The number of planned job cuts announced by United States-based employers declined for the second consecutive month in March, falling 19.3 percent to 150,411 from 186,350 in February, according to a report by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.
The March figure was the lowest since last October, when 112,884 planned job cuts were announced. It comes on the heels of a 23-percent decline recorded in February.
Despite the downward trend, job cuts are still well above the pace of a year ago. Last month’s total was 181 percent higher than March 2008, when job cuts hit the lowest level of the year (53,579). Overall, first-quarter job cuts of 578,510 are 188 percent higher than the 200,656 job cuts announced in the first three months of 2008.
The first quarter was the largest one-quarter total since 585,188 job cuts were announced in the fourth quarter of 2001. Over the last six months, employers have announced 1,039,413 job cuts.
Since the beginning of 2008, more than 1.8 million job cuts have been announced
Employers in the government/non-profit sector saw the heaviest downsizing in March, with 25,324 announced job cuts. The second-ranked pharmaceutical industry announced plans to cut 17,796, most of which will come following Merck’s acquisition of Schering-Plough.
Meanwhile, the financial industry experienced a relatively low 8,651 job cuts. That was down 36 percent from a February figure of 13,550 and well below last year’s average of 21,676 announced cuts per month.
“The good news is that job cuts appear to be stabilizing in the financial sector. Unfortunately, other sectors are seeing an increase in cuts as the recession works its way through the economy. State and local governments across the country are struggling with falling tax revenues as more and more people lose their jobs and homes,” said John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
“State and local governments will see some relief in the coming months as the federal stimulus plan works its way into the economy,” Challenger added. “It may take longer for other industries to reap the benefits of the stimulus package. The automotive and industrial goods sectors, which have already announced a combined 136,880 job cuts so far this year, are falling victim to a global fall in demand as well as fundamental shifts in operations that no amount of stimulus will correct.”
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