Job cut announcements dropped in May

CHICAGO, June 6 (UPI) -- Announced layoffs in May dropped 4.5 percent from April and came in 41 percent lower than May 2012, a private outplacement firm in Chicago said Thursday.

Challenger, Gray & Christmas said 36,398 job cuts were announced in May, making it the third consecutive month in which job cuts declined. In April, there were 38,121 job cut announcements. In May 2012, there were 61,887 planned layoffs announced in the month.

From January through May, employers have made it known that 219,560 jobs would be cut, which is 11 percent less than the 245,540 planned for the same period of 2012.

The leading industry for announced job cuts in May was healthcare with 4,886 announced layoffs.

That doesn't mean there was a net loss of healthcare jobs in the month, as a different set of companies in healthcare may well be hiring.

The federal government is scheduled to release its monthly employment situation report Friday. That will answer the question on which direction the healthcare industry may be headed in terms of numbers of employees.

Following healthcare, there were 4,101 job cuts announced in May in the computer industry, 3,654 in aerospace/defense, 3,021 in transportation and 2,814 in industrial goods.