NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The number of planned job cuts jumped in April as U.S. employers announced plans to cut more than 72,000 jobs despite the general decline in corporate downsizing, outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas Inc. said Tuesday.
The firm's monthly employment report said announced job cuts rose 6.1 percent to 72,184 last month from 68,034 in March, which was the lowest level in 10 months.
While that was up from March, it was 51 percent lower than the 146,399 job cuts announced a year ago. April had the second highest number of cuts announced last year.
Government and non-profit employers announced 15,926 job cuts last month, placing the sector among the top five job cutters of 2004 for the first time this year, Challenger said in its report.
"The good news for workers is that job cuts during the summer months typically decline from the beginning of the year. If that occurs this year, we could see job-cut figures fall to their lowest level in several years," said John Challenger, chief executive officer of the firm.
But that does not necessarily translate into increased hiring.
"Many are waiting with bated breath to see if the economy continues to add jobs at the rate it did in March," Challenger said. "If it does not, it could be serious blow to consumer and business confidence, thus slowing the momentum of the recovery again."
Companies have announced 335,024 job cuts so far this year, down 33 percent from the year-earlier period, the report said.
The Chicago-based firm said the 12-month moving average of planned cuts, which smoothes out month-to-month fluctuations, fell 6.5 percent to 89,105 in April from 95,289 in March.
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