Challenger Jobs Report Confirms Layoffs Rising Rapidly

ThinkstockMore bad news is coming on the jobs front, if Challenger, Gray & Christmas is right in its assessment. The report for the month of October shows that layoffs rose by 41% from the prior month after having seen lowest…

Published November 1, 2012, 7:46am ET · 1 min read

More bad news is coming on the jobs front, if Challenger, Gray & Christmas is right in its assessment. The report for the month of October shows that layoffs rose by 41% from the prior month after having seen lowest levels in about two years. As you see with the Labor Department reports, there is a seasonality winding down in the fourth quarter as businesses budget ahead.

The report shows that U,S,-based employers have said that they plan to cut 47,724 jobs in October. While it is up 41% from September and can be partly explained by the seasonality, the report is still up 12% from October of 2011. This also represents the highest reading since May, when companies were planning for a slowdown ahead of the summer.

It was the Automotive sector cutting the most jobs, with 11,615 planned cuts. Other sectors leading the cuts were consumer products, electronics and industrial goods.

If you looked at the newest 2012 layoff kings, this increase in layoffs should be of little surprise.

JON C. OGG

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Jon C. Ogg

Jon Ogg has been a financial news analyst since 1997. Mr. Ogg set up one of the first audio squawk box services for traders called TTN, which he sold in 2003. He has previously worked as a licensed broker to some of the top U.S. and E.U. financial institutions, managed capital, and has raised private capital at the seed and venture stage. He has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, as well as New York and Chicago, and he now lives in Houston, Texas. Jon received a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance at University of Houston in 1992. www.247wallst.com.

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