NEW YORK, Oct. 29 (UPI) -- A new round of mergers could mean a rapid escalation in U.S. job cuts for the holidays, an international outplacement firm predicts.
Challenger, Gray & Christmas says past data show the last round of big mergers caused about one in eight, or 12 percent, of all job cutbacks in the 1990s and 2000. The report says retailers fear late year consolidations that historically squeezes out thousands of workers as the Christmas selling season begins.
"Since the last major deregulation in 1996, large banks have been spreading their empires by combining with other major banks and swallowing up smaller community banks," said John A. Challenger, chief executive officer. "They have left a trail of job cuts in their wake."
He says Wall Street analysts predict the consolidation of technology firms "as companies in that sector wage battle to determine the survival of the fittest"
