U.S.-based employers announced plans to cut 51,114 workers from the payrolls in August, a 23-percent decline from July, when the number of job cuts hit a 16-month high of 66,414, according to the report released Wednesday by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.
Employers have now announced 363,334 planned layoffs so far this year. That is only 2.9 percent below a 2010 eight-month job-cut total of 374,121.
In August, government agencies announced plans to cut 18,426 workers from their payrolls. That is nearly double the 9,389 job cuts announced in the sector in July and not far behind the largest government job-cut month of the year: March, when these employers announced 19,099 job cuts.
The government sector has now announced 105,406 job cuts this year. The next closest sector is retail, which has announced 40,173, including 5,901 in August.
“Unlike previous months, the government job-cut announcements in August were not dominated by state and local agencies. Instead, the federal level led the way with heavy reductions among the civilian and officer ranks across three branches of the military. More workforce reductions at the federal level are undoubtedly coming down the road. Congress and the White House are under immense pressure to cut federal budgets and while the heaviest cuts are due in 2014, we will probably begin seeing some fallout starting this year and into 2012,” said Challenger.
Meanwhile, the private is still being hampered by low consumer and business spending, Callenger said, and hiring is anticipated to remain slow through the end of 2011 and into 2012.
Although some hiring is taking about, about 4 million new workers per month, Challenger said, “It just so happens that employers are losing about four million workers each month to layoff, terminations, retirements and other voluntary and involuntary departures.”
