February 4, 2009 9:39 AM

January job cuts soar
Posted by Jesse Nunesat 9:39 AM

This article originally appeared on the Business News Updates blog on Boston.com.

By Chris Reidy, Globe Staff

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."