US losing less jobs now, says report

07 May 2009

Employers in the US laid off less number of employees - around 1.3 lakh - in April, making it the third consecutive monthly fall in job cuts and the lowest in six months.

Planned job-cuts in the US totalled 132,590 in April, down 12 per cent from the 150,411 employees laid off in the previous month, showing signs of some recovery in the job market, a report published on Wednesday said.

At 132,590, this is the lowest monthly job loss since the 112,884 cuts announced last October, the report published by outplacement consultancy firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said.

Total job cuts in April, however, was 47 per cent higher than the 90,015 job cuts announced in the same month in the previous year, the report said.

Overall job losses in the current year stood at 711,100, which is 145 per cent more than the 290,671 reported in the first four months of the previous year, the report said.