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Economy in Brief
PMI Rebound Runs Out of Steam in October... Especially for Services
However, the longer view is clearly that an improving trend has been in place...
U.S. Index of Leading Economic Indicators Softened in September
The Conference Board's Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators increased 0.2% m/m (9.3% y/y)...
U.S. Existing Home Sales Show Unexpected Strength in September
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that sales of existing homes strengthened 7.0% ...
Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index Backpedals in October
The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's Manufacturing Business Conditions Index weakened roughly seven points...
U.S. Unemployment Insurance Claims Continued to Fall
Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to 293,000 (-64.8% y/y)...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller April 4, 2013
The outplacement firm of Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported that 49,225 job cuts were announced during March. This latest level was down m/m but remained up from the the recovery low of 32,239 reached last August. Job cuts declined m/m in the entertainment, financial, automotive, chemical, electronics and media industries.
During the last ten years there has been a 67% correlation between the three-month moving average of announced job cuts and the three-month change in payroll employment. Job cut announcements differ from layoffs. Many are achieved through attrition, early retirement or just never occur.
Challenger also samples firms' hiring plans and they dropped by one-third versus last year.
The Challenger figures are available in Haver's SURVEYS database.
Unconventional Monetary Policy and the Dollar from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco is available here.
| Challenger, Gray & Christmas | Mar | Feb | Jan | Y/Y% | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Announced Job Cuts | 49,255 | 55,356 | 40,430 | 30.0 | 523,362 | 606,082 | 529,973 |
| Announced Hiring Plans | 8,115 | 92,372 | 60,585 | 34.5 | 630,447 | 537,572 | 402,638 |
