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Planned job cuts by Illinois employers dive in June

BY FRANCINE KNOWLES Business Reporter fknowles@suntimes.com July 5, 2012 11:48AM

Updated: July 5, 2012 4:02PM



Job cut announcements by Illinois-based employers sank more than threefold in June from a year earlier and nearly fivefold from May, according to the latest report from Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Employers announced 309 planned cuts last month — the lowest number since July 2008, when 199 job cuts were announced, and down from 1,067 in June 2011 and down from 1,486 in May, the outplacement firm said.

But for the first six months of the year, job cut announcements are up 31.7 percent at 14,209, compared to 10,792 during that period last year.

Nationally, planned job cut announcements fell 9.4 percent last month from a year earlier to 37,551 — a 13-month low. The number is down 39 percent from the 61,887 announced in May. For the first six months of the year, job cuts totaled 283,091, a 15 percent jump from the year-ago period.

Industries announcing the biggest planned cuts last month were education with 6,569, telecommunications with 3,838 and pharmaceuticals with 2,945.




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