CHICAGO, March 2 (UPI) -- The pace of downsizing slowed in February as U.S. employers announced plans to cut 87,437 jobs, down 15.5 percent from January's 103,466 job cuts.
It was the lowest monthly job cut figure since last October's 81,301, Chicago outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. said Thursday.
February job cuts were 19 percent lower than the 108,387 cuts announced in the same month a year ago. Overall, the 190,903 job cuts announced so far in 2006 are 4.9 percent lower than the 200,738 cuts in the first two months of 2005.
Employers in the government and automotive sectors, which saw the heaviest job cutting in 2005, have continued to eliminate workers at a high rate in 2006. The 68,990 job cuts announced by these two industries alone account for 36 percent of all downsizing this year.
However, while government and auto employers continue to discharge workers, other areas of the economy appear to be improving. Job cuts in the telecommunications sector have fallen 63 percent from a year ago. Consumer products manufacturing job cuts were down 64 percent and cuts in the industrial goods sector were down 53 percent.
