CNN/Money 
News > Jobs & Economy
graphic
Fewer job cuts announced
Planned work force reductions down 12% in March, but firms still cautious, report says.
April 6, 2004: 10:03 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Job cuts planned by big corporations fell 12 percent last month from February, though businesses are still cautious about hiring, an outplacement firm reported Tuesday.

U.S. businesses announced 68,034 job cuts in March, down from 77,250 job cuts in February, according to Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which keeps track of monthly job-cut announcements.

March's announcements were about 20 percent lower than those of March 2003, when 85,396 cuts were announced.

Employers have announced 262,840 job cuts so far this year, 26 percent fewer than in the first quarter of 2003, when companies said they were cutting 355,795 jobs, the firm said.

The 12-month moving average of cut announcements fell to 95,289 from 96,793 in February. The average had been higher than 100,000 from June 2001 to January 2004.

But John Challenger, the firm's CEO, warned that businesses still seemed cautious about hiring.

"The heavy job cutting we have seen over the past three years appears to be trending down," Challenger said in a press release. "However, the job market seems to be in a state of limbo, where companies are eager to hold on to people they have, but many are reluctant to create any new jobs."

Financial firms led the job cutting in March, announcing 16,120 cuts. Telecom firms announced 9,823 cuts, government and non-profit employers announced 8,725 cuts, and industrial goods firms announced 6,634 cuts.

YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS
Challenger, Gray & Christmas
Economic Indictators
Layoffs and Downsizing
Unemployment

Among states, Massachusetts saw the most announcements, with 15,043. California followed with 6,054, New Jersey with 5,220, Virginia with 4,200 and Illinois with 4,163.

Challenger's numbers shouldn't be confused with actual tallies of layoffs. They include moves to trim payrolls by not replacing workers who leave voluntarily, offering early retirement or other measures.

On Friday, the Labor Department said non-farm payrolls grew by 308,000 jobs in March, far surpassing Wall Street expectations, though the unemployment rate edged up to 5.7 percent.  Top of page




  More on NEWS
JPMorgan dramatically slashes Tesla's stock price forecast
Greece is finally done with its epic bailout binge
Europe is preparing another crackdown on Big Tech
  TODAY'S TOP STORIES
7 things to know before the bell
SoftBank and Toyota want driverless cars to change the world
Aston Martin falls 5% in its London IPO




graphic graphic

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.