A round of more than 15,000 layoffs announced Thursday by AT&T Inc., DuPont and Viacom Inc. suggests a yearlong wave of job cuts is accelerating, just as the government is expected to report a higher unemployment rate for November today.
Swiss bank Credit Suisse Group announced 5,300 job cuts, although it's unclear how many will be in the United States.
The latest layoffs coincided with a government report showing the proportion of workers continuing to receive jobless benefits has matched a level last reached in September 1992. The deepening recession is pressuring companies to slash costs, and payroll is typically the quickest and most efficient way to do it.
The job cuts spanned an array of economic sectors, hitting telecom workers, bankers, salespeople and chemical manufacturers. The breadth of the layoffs suggests the pain of the recession will be felt broadly and well into 2009.
Dallas-based AT&T plans to cut 12,000 jobs, about 4 percent of its work force. The nation's biggest telecommunications company said the job cuts will begin this month and continue throughout 2009.
Wilmington, Del.-based chemical company Dupont will cut 2,500 jobs and cut back hours for remaining workers. It plans to eliminate 4,000 contractors this month, with more contractor cuts in 2009.
New York-based media conglomerate Viacom will cut about 850 jobs, or 7 percent of its work force.
Credit Suisse's 5,300 planned job cuts worldwide represent about 11 percent of its work force.
The layoffs announced yesterday follow others earlier this week. JPMorgan Chase & Co. said it plans to cut 9,200 positions at Washington Mutual, which it acquired. Jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp., laid off about 350 employees across the country Wednesday, the same day software maker Adobe Systems Inc. said it will cut 600 jobs, or about 8 percent of its work force.
Citing difficult economic times, law firm Reed Smith in Pittsburgh eliminated 115 support staff jobs across the United States. Fewer than one in five of the positions, or about 20, were at the Downtown headquarters, where Reed Smith employs about 600, including 213 attorneys.
Managing partner Greg Jordan told the firm's employees in an e-mail message that the firm "must plan for reduced demand for our services in 2009 and align our capacity accordingly." The job cuts include positions in information technology, finance, marketing, administration and human resources.
Tuesday, U.S. Steel Corp. said it will temporarily consolidate steel production at its Mon Valley Works and mills in Indiana, Alabama and Ontario, laying off about 3,500 employees at out-of-state mills and mines.
The consolidation "is a necessary response to current market conditions," U.S. Steel CEO John P. Surma said.
With just those announcements, more than 38,000 job cuts occurred this week.
"What we have seen is not just that the cuts are deep; it's that they are happening everywhere," said Andrew Gledhill, an economist with Moody's Economy.com. "It just tells you that there are very few people in any industry who can say, 'I feel safe.' "
Growing job insecurity dampens the economy in ways that go beyond those laid off, Gledhill noted. Anxious families, even those with jobs, rein in their spending. Because consumer spending accounts for roughly 70 percent of U.S. economic activity, a pullback in spending typically leads companies to cut even more workers to trim costs.
"The prospect of losing your job is what scares people," said George Whalin, president of Retail Management Consultants in San Marcos, Calif.
Nervous consumers have cut back on spending, making November the weakest shopping month since at least 1969, according to retail figures released yesterday by the International Council of Shopping Centers. This week's layoffs could accelerate the pullback.
"It just adds to the concern that consumers are going to have about the future," Whalin said. "I don't know if anyone has any positive spin on this. I wish there was."
For the thousands of newly laid-off, the timing of the latest job cuts, just a few weeks before the holiday season, is compounding the pain.
"It's kind of unusual -- companies don't like to lay off people at Christmastime," said Robert Whelan, senior economist with the ECONorthwest consulting firm in Portland, Ore. "What's happened is that too many companies have been caught short. They can't get credit, business has fallen, and they don't have a choice."
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