Job cuts announced by US-based employers increased by 45% to 76,835 in February of 2019 from 52,988 in the previous month, and were up by 117% from a year earlier. They are the highest job cuts for any month since July 2015 primarily due to the US Army’s cutting over 50,000 jobs and tanking oil prices, causing thousands of cuts in the energy sector. Most cuts were announced in the industrial goods industry (29,665) and retail (18,874), which include the announcement by Payless ShoeSource that 16,000 associates would lose their jobs as the company closes 2,500 stores. So far this year, companies have announced 129,823 job cuts mostly among retailers (41,201), above 80,022 in the first two months of 2018. The majority of cuts this year are due to restructuring (42,882 layoff announcements); bankruptcy has claimed 38,863 jobs; technological updates were directly blamed for 1,022 cuts; and companies relocating operations overseas claimed 683 jobs, while tariffs led to 300 cuts. Challenger Job Cuts in the United States averaged 64908.33 Persons from 1994 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 248475 Persons in January of 2002 and a record low of 15100 Persons in June of 1997.
Challenger Job Cuts in the United States is expected to be 55080.00 Persons by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Challenger Job Cuts in the United States to stand at 34000.00 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the United States Challenger Job Cuts is projected to trend around 31000.00 Persons in 2020, according to our econometric models.