From reporter Marty Moylan:

Best Buy is cutting 400 jobs, largely at its Richfield headquarters, and predicting further cost-cutting to come.

The company says the move will save $150 million and is only the first phase of a $725 million cost-cutting program announced last fall. The company says the savings come from increased focus on the company’s core business, removing management layers and eliminating inefficiencies.

“The cuts are coming from across the company,” said Jeff Shelman, a company spokesman. “The only place that is not affected will be in our stores, with our sales associates.”

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(MPR Photo/Jeffrey Thompson)

From reporter Annie Baxter:

Under current law, Minnesotans can draw up to 40 weeks of unemployment benefits, less than half as many as at the peak of the recession.

Without congressional action, the benefit package will shrink to 26 weeks, its pre-recession size. It is only coincidence that deadline is close to the larger budget and tax debate between the White House and Congress. But President Barack Obama is trying to insert the benefit extensions into fiscal cliff talks.

The National Employment Law Project estimates that 1 million workers nationwide will be dumped from extended benefit rolls. In Minnesota, 12,000 people will be cut off.

Hundreds of jobless workers recently showed up at a networking party for the unemployed at Grace Church in Eden Prairie.

Susan Angell of Shakopee scanned the crowded room looking for people who could connect her to work. Angell lost her job as an optical lab tech in May.

“There’s just not a lot out there for that right now,” she said.

At 28, Angell is hoping to change careers and recently completed some training in information technology.

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Bill Asch, an IT project manager, sometimes finds himself in uncomfortable conversations at his children’s soccer games in Shoreview. He has gone through a few layoffs in recent years. And when he chats with other parents, the layoffs come up in an awkward way.

“The parents say, ‘Oh, you got laid off! I’m sorry!’” he says. “And you say ‘Oh, don’t worry about it. I really don’t care.’ And they kind of look at you like you’re crazy, but you don’t. You don’t care, because you know you will have something.”

That something is a job offer. Or, in Asch’s case, several. His periods of unemployment never last long. With each layoff so far, his phone has started to ring immediately. And the multiple job offers that roll in have allowed him to increase his salary.

Read more from Annie Baxter’s story, “IT workers largely shielded from economy’s woes.”