Job-Cut Announcements Jump in October

The number of job-cut announcements employers made in October reached 112,884, according to a Challenger Gray & Christmas report. The number of cuts were 79 percent higher than a year ago—thanks to "heavy downsizing in the financial and automotive sectors," Challenger reports.

Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at MFR, wrote in a morning note:

In the first ten months of the year, total job cut announcements of 875,974 were 35% above the 650,708 reported in the same ten months of 2007 and marked the highest ten month total since 2003. This is further evidence of worsening labor market conditions, which is consistent with initial and continuing unemployment claims data. Moreover, the inevitable large wave of financial industry job cuts has mostly yet to be manifested in the Challenger data.

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