Challenger, Gray & Christmas News Release (10/01/2015)

Employers announced plans to shed 58,877 jobs in September, a 43% increase from the previous month, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., and 93% higher than the 30,477 planned layoffs announced the same month a year ago. Job cuts by Hewlett-Packard accounted for about 30,000 of the September 2015 layoffs.

In all, 205,759 job cuts were announced in the third quarter, up 40% from the second quarter’s 181,213 job cuts, and 75% higher than the third quarter of 2014, when 117,374 job cuts were announced. While job cuts over the first two quarters of 2015 were dominated by oil-related industries, recent downsizing activity has been concentrated in the public sector and the computer industry.

For the year, employers have announced 493,431 planned layoffs, 36% more than the 363,408 cuts tracked from January through September a year ago. The year-to-date total is 2% higher than the 2014 year-end total of 483,171.