Posted on 12/02/2003 7:27:43 AM PST by Starwind
U.S. firms' job cuts plunge 42 pct in Nov. -report Tuesday December 2, 10:04 am ET
NEW YORK, Dec 2 (Reuters) - The number of job cuts announced by U.S. employers fell 42 percent in a holiday-shortened November after hitting a 12-month high in October, a report said on Tuesday.
Planned layoffs at U.S. firms fell to 99,452 jobs in November from 171,874 in October, job placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. said in their monthly job cut report. Job cuts announced so far this year amount to 1,143,406, 17 percent less than the same period a year ago.
November cuts were led by the telecommunications sector, which announced 18,183 cuts last month, the report said.
"Job-cut announcements have been on a roller coaster ride this year. One month job cuts increase; the next, they fall. The lack of any discernible trend in corporate downsizing is indicative of the uncertainty associated with the currency economy," said John Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
The Challenger report comes ahead of Friday's November U.S. employment report which according to a poll of economists by Reuters expects to see the unemployment rate hold steady at 6.0 percent with an increase of 135,000 new non-farm sector jobs.
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NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Job cuts announced by U.S. corporations in November decreased 42% from October, according to data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas released Tuesday.
Announced job cuts for November totaled 99,452, compared with the 12-month high of 171,874 the prior month, the firm said.
"November job cuts were led by the telecommunications sector, which announced 18,183 cuts during the month," Challenger said in a press release. "It was only the second time this year that this sector led all other industries in monthly job cuts."
The report is an anecdotal, non-statistical tally of job-cut announcements that are reported in major media outlets. The report focuses only on job-cut announcements, not actual layoffs, and it doesn't take into account new hires or internal transfers at companies that have announced layoffs.
Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., an outplacement firm, tracks layoff announcements and releases its Challenger Employment report monthly.
-By Michael S. Derby, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-4192; michael.derby@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
12-02-03 1003ET- - 10 03 AM EST 12-02-03
Yes, well perhaps
"U.S. firms' [planned] job cutswould be more politically correct for FR consumption.plunge[fill in your own adjective here => __________ ] 42 pct in Nov [meaning 42% more people will keep their jobs - Hold Muh Beer Barf Alert Daschel is deeply saddened] -report"
Yep. Last months planned layoffs. Remains to be seen if this is a reduction of the previous planned layoffs, or if additional layoffs are planned but at lower amounts.
CG&C just report what their clients tell them. Some clients report a cummulatve number that reflects all future plans from that moment forward while others report the incremental change to prior plans. And the time frames are ambiguous.
I have to believe that some of these reflect actual reversals from prior planned layoffs to planned retentions.
In absolute numbers, no more reliable than the companies feeding them the raw data.
In terms of the relative trend, reasonably accurate about the direction of the overall trend (more layoffs), but these days not terribly accurate in the rate or timing of layoffs.
Then it is all further complicated by the conflicting and opposing economic forces - suppresed interest rates and weak fundamentals in the in the US vs profit growth offshore and the shift from a manufacturing to service based economy.
All make for shifting and difficult corporate planning which is reflected in the CG&C reporting.
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