US Companies Reduce Expected Job Cuts

Job cuts announced by U.S.-based companies plummeted 61 percent in August after rising to a four-year high the previous month, according to a monthly report by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Employers announced 41,186 layoffs last month. While the tally ticked down on a month-to-month basis, the figure represented a 2.9 percent increase in job reductions from the same period last year. August marked the seventh month this year during which companies cut more jobs than they did a year ago.

At the current pace, the United States could see 650,000 layoffs this year, the highest since 2009, CEO John Challenger said Thursday.

Still, he called the August total “a good number.”

“There’s low pressure for layoffs in most sectors. Unemployment’s low. Company’s are more looking for workers,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

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