CHICAGO, Oct. 3 (UPI) -- U.S. companies announced just over 40,000 job cuts in September, a three-month low, a private employment firm said Thursday.
Challenger, Gray & Christmas said 40,289 layoffs were announced in the month, a 20 percent drop from August, when 50,4623 layoffs were announced.
The September total is 19 percent higher than the same month of 2012, when there were 33,816 job cuts announced.
From January through September, U.S. firms have announced 387,384 job cuts, fractionally more than the 386,001 announced in the first nine months of 2012.
Healthcare firms announced 8,128 job cuts in September, leading the list for the third time in the past five months.
The report noted there have been calls for 64,808 job cuts in New York in 2013, the highest among the 50 states.
The second highest total comes from California, where 44,131 job cuts have been announced. Illinois is third on the list with 34,904, followed by Texas and Pennsylvania with 28,139 and 20,298, respectively.
