Job Cuts Increased Dramatically in September

The question bears repeating: why, almost one hundred years after Henry Ford figured out that in order to have a market for your products you have to have workers who can afford your products, are US businesses still focusing on paying executive salaries but not protecting the jobs of their workers?

Perhaps they have just lost faith in the country's ability to prevail against China. Perhaps they just dont care and are grabbing what they can for themselves. Or perhaps they have not connected the dots. But whatever the reason, in an economy traditionally dependent on the consumer for 70% of sales, accelerating layoffs (and funding political candidates who oppose government stimulus) is not a recipe for growth. JL

Joe Weisenthal reports in Business Insider:

Just out from Challenger, the latest survey of job cuts: Employers announced plans to shed 115,730 workers from their payrolls in September, making it the worst job- cut month in over two years. Heavy reductions planned by the military accounted for a large portion of September job cuts, signaling what may lie ahead as the federal government seeks across-the-board cuts in spending.

September job cuts were 126 percent higher than the 51,114 announced in August, according to the latest report on monthly job cuts released Wednesday by global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. They were 212 percent higher than September 2010, when employers announced just 37,151 job cuts. Last month’s total is the highest since April 2009, when 132,590 job cuts were announced

Here's the industry breakdown table.

Image: Challenger, Gray And Christmas