Job-cut plans up 60% in March

Bloomberg News Service

Washington — U.S. businesses announced record plans for job cuts in March as a cooling economy crimped demand for labor, a private survey showed.

Businesses said last month they intended to eliminate 162,867 jobs, up 60 percent from 101,731 in February, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a job placement firm in Chicago.

The March total was the highest for any month since the company began a daily tally in 1993.

Announcements averaged 7,755 daily for the 21 business days in March that Challenger examined. The survey ended before the 22nd business day.

Electronics companies moved to eliminate 24,684 jobs; those in telecommunications announced plans to cut 22,456 jobs; and computer businesses said they planned to reduce payrolls by 19,034 positions.

The steady stream of technology-related job cuts has showed little sign of slowing this month.

Winstar Communications Inc., a New York-based telephone company whose stock has plunged 99 percent in the past year, said yesterday it will cut 2,000 jobs, or 43 percent of its work force.

The job cut survey comes one day before the Labor Department releases its March employment report.

Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News expect the jobless rate rose to 4.3 percent in March and that the economy added 60,000 positions, or less than half the 135,000 added in February.