CHICAGO, June 28 (UPI) -- More than 150,000 dot-com jobs have disappeared since the Internet bubble burst two years ago, but only 684 pink slips went out in June, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an international outplacement firm.
Dot-com job cuts announced this month were 93 percent lower than a year ago when 9,216 jobs were announced.
"The dot-com sector is clearly still experiencing a lot of volatility as evidenced by the wildly fluctuating job-cut numbers we are seeing," said John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of the Chicago-based firm that tracks job cut announcements on a daily basis. "One month cuts are up, next month they are down. This roller coaster trend may continue over the long term."
A total of 3,586 jobs disappeared at dot-coms in the second quarter of 2002, a drop of 11 percent from the first quarter. Last year, 40,189 dot-com employees learned they were out of a job during the same three-month period, but the pace of layoffs has fallen significantly in 2002.
So far 7,607 dot-com employees have been cut this year, 90 percent fewer than the 74,199 cuts announced in the first half of 2001.
Dot-coms sent out an average 8,410 pink slips a month last year.
Technology firms accounted for 57 percent of June's layoffs, followed by consumer services and media services.
"These firms seem to be very adept at adjusting their workforce levels quickly, hiring and firing as business ebbs and flows," Challenger said. "It is likely that job cuts will come in waves versus the large-scale downsizing we witnessed last spring."
