Chicago, IL, October 5, 2005--Employers announced 71,836 job cuts in September — little changed from the previous month — marking the end of the slowest quarter for planned layoffs since the second quarter of 2002, according to a survey by Challenger, Gray and Christmas Inc.
The outplacement firm said September's layoff announcements were 1.8 per cent higher than August's, but down 33 per cent from a year earlier when U.S. companies announced 107,863 job cuts. The transportation and retail industries led the layoffs in September, accounting for 36 per cent of all planned job cuts.
Those two industries are slowly catching up with the automotive industry, which has announced 82,732 job cuts so far this year.
From July through September, 245,378 layoffs were announced, 2.3 per cent less than the previous quarter and 2.5 per cent fewer than the same quarter last year. Even so, some 783,652 job buts have been announced so far this year, 8.2 per cent more than the same period last year.
