Bloody Monday: Over 68,000 jobs lost

[spanone]

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The final week of January began with a bloodbath for the job market, as over 68,000 more cuts were announced on Monday alone.

At least six companies from manufacturing and service industries announced cost-cutting initiatives that included slashing thousands of jobs.

More than 200,000 job cuts have been announced so far this year, according to company reports. Nearly 2.6 million jobs were lost over 2008, the highest yearly job-loss total since 1945.

"It's all about the consumer, and the consumer's been hit hard," said Robert Brusca, chief economist at Fact and Opinion Economics. "It's a vicious circle as weakness begets layoffs, which beget more spending weakness."

Construction machinery manufacturer Caterpillar (CAT, Fortune 500) said Monday it will cut 20,000 jobs amid a "very challenging global business environment." The company had already planned to cut 15,000 workers since the fourth quarter of 2008, but added another 5,000, bringing the total to 20,000.

Pfizer (PFE, Fortune 500) said in an earnings report it would cut 10% of its staff of 81,900 and close five of its manufacturing plants. And a second round of cuts will shed about 15% of employees from the combined Pfizer/Wyeth staff of 120,000. That makes a total of 26,000 jobs lost. The company already cut 4,700 jobs in 2008.

Sprint Nextel Corp. (S, Fortune 500) will cut a total of about 8,000 jobs by March 31, the company said in a release. The telecommunications company's plan is to reduce internal and external labor costs by about $1.2 billion on an annual basis.

Home Depot (HD, Fortune 500), the world's largest home improvement retailer, announced Monday it will eliminate its EXPO design center business and cut 7,000 associates, or approximately 2% of the company's total workforce. The company blamed a lack of demand for big ticket design and decor projects.

Dutch financial group ING (ING) said Monday it will take a 2008 loss of $1.3 billion and cut 7,000 jobs. The company could not comment on where the cuts would take place. ING employs around 130,000 people across 50 countries.

Deere& Co. (DE, Fortune 500) , the world's top farm-equipment maker, said it would cut nearly 700 jobs between factories in Brazil and Iowa.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/26/news/economy/job_cuts/index.htm

[leftstreet]

1. How was this NOT planned?

:shrug:

[Warpy]

4. If you read the Economy forum, you

would know that we doom and gloomers on there have been predicting this for over a year.

The next blow will be the closing down of retail. If you need something, better find somebody willing to sell it to you used or you'll be SOL.

[zazen]

2. 200K/mo x 12 months = another $2.4 million for 2009, give or take a few hundred thousand livelihoods

I know it's not this simple, but still.

[Wapsie B]

3. OMG 20,000 jobs at Cat.

Looks like Deere made out ok comparatively. Now anyway.

[girl gone mad]

5. Add Texas Instrumentsto the list..

they just announced they will lay off 3500.

[Wiley50]

6. We need a Sec of Labor, NOW!

and the appt isn't even out of committee

And an Attorney General for that matter

Prosecutions are desperately needed

[Skidmore]

7. It is time to storm the Bastille.

Let's get behind Obama on some of this stuff right now.

[blogslut]

8. Don't laugh

But I read about all these job cuts on Perez Hilton. He posted one report after another.

Fact: The brutal truth reads just as depressing in pink and surrounded by vapid celebrity gossip.

What a horrible day.