Job Losses Down Tremendously

Independent survey firm, Challenger, Gray & Christmas (CGC) of Chicago, announced that planned firings are down 39% from March of last year.  This percentage figure represents translates into planned job losses of 41,528.  Additionally, compared to just last month, planned firings are down 18%.

Analysis: Data from many sources are now demonstrating that job losses are down tremendously.  The figure from CGC does not include jobs created, just job losses that are planned.  Government workers around the country are losing their jobs in high numbers.  In fact, in the data from above government accounted for almost all of the planned job losses.

Encouragingly, this means that the private sector of the U.S. economy is adding a net positive number of jobs.  For me, despite the fact that gross domestic product GDP) has been growing for almost a year and a half, the recession cannot be considered fully over until the unemployment rate starts to decline more rapidly.  Thankfully evidence of that decline is beginning to appear.

Lastly, the data from CGC represents “planned” firings.  For a business to have firing plans in place (i.e. layoffs) it means that they are doing badly.  That the numbers are declining means that businesses across the board are doing better; such that, they have no planned layoffs.  Yea!

Importance grade: 7; primarily I like that these data represent a stabilization of profit outlook for businesses as represented by low levels of planned layoffs.

Jason