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Economy in Brief
Delay in Release
of Data for Construction, MSIO, Intl Trade, Wholesale Trade, Treasury Statement, Retail Sales, Business Sales & Inventories, and Housing Starts Due to Lapse in Federal Government Funding.
Philadelphia Fed Nonmanufacturing Business Activity Slumps Again in January
The Philadelphia Fed reported that its Nonmanufacturing Business Index of current conditions at the company level slumped further to -0.2 in January...
ZEW Assessments Almost Universally Fall
The ZEW indexes each month center on Germany where the survey occurs and where the financial experts reside...
U.S. Industrial Production Celebrates 100 Years With An Increase
In the 100th anniversary of it release, industrial production rose a greater-than-expected 0.3% (3.9% year-on-year) during December...
U.K. Retail Sales Begin to Lose Momentum
U.K. retail sales fell by a sharp 1% in December...
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 |
