Planned layoffs at highest level in 11 months

[The Straight Story]

Planned layoffs at highest level in 11 months
By Reuters
Posted today at 6:42 a.m.

The number of planned layoffs at U.S. firms rose in February to its highest level in 11 months as government and non-profit employers let workers go, a report showed Wednesday.

Employers announced 50,702 planned job cuts last month, the highest level since March 2010 and a jump of 32 percent from January’s 38,519, according to the report from consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. Layoffs were 20 percent higher than the 42,090 announced in February of last year, marking the first year-over-year increase since May 2009.

Even so, the report said the pace of job cutting remains relatively subdued. Job cuts for January and February stand at 89,211, well below the 113,572 job cuts that were announced in the first two months of 2010.

“It is too soon to say whether the increases in January and now February represent a trend,” John Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in a statement.


http://chicagobreakingbusiness.com/2011/03/planned-layoffs-at-highest-level-in-11-months.html

[gratuitous]

1. Where are the jobs, Mr. Boehner?

Aren't you glad no one in the popular media can form that question?

[HughBeaumont]

2. Trickle Down. Bootstraps. Tax Cuts. Laissez Faire. Milton Friedman.

Alan Greenspan. Reaganomics. Free Trade Agreements. Rising Tide lifts all boats. Invisible Hand. Can't help the wage earner by hurting the Wage Payer. Supply Side. Horatio Alger. Tax work not wealth. Spread my work ethic, not my wealth. Why should I have to pay for other people's health care? Free Markets. Job Offshoring. Globalization. Government should be run like a business at the behest of businessmen.



Riiiiiiiiight, howzabout throwing all that shit in there once and for all rather than voting for it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again?

[Dappleganger]

3. Many companies are protecting themselves by having at least 20% in temp workers...

so they don't have to offer any benefits to those laid off.