Posted on: Friday, May 3, 2002

April job-cut plans down from last year's

By Siobhan Hughes
Bloomberg News Service

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

Businesses last month announced plans to eliminate 112,649 jobs, according to the job-placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. That was down 32 percent from 165,564 in April 2001, at the start of recession.

"The fever has broken," said John Challenger, chief executive of the Chicago company. He still warned that "companies are far from finished when it comes to thinning out their ranks."

Job cuts were 10 percent higher than the 102,315 announced in March. That reflected a surge in layoff announcements at telecommunications, automotive and services companies.

The telecommunications industry planned the most layoffs, with the number of jobs earmarked for elimination totaling 38,176, up 75 percent from 21,831 in March.

The automotive industry accounted for one in every eight announced job cuts, with planned layoffs totaling 13,927. That was almost seven times higher than the 2,401 in March. The services industry announced 10,776 layoffs, up six-fold from 1,468 announced the prior month.

Job-cut announcements aren't the same as firings because many of the planned reductions will be carried out through attrition or retirement. Many announced staff reductions never take place because business improves.