Job cuts soared in 2001

Advertiser News Services

U.S. companies fired nearly 2 million workers this year as the economy lapsed into recession. The moves represent the largest employment reductions in at least a dozen years.

Since the terrorist attacks Sept. 11, U.S. companies have announced 624,411 job cuts, more than the 12-month totals for every year from 1993 to 1997, the job placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said yesterday.

Through the end of November companies had announced close to 1.8 million job cuts in 2001, nearly three times more than were announced in 2000 and the largest number since Challenger began tabulating such figures in 1993.

"This year the downsizing just dwarfs anything we've seen before that," said John Challenger, chief executive officer of the company that tracks employment trends.

The previous worst year was 1998, when 677,795 job cuts were announced.

Hawai'i has not been spared, with companies including DFS, Aloha and Hawaiian airlines, and Atlantis Adventures announcing more than 2,200 job cuts since the attacks. The state's jobless rate rose to 5.5 percent in November, the highest in more than two years.

The telecommunications industry led the way with 292,756 planned cuts through November.

But the nationwide job losses cut across three significant economic sectors: manufacturing/industrial, high technology and travel, Challenger said.

Challenger compiles figures from job cut announcements and does not count actual job losses, which can come from firings, early retirements and attrition.

Besides the struggling economy and the Sept. 11 attacks, Challenger pointed to two other trends that seem to have led to more layoffs: an increase in mergers in recent years and a "frenzy of overhiring" that occurred as the economy soared in the mid- to late 1990s.

Challenger said he has also been struck by the fact that even industry-leading companies are now downsizing.