NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Employers announced plans to cut more than 100,000 jobs again in October, capping the worst two months for layoffs since early 2003, an executive search and job placement firm said Tuesday.
October job cut plans actually slipped a bit to 101,840 jobs from 107,863 in September, according to a survey by Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The last time announced job cuts topped 100,000 for two straight months was January and February 2003.
"The job market appears to be stuck in the mud. Every time it looks as if things are going to rebound for the nation's workers, a series of reports deflates the optimism," said CEO John Challenger in a statement.
But one economist said that the increase in layoffs is a seasonal issue, and that this report shows that the job market is improving more than it appears at first blush.
"Layoffs always are higher late in the year," said Robert Brusca of FAO Economics, who has taken a somewhat bearish view of the labor market reports. "All (the layoff report numbers) suggest that we are still improving compared to last year and there is little real evidence of slippage this month. The slippage was from August to September, but September to October is good number."
The survey puts the total announced job cuts at 826,160 for the first 10 months of the year. That puts it within reach of the 1 million job cut threshold for the fourth straight year. Before 2001 the largest number of job cuts ever announced was 677,795 in 1998.
But the latest job cut announcements are far below what was seen in October 2003, as well as the first ten months of 2003. There were 171,874 job cut announcements in October 2003, bringing the 10-month total last year to 1,043,954.
The survey found telecommunications with the most job cut announcements, with 16,664 jobs in the sector. It's the third straight month the sector has seen rising layoff announcements. Other sectors with the biggest cuts included health care, industrial goods and financial services.
It would take job cuts of 86,920 the last two months of the year to reach the 1 million mark, slightly above the pace of the first 10 months of the year but well below the pace of the last couple of months. Challenger said so far evidence suggests the outlook does not look good heading into the end of the year.
"Two consecutive months of 100,000-plus job cuts does not convey a sense of confidence about future business conditions," he said. "The fact that the number of help wanted ads across the country continues to fall further suggests a grim outlook on business conditions."
The pace of job creation has been a hotly-debated issue in this year's presidential election.
Democratic candidate John Kerry has repeatedly pointed out that President Bush is the first president since the Great Depression to see a drop in overall employment during his term, while the president argues that the economy is now back on track, adding 1.7 million jobs the last 12 months.
Employers posted stronger-than-expected job gains for three months this spring, starting in March. But since then employment numbers have come in weaker than expected. The October employment report is due out Nov. 5.
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