Nov. job cuts are highest in nearly seven years

November job cuts jumped to 181,671, the largest monthly layoff total since January 2002, said Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., the Chicago-based outplacement consulting firm.

Challenger, Gray & Christmas said in a report that the November job-cut total is 61 percent higher than the 112,884 job cuts announced in October and 148 percent higher than the 73,140 job cuts in November 2007.

The firm's report also said, "Employers have now announced 1,057,645 job cuts in 2008, just shy of the 1,072,054 layoffs announced in 2005, which was the last time that annual job cuts surpassed 1 million."
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)