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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 |
