U.S. employers continue to shed jobs at a pace slower than the same time last year, a new job market survey shows.
American companies announced plans to shed 41,676 workers in July, 6 percent more than the 39,358 planned layoffs in June, according to Chicago outplacement consultant Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
While July marks the third consecutive monthly gain in announced job cuts, downsizing activity remains at its lowest level since before the 2001 recession, Challenger Gray said.
Job cuts remain well off the pace of 2009, the firm said.  The July total is 57 percent lower than the 97,373 job cuts announced the same month a year ago. Overall, the 339,353 job cuts announced so far this year is 64 percent fewer than the 944,048 planned layoffs recorded in the first seven months of 2009.Â
“It is true that job cuts have increased in each of the past three months,” said CEO John A. Challenger. “However, the increases are so slight and the monthly totals so low when compared to recent years, that the trend in no way suggests a reversal of the significant slowdown in job-cut activity witnessed over the past year.”
Jobs in the government and nonprofit sectors continue to struggle, Challenger Gray said. For the fourth time this year, it was the biggest job-cutting sector of the month, announcing plans to eliminate 7,193 workers in July. That was 36 percent higher than the 5,306 government/nonprofit job cuts in June, but 52 percent lower than the 15,138 averaged per month this year.
So far this year, the government and nonprofit sector has announced 105,969 job cuts, nearly triple the next largest job-cutting sector: the pharmaceutical industry, which has announced 37,010 job cuts, 30 percent fewer than at this point last year.
