Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. News Release (09/03/15)

Employers in the U.S. announced plans to shed 41,186 workers from payrolls in August, a 61% decline from the 105,696 layoffs in July propelled by massive cuts in military staffing, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. The August total was 2.9% higher than the same month a year ago, when 40,010 job cuts were announced. The retail sector saw the heaviest job cutting in August. This marks the seventh month this year that the job-cut total was higher than the comparable month from 2014. To date, employers have announced 434,554 job cuts in 2015. That is up 31% from the 332,931 planned layoffs in the first eight months of 2014. With monthly totals averaging 54,319 job cuts, this year’s cuts are on track to exceed 650,000 for the year. That would be the highest year-end tally since 2009, though still only about half of that year’s 1.2 million job cuts.