LAYOFFS MAY HERALD TREND; SHAREHOLDERS' HUNGER FOR PROFITS SEEN AS USHERING IN CLIMATE OF DOWNSIZING.

Byline: Gregg Stein Associated Press 

Just when it seemed safe to feel good about your job - maybe even ask for a raise - along comes a new round of big layoffs by companies eager to please Wall Street.

After months of quiet, the five biggest layoff announcements of the year have all come in the past 11 weeks, including big cuts by Woolworth, International Paper, and one this week by Whirlpool.

But experts said the healthy economy will make it easier for many of those laid off to find new work. The nation's jobless rate was 4.9 percent last month, near a 24-year low.

``It's not as if these people are going to languish for a year on the unemployment line,'' said John Challenger of the job-placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. ``But it does create a sense of anxiety. You never know when it's going to hit your company.''

That anxiety is one factor keeping workers from demanding higher pay, which in turn is holding down inflation. ``Each time it seems wages are going to go up, in comes another wave of downsizing,'' Challenger said.

Challenger, who tracks layoff announcements in a monthly report, said the period from April through June was among the quietest this decade for layoff news.

Then, Woolworth and International Paper said in July they would each shed at least 9,000 workers, or roughly 10 percent of their work forces. Stanley Works and Fruit of the Loom followed soon after with cuts of nearly 5,000 each.

On Thursday, Whirlpool said it would trim 4,700 jobs in a restructuring move, and hours later Food Lion said it would close 61 supermarkets in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana and lay off 3,100.

Even Toro, the snow-blower maker, put a chill through its workers Thursday by saying it will close a plant in Minnesota that employs 230.

And it could get worse before its better.

``I see this trend continuing,'' said Ned Riley, chief investment officer with BankBoston. ``Some of the major companies, the Cokes, the Intels, they all have mentioned that revenue growth is difficult to achieve.''

Which points to a key reason for the latest cutbacks: appeasing investors eager for improved bottom lines. That was also true during the early 1990s, when General Motors, Sears and IBM all laid off tens of thousands. But the stock market's stunning rise since then has drawn even greater demands from the public for profit improvements.

In typical fashion, shares of Whirlpool surged 14 percent Thursday after the company announced the layoffs. Food Lion shares rose 3 percent Friday on its news, which came after markets closed Thursday.

``We're so shareholder driven, even compared to a decade ago,'' Challenger said. ``Companies that don't make their earnings expectations are punished by the stock market. The shareholders do not let companies have very much time to take action.''

Eastman Kodak, its stock off by more than a third since February because of a price war with Japanese rival Fuji, is planning cost-cutting steps that are expected to result in layoffs.

Many of the recent cuts, on the other hand, are merger-related. Wells Fargo said last month it would cut an additional 1,200 workers because of its 1996 acquisition of First Interstate Bancorp, on top of thousands already cut.

NationsBank has yet to say how many jobs it will cut in its pending acquisition of Florida's Barnett Banks. The $14.6 billion deal would be the biggest bank merger in history.

Alan Johnson, director of the compensation consulting firm Johnson Associates Inc., said managers are less concerned about bad publicity from layoffs than they were a decade ago.

``Companies felt guilty then, but they have gotten used to it, and employees have gotten used to it, too.'' One result of that, he said, is that compensation given to workers who are laid off has slipped since the late 1980s and early 1990s.

CAPTION(S):

Chart

Chart: (Color) JOB CUTS

The percentage of jobs lost from some of the big names in the new wave of job cuts.

Associated Press