About 1,500 jobs being cut around Illinois

About a dozen companies around Illinois are laying off about 1,500 workers - including 800 in the suburbs - now through July mostly because of the recession, according to documents filed with the state.

Some of the companies have ongoing restructuring, while others are shutting their doors. Area companies planning cuts include:

• U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Brands Inc., which makes Copenhagen and Skoal products, will be closing its Aurora sales office, affecting 72 workers. U.S. Smokeless was acquired in January by the Richmond, Va.-based Altria Group Inc., parent of Philip Morris USA, maker of Marlboro cigarettes. The closing is because the companies are merging their sales forces. Some workers may be offered other positions, said company spokesman David Sutton.

• Discover Financial Services, which announced about a month ago that it would eliminate 500 jobs, revealed about 300 of those positions will be from its headquarters in Riverwoods. Some workers have already left, while others have yet to be told. The positions are across all departments and positions, said company spokesman Jon Drummond. Another 200 jobs will be eliminated at Discover offices in Delaware, Texas, Arizona, Utah and Ohio, he said.

• Northbrook-based Allstate Insurance Co., which said in February it would eliminate about 1,000 positions over the next two years, has now targeted about 218 of those jobs at its headquarters through next week. Another 45 workers will be leaving the company's Vernon Hills office., said spokesman Mike Siemienas. Bad market conditions, heavy losses, and the recession have hit the insurer's financial division. Other positions will be eliminate in coming months due to attrition, he said.

• Austin, Texas,-based Freescale Semiconductor Inc., which provides embedded chips for mobile phones and other devices, is reducing its mobile phone chip operations in Lake Zurich by late June, affecting more than 100 workers, said company spokesman Rob Hatley. An unspecified number of workers will remain at the site to support other Freescale businesses, he said. Motorola spun off Freescale in 2004, but Motorola no longer has an equity stake in Freescale.

• Sysco Asian Foods of Hampshire will be closing its operations, 200 Flannigan Road in Hampshire, by early June and eliminating 68 positions. A reason wasn't provided in the state documents, and a company spokesman was unavailable for comment.