BornAgain123
November 5th, 2008, 10:14 AM
http://biz.yahoo.com/cnnm/081105/110508_challenger_adp.html
Job cut announcements by U.S. employers soared to 112,884 in October, up 19% from September's 95,094 cuts, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. That was the highest number of pink slips handed out since January 2004. Layoffs last month were up 79% from October 2007, when 63,114 job cuts were announced.
The dour reports were ominous signs for the jobs market ahead of the Department of Labor's monthly unemployment report on Friday. That report is expected to show that 200,000 jobs were lost in October and that the unemployment rate grew to 6.3% from 6.1% a month earlier.
"The economy has taken a marked turn for the worse, so it's hard to envision a scenario where we don't see steep job losses in the next few months," said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. "In the best-case scenario, jobs will stabilize by the middle of 2009."
October's numbers bring the total number of planned job cuts to 875,974 in 2008, 14% higher than all of 2007 and the largest 10-month total since 2003.
Job cut announcements by U.S. employers soared to 112,884 in October, up 19% from September's 95,094 cuts, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. That was the highest number of pink slips handed out since January 2004. Layoffs last month were up 79% from October 2007, when 63,114 job cuts were announced.
The dour reports were ominous signs for the jobs market ahead of the Department of Labor's monthly unemployment report on Friday. That report is expected to show that 200,000 jobs were lost in October and that the unemployment rate grew to 6.3% from 6.1% a month earlier.
"The economy has taken a marked turn for the worse, so it's hard to envision a scenario where we don't see steep job losses in the next few months," said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. "In the best-case scenario, jobs will stabilize by the middle of 2009."
October's numbers bring the total number of planned job cuts to 875,974 in 2008, 14% higher than all of 2007 and the largest 10-month total since 2003.