U.S. announced job cuts down 7% to 102,971 in July -
Wednesday, August 3, 2005 2:30:06 PM
afxpress.com
WASHINGTON (AFX) -- U.S. corporations announced 102,971 job reductions in July, down 7% from June's total, according to the monthly tally by Challenger Gray & Christmas released Wednesday. Nevertheless, layoff plans are up by 18% in the year to date to 641,245, Challenger said. At the current rate, job reductions will exceed 1 million for a fifth straight year, the outplacement firm said
Last month's layoffs were up 48% from July 2004
Over the past three months, announcements of job cuts have totaled 296,250, "unusually high for warm weather months," said John Challenger, CEO of the firm. It's been a spring and summer of "job-cut hell," Challenger said
The figures are not seasonally adjusted. Consumer products, computer and financial industries were responsible for about half of July's announced cutbacks
"One would expect employers in the consumer products, financial and computer sectors to be adding workers by the boatload in an expanding economy," Challenger said
The Challenger report doesn't track most of the jobs lost in the economy each month. Announced cuts can take place immediately or over the course of several months, and they can be accomplished through layoffs or through voluntary terminations, such as quitting or retiring
According to Labor Department data, for instance, there were 4.6 million separations from jobs in April, including 1.6 million layoffs, up about 250,000 from a year earlier. At the same time, 4.5 million workers were hired, flat with a year earlier |
