Santa Announces Mass Layoff Effective Immediately

From the A.P. desk, 7:04am December 26, 2012

A spokesman for Santa Claus has announced a layoff of 50% of his elite elves workforce, effective immediately. The total workforce, estimated at approximately 7,000 little people has worked for Mr. & Mrs. Claus for generations. Mr. Claus said “When I first started in this business, there were only 25 Elves. “ As the world’s population grew, so did the elf population at the North Pole.   In fact, the elf population grew at a rate 3X the regular population rate, probably attributable to a lot of time off during the year, as well as having to spend a lot of time indoors due to the harsh North Pole winters.”

The spokesman, Hans Claus, said “1000 of the 3500 laid off workers will be retrained to work in a top-secret state-of-the-art factory and/or distribution center that are currently being built in an undisclosed location in the North Pole.  The elves will be trained in the latest robotic manufacturing technologies, as well as logistics. A special group of elves are training to implement the delivery of presents via the latest laser guided drone technology in order address the increased delivery demand.  If successful, the drone program will insure Christmas deliveries well into the next century.”

Mr. Claus said “I have an obligation to ensure the long-term viability of the Claus family business.” If this program is successful, I anticipate a productivity assessment of the rest of the organization in 2014. We are just following trends that are all too obvious in the rest of the world’s economy.

The permanently laid off elves will 2500 elves be given 12 month’s pay, a discretionary retraining expense account to help migrate to another industry, and a generous travel expense allowance to move their families to a new location.

Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are holding a press conference at noon today in Chicago to protest this mass re-organization of the Claus family business. “A boycott of the Claus business is not anticipated”, said Mr. Jackson’s spokesperson.