Job cut announcements by Illinois employers drop in August
BY FRANCINE KNOWLES Business Reporter fknowles@suntimes.com September 6, 2012 11:38AM
Updated: September 6, 2012 1:40PM
Job cut announcements by Illinois employers fell 78 percent in August from July and 46 percent from August 2011, Chicago-based outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said Thursday.
Illinois employers announced plans to cut 677 jobs last month, down from 3,003 in July when state agencies announced 725 cuts and DeVry announced 570. That is also down from 1,250 in August 2011.
But the first eight months of the year, job cut announcements by Illinois employers rose 30 percent to 17,889, up from 13,803.
Nationally, job cut announcements hit a 20-month low of 32,239, down 13 percent from July and down 37 percent from August 2011.
Since January, employers have announced 352,185 planned cuts nationally, down 3 percent from the same period a year ago.
“Job cuts slowed significantly over the summer, but it is too early to determine whether this is a trend,” John Challenger, chief executive officer, said in a statement.
The biggest job cut announcements last month nationally were in telecommunications with 4,584. That included 4,000 in the wake of Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility.
