January is usually a bad time for workers in the retail services industry. Hours are lean because the holidays are over and seasonal workers have left the stores, since they are no longer needed. This year however things are even worse as a number of other workers, the non-seasonal kind who were expecting to keep their jobs after the holiday season. Earlier this week we talked about the massive cuts are gong to be made to JCPenney and Company, and now looks like Sears is getting on the act too.

This time the cuts are coming in Canada, Windsor Sears Canada has decided to cut about 400 of its employees, the announcement which was a made on Tuesday of this week is going to effect in the next two weeks. Workers are to be cut loose from their jobs have already been notified. These cuts have been made in a few different areas. A fair number of them will come from workers in the information technology services departments, and the administration offices at the Toronto headquarters of the chain. Other cuts are going to make the foodservices departments in the cafés and many of the locations.

While this is a fraction of the overall number of people that Sears employs in the nation of Canada. The company has about 30,000 employees across its 200 stores and its headquarters. The company’s 200 stores in Canada have the majority of the workers.  About 2000 of the employees are based in their headquarters in the city of Toronto.

For those of you who missed our earlier coverage of the cuts at JC Penny here is an excerpt to help you get up to date:

“It looks like the worker at, J.C. Penney Co. have something to worry about. The well known department store chain is getting ready to get rid of two different types of workers and while the first kind will not be surprised to be out of a job, the second kind will definitely find the fact that they are also being let go as a bit of an unpleasant surprise.

The first of the cuts are to the company’s seasonal workers. For those of you who are not familiar with the hiring practices of the retail industry a seasonal employee is brought on for a limited span of time, usually over the holiday season, when the stores are busy with extra shoppers. A little after the holiday season ends the company then lets go of these workers. While in the current economy these may be the only jobs that many people can find, at least the workers know that they come with an expiration date on them, and they can plan accordingly.

The other type of employee to get the ax this time are the regular staff, the people who had no reason to believe that they might be out of a job when the holiday season was over. These workers are in for a surprise when they find out they are out of a job.

At the current moment the company has not given a lot of details about the layoffs. Information such as the number of workers to be cut, whether they are full timers or part timers  and the date that these workers are going to be out of a job. We do however know that the cuts are part of a larger strategy by the company to run leaner on the whole, so not all of the cuts will come from the retail stores, support departments are likely to also have some of their jobs cut.

We do know that the cuts are likely to be made to all of the 1,200 retail locations. Pressure for these changes is alleged to have come from two of the company’s biggest shareholders, William Ackman and Vornado Realty Trust. ”