Posted on: Wednesday, June 5, 2002

Planned job cuts rose 6 percent in May

By Monee Fields-White
Bloomberg News Service

WASHINGTON — The number of job cuts planned by U.S. employers rose in May from the same month a year ago, a private survey found.

Businesses last month announced plans to eliminate 84,978 positions, according to the placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. That was up 6 percent from 80,140 in May 2001.

Job cuts were 25 percent lower than the 112,649 announced in April.

"With only scattered signs of recovery and more frequent warnings about future terrorist attacks, it may be too soon to say that the heavy job cutting is behind us for good," said John Challenger, chief executive of the Chicago employment company.

He said that May is historically a month when fewer announcements are made.

The telecommunications industry planned the most layoffs, with the number of jobs earmarked for elimination totaling 14,687. That made up 17 percent of the total number of announcements.

SBC Communications Inc. will eliminate 5,000 jobs this quarter, or 2.6 percent of its work force, after the second-biggest U.S. local-telephone company had its first loss in almost five years.