Global| Aug 31 2011U.S. Challenger Job Cut Announcements Slip
by:Tom Moeller
|in:Economy in Brief
Summary
The outplacement firm of Challenger, Grey & Christmas reported that job cut announcements during August fell back following their July surge. The decline to 51,114 nevertheless left them up 47.0% from last August. The uptick in [...]
The outplacement firm of Challenger, Grey & Christmas reported that job
cut announcements during August fell back following their July surge. The
decline to 51,114 nevertheless left them up 47.0% from last August. The uptick
in announcements was led by the government, financial, industrial goods and
entertainment/leisure industries. In most other industries the level of job cut
announcements fell. 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 which reversed its July deterioration and rose to 15,201. That remained, however, still near the recovery low. The automotive, education, retail and services industries showed the largest improvements this month.
The Challenger figures are available in Haver's SURVEYS database.
Local Hangovers: How the Housing Boom and Bust Affected Jobs in Metro Areas from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is available here.
| Challenger, Gray & Christmas | Aug | Jul | Jun | Y/Y % | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Announced Job Cuts | 51,114 | 66,414 | 41,432 | 47.0 | 529,973 | 1,288,030 | 1,223,993 |
| Announced Hiring Plans | 15,201 | 10,706 | 15,498 | 8.0 | 402,638 | 272,573 | 118,600 |
Tom Moeller
AuthorMore in Author Profile »Prior to joining Haver Analytics in 2000, Mr. Moeller worked as the Economist at Chancellor Capital Management from 1985 to 1999. There, he developed comprehensive economic forecasts and interpreted economic data for equity and fixed income portfolio managers. Also at Chancellor, Mr. Moeller worked as an equity analyst and was responsible for researching and rating companies in the economically sensitive automobile and housing industries for investment in Chancellor’s equity portfolio. Prior to joining Chancellor, Mr. Moeller was an Economist at Citibank from 1979 to 1984. He also analyzed pricing behavior in the metals industry for the Council on Wage and Price Stability in Washington, D.C. In 1999, Mr. Moeller received the award for most accurate forecast from the Forecasters' Club of New York. From 1990 to 1992 he was President of the New York Association for Business Economists. Mr. Moeller earned an M.B.A. in Finance from Fordham University, where he graduated in 1987. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from George Washington University.
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