45% Fewer Layoffs in July 2012 Than July 2011

Planned layoffs declined for the second consecutive month in July, as employers announced job cuts totaling 36,855, down 2.0 percent from 37,551 in June, according to the latest job cuts report released Thursday by global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.

Job cuts last month were down 45 percent from a year ago, when employers announced plans to cut 66,414 workers from their payrolls in July. This is just the third time this year employers announced fewer cuts than the same month in 2011.

Overall, employers have announced 319,946 job cuts so far this year. The pace of downsizing is virtually even with a year ago; up just 2.5 percent from the 312,220 planned layoffs announced from January through July. Continue Reading

68% of Job Seekers Optimistic About Their Job Prospects

Many U.S. job seekers are surprisingly optimistic about their job search, but critical of current government job creation efforts and doubtful that this year’s Presidential election will dramatically affect their employment prospects. An online survey was conducted by the career website, LiveCareer, and questioned over 6,100 users. These users represent people in the U.S. who identified themselves as looking for work during the last two weeks of January. Fifty-two percent of the survey respondents were unemployed and are part of the staggering 8.3 percent U.S. unemployment rate as reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics last month.

“We frequently survey our users to understand their attitudes toward their job search,” says Jamie Freundlich, Co-CEO of LiveCareer North America, “With this being an election year, we wanted to get a sense of how politics might be affecting our U.S. job seekers’ attitudes and optimism.” Continue Reading