US Layoffs Remain High This Year

Employers cut fewer jobs in February than in January, but total layoffs remained high compared to a year ago as the energy sector continued to slash positions, according to the monthly report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
U.S.-based employers announced they would let go a total of 50,579 workers in February, marking the third-straight month they laid off more employees than the same period last year, the outplacement firm said.

Energy companies accounted for the most workplace reductions. More than 16,000 workers lost their jobs as oil prices remained low. The cost of a barrel of crude fell 60 percent between June and January before stabilizing last month.

“Usually what you have in times of strength is you have most of the job cuts coming from mergers and acquisitions, and you just don’t need two headquarters,” Challenger CEO John Challenger told CNBC. “But right now we’re seeing in the midst of this expansion one sector really is going through the change, and that’s energy.”

via CNBC

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza