Recent Updates
- Lebanon: Public Debt (Nov-Prelim)
- Serbia: New Business Loans (Dec)
- Germany: GfK Consumer Climate Survey (Jan)
- France: Registered Unemployment and Vacancies (Dec), Monthly Household Survey (Jan)
- more updates...
Economy in Brief
U.S. FHFA House Price Index Rose Further in November
The FHFA House Price Index increased 1.0% m/m in November...
U.S. Energy Prices Are Mixed
The price of regular gasoline rose to $2.39 per gallon (-4.5% y/y) in the week ended January 25...
U.K. Retail Survey Shows Extreme Weakness
The CBI U.K. retail volume survey shows dramatically weakened data for January and for the February outlook...
Texas Manufacturing Activity Weakens Further During January
The Dallas Fed reported that its Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey General Business Activity Index fell to 7.0 during January...
Chicago Fed National Activity Index Improves During December
The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago's National Activity Index increased to 0.52 during December...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller October 2, 2009
The outplacement firm of Challenger, Grey & Christmas indicated that job cut announcements fell last month to the current cycle low. They dropped to 66,404, compared to a high of 241,748 cuts in February of this year.
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.
In addition to fewer layoffs, hiring plans have picked up and were more than double last year's level. There have been strong increase in services, electronics and entertainment/leisure industries.
The Challenger figures are available in Haver's SURVEYS database.
| Challenger, Gray & Christmas | September | August | Y/Y | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Announced Job Cuts | 66,404 | 76,456 | -30.2% | 1,223,993 | 768,264 | 839,822 |
| Announced Hiring Plans | 25,047 | 13,100 | 162.6 | 118,600 | 365,753 | 276,525 |
