A report from
employment firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. showed Thursday that the
U.S. businesses announced 72,821 job cuts in September, down 4.0 per cent from
the 75,891 layoffs claimed in August. The September reading was 53.4 per cent above the figure for the corresponding month one year
prior (47,457).
According to
the report, the Technology sector announced the largest number of job cuts in last
month (11,430, or 15.2 per cent of all). It
was followed by the Health care and products (10,458, or 14.4 per cent of all),
Entertainment and Leisure (9,368, or 12.9 per cent of all), and Telecommunications
(5,150, or 7.1 per cent of all) sectors.
In the third
quarter, businesses announced intentions to reduce 174,597 jobs, down 1.6%
compared to the second quarter of this year (177,391) but up 19.3 per cent compared to the same quarter of 2023 (146,305)
Year-to-date, U.S. employers
announced plans to cut 609,242 jobs, up 0.8 per cent from the 604,514 cuts
announced during the corresponding period a year ago. That marked the first time
this year that YTD cuts are higher than those tracked during the same period in
2023.
Commenting on
the latest report, Andrew Challenger, senior vice president of Challenger, Gray
& Christmas Inc., said the U.S. is at an inflection point now, where the
labour market could stall or tighten. “It will take a few months for the drop
in interest rates to impact employer costs, as well as consumer savings
accounts,” he noted, adding that consumer spending is projected to increase,
which may lead to more demand for workers in consumer-facing sectors.