January job cuts soar

Record downsizing in the retail sector helped push the number of planned job cuts announced in January to 241,749, said Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. of Chicago, a global outplacement consulting firm that tracks layoffs.

"That is the largest monthly layoff total since January 2002, when job cuts reached an all-time high of 248,475," the firm said in a press release. "The January job-cut total was 45 percent higher than the 166,348 cuts announced in December. It was 222 percent higher than a year ago, when employers announced 74,986 job cuts to begin the year."
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)