Layoffs Rise 68 Percent in April vs March: Survey

NEW YORK (Reuters)- U.S. companies’ planned layoffs jumped 68 percent in April from theprior month to the highest since September 2006, pointing to furtherdeterioration in the labor market, a report showed on Thursday.

Planned job cuts in U.S. companies totaled 90,015 last month, upfrom 53,579 in March and up 27 percent from a year earlier, employmentconsulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. reported.

The April layoffs were the steepest since the 100,315 cuts announced in September 2006.

Most of the announced job cuts came from the financial sector, dueto the housing slump and about $300 billion in write-downs on badmortgages and investments, the firm said.

The financial services industry announced 23,106 cuts in April withalmost half of them occurring in a two-day period that saw heftyplanned layoffs from Citigroup (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Merrill Lynch (MER.N: Quote, Profile, Research), it said.

The telecommunications sector was second in announced layoffs inApril with 8,007, followed closely by 7,954 planned cuts in thetransportation industry.

Employers have announced 290,671 jobs to be eliminated in the firstfour months of 2008, up 9 percent from the 266,658 cuts recorded duringthe same span in 2007, the firm said.

Going forward, the fallout from record oil prices may result in morelayoffs than the housing slump, John A. Challenger, chief executiveofficer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

"The impact of high gasoline prices is rippling through the economymuch faster than the housing collapse ever did or will," Challengersaid in a statement.

(Reporting by Richard Leong; Editing by Theodore d’Afflisio)