Jason Whitely

PLANO, Texas -- Two months into J.C. Penney's transformation, its workers are starting to feel the pain.
 
The mid-priced department store chain said Thursday that it has laid off 600 workers, or 13 percent of the staff at its headquarters in Plano, Texas, as the company looks to streamline its operations amid a major reinvention of the business.
 
However Mike Davis with the SMU Cox school of business said the layoffs will not have a mjor impact on the North Texas economy.
 
"To J.C. Penney, it's a big deal - to those people, it's a very big deal," Davis said. "To the Dallas economy, it's not a very big deal at all. Remember, there's about three million people who work here, so it's really tough for those people, but for the overall economy, we can put up with this."
 
The City of Plano said Thursday it is uncertain where the 600 employees to be laid off there live, so they can't forecast how it will affect that city's economy....