Job cut announcements by U.S. corporations reached an eight-year high in
January, with a record 142,208 pink slips handed out.
That's
according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an international
outplacement firm, which reports the total number of jobs cut last month
was 181 percent higher than the 50,655 jobs lost in January 2000. It took
more than three months to reach 140,000 job cuts last year.
"Job security has suffered a severe shock, plunging seemingly out of
the blue from a let-the-good-times-roll economy to 275,000 announced job
cuts in 60 days," said John A. Challenger, chief executive officer
of the Chicago-based firm. January's cuts are the highest monthly toll
since Challenger began monitoring layoff announcements daily in 1993.
Corporations announced plans to cut 133,713 positions in December.
"To put the last two months of job-cutting in perspective, consider
that 1998 holds the decade record for the most job cuts in one year with
677,795," he said. "In just two months, job cuts are already at
41 percent of that total."
Challenger said with 6,182 jobs lost each business day in January, it is
clear major U.S. corporations have been impacted by the slowing economy
and are cutting costs by reducing their payroll expenses.
Automotive companies pared 34,959 employees, the most of any sector in
the economy, followed by 22,060 communications workers, 15,344 retail
employees, 11,887 e-commerce jobs and 10,940 computer industry workers.
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