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Economy in Brief
German PPI Accelerates
The German year-on-year PPI has generally been decelerating since early 2017...
U.S. Leading Economic Indicators Signal Continued Expansion
The Conference Board's Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators increased 0.3% during March...
Philadelphia Fed Factory Conditions Improve; Prices Jump
The Philadelphia Fed reported that its General Factory Sector Business Conditions Index rose to 23.2 during April...
U.S. Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance Are Little Changed
Initial unemployment insurance claims slipped to 232,000 (-6.1% y/y) during the week ended April 14...
U.K. Retail Sales Fall
U.K. GDP is expected to cool its jets when the first quarter GDP number is released...
by Tom Moeller March 4, 2009
Challenger, Grey & Christmas reported that February job cut announcements eased slightly to 186,350 following 241,749 layoffs during January. Challenger also reported that announced hiring plans reversed much of the strong January gain.
Job cut announcements in the automotive sector surged to 61,288 and the financial business shed 13,550 jobs. Employment in the retail industry fell 18,759. Employment in the industrial goods industry again was quite weak and 19,462 jobs were lost while 3,960 were shed from the computer industry. From the pharmaceutical industry there were 8,806 layoffs and the electronics industry shed another 11,065 jobs
During the last ten years there has been a 67% (inverse) correlation between the three month moving average of announced job cuts and the three month change payroll employment.
Job cut announcements differ from layoffs. Many are achieved through attrition, early retirement or just never occur.
The Challenger figures are available in Haver's SURVEYS database.
The Term Structure of Inflation Expectations from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is available here.
| Challenger, Gray & Christmas | February | January | Y/Y | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Announced Job Cuts | 186,350 | 241,749 | 158.5% | 1,223,993 | 768,264 | 839,822 |
