Posted on: Tuesday, April 9, 2002

Bulk of U.S. retail layoffs after Sept. 11

By Patricia Azer
Bloomberg News Service

CHICAGO — More than 75 percent of all U.S. retail job reductions announced in the past 12 months occurred after the Sept. 11 attacks, according to a report by job placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.

There were 109,516 retail job cuts announced between April 2001 and March 31. Of them, 83,237 — 76 percent — were announced since Sept. 11. That surpasses year-end totals for each year since 1993 except 2000 and 2001, the Chicago-based firm said.

The 51,078 job cuts announced in the first three months of 2002 is halfway to matching last year's record of 96,741, Challenger said.

Last year's total may have gone unnoticed because it was overshadowed by the 300,000 jobs lost in telecommunications, and cuts of more than 150,000 each in the computer, industrial goods and electronics industries, the report said.

Since 1993, retailers have slashed 586,523 jobs, 41 percent of them since 2000, Challenger said.