Boston Careers Lost as Bose Axes Positions

Posted on January 21, 2009

Some Boston careers will be axed as a large company cuts jobs.

Bose Corp., which is based in Framingham, has announced its plan to cut about 1,000 jobs, or about 10 percent of the company’s total workforce. The company has verified that some workers in Massachusetts and the Boston area will be affected, but has not disclosed exactly how many positions will be cut throughout the area.

The cuts will come from various areas within the company, including several manufacturing positions. The company is making cuts as part of a restructuring plan to help deal with the current recession and decrease in customer spending, according to an article by the Boston Herald.

“We have been staffed for a growing economy, not a global recession,” the company said in the article. “As a global company, we are responding to these challenges.”

Amar Bose, an MIT alum and inventor, founded Bose in 1964. The company sells its products at more than 125 showcase stores and factory outlets. The company’s products also can be found in such stores as BJ’s Wholesale Club and Best Buy. Bose, which is privately held, earns about $2 billion in sales each year.

In efforts to expand, Bose purchased a former Compaq Computer Corp. property in 2003 to expand its automotive systems unit. The company also leased an empty EMC Corp. building in 2006 to house its sales and service operations.

The job cuts will most likely put a snag in Boston’s economy, one of the few that continues to flourish amid the economic turmoil. During November 2008, the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy area had a total non-farm employment of 2,522,800 workers, according to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is up from 2,519,700 workers during October 2008 and a .3 percent increase from last year.

The Boston area had an unemployment rate of 5 percent during November, up from 4.6 percent during October, but lower than the national unemployment rate of 6.7 percent.