NYT: Summer's No Time for Big Layoffs (Except This Year)

[UpInArms]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/07/business/yourmoney/07count.html?adxnnl=1&oref=login&adxnnlx=1123387780-0KcnosBbRi9g2Z8ojNXTEQ

(free registration or try www.bugmenot.com)

It will become cool again. Really. Then the people lurking in dark corporate corners who have the unenviable task of telling other people that they're about to be out of work will settle down to their grim work in earnest.

At least that's the theory voiced by the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas - that summertime is normally just too darn hot for the unpleasant work of announcing layoffs.

If the theory is valid, though, these are far from normal times. Challenger reports that July job-cut announcements rose 48 percent from last July and topped 100,000 for the second consecutive month. Some summer respite.

The big losers of this cruel July were in consumer products, computers and finance - industries that should be "adding workers by the boatload in an expanding economy," said John A. Challenger, the firm's chief executive.



...a bit more...

(edited to add graphic)

[Skink]

1. Krugman who is normally 6 months ahead of the times...

Says year two of a second Bush administration is key to it all falling apart. In a recent column he points out how a certain corporate tax sunsets in 2005. It's over for you me and the average NeoCon. The second world wide depression is about to be unleashed like a Bird Flu. Take cover.

[wli]

2. it's over for me, too

I go broke, run out of medicine, then I'm dead.

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. Some other asshole just announced that employment was up "Sharply"

What's a fool to believe?

[merwin]

4. The (very very large) company in the building next to mine is going

to be announcing large scale layoffs in the next month or two. Are they sure that July is a slow month for layoffs?

[n2doc]

5. but..but...

Dear Leader just told us that we created vast naumbers of jobs last month!:sarcasm: