Start the conversation
Comment on This Story
Or to contact Money Morning Customer Service, click here.
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Today's jobs report showed the U.S. economy added 223,000 jobs last month – but U.S. layoffs are still on the rise…
The number of pink slips passed out in June rose by near double-digit percentage points from May.
Employers announced plans to reduce headcount by 44,842 workers (10%) last month, according to global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That hefty figure pushed the mid-year tally to its highest level since 2010. It also marked the fifth year-over-year first-half job-cut increase.
Job cuts in June were 9.3% higher month over month and 43% higher year over year.
Year to date, employers have slashed 287,672 jobs, up 17% from 2014. That figure represents the highest total since 297,677 people were sent to the unemployment line in the first half of 2010.
The steep plunge in oil prices, and the ripple effects felt throughout the overall economy, was blamed for 2015's first-half job-cut surge. Plummeting oil prices were responsible for 69,582 jobs cuts over the January through June period. "Restructuring" led the way with 86,978 workforce reductions.
The energy sector has indeed felt the brunt of the layoff pain so far this year. Some 60,500 jobs in the industry were whittled away between January and June. At the same point a year ago, the energy sector had announced just 3,908 job cuts.
The retail space also took it on the chin, with 45,230 announced layoffs. That's a whopping 68% year-over-year increase.
"Retailers should be enjoying the benefits of falling oil prices, as consumers have the money they are saving at the gas pump to spend elsewhere," John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in a statement. "However, it appears that consumers were hording that cash, at least through the first half of the year. The most recent data suggests that consumers are finally starting to loosen up the purse strings."
Here's a look at a dozen of the most notable U.S. layoffs announced last month.
When you have a President with no business background or education to support and or understand the obligation of his office, the decisions made will be of others he hires which again are or will be the down fall of the people who voted him into office – these are troubled times that only a business person and not a politician would be able to understand and make the necessary suggestions to change the direction of our economy