2014 July Job Cut Report: 46,887 Job Cuts Announced Boosted by Microsoft

The unexpectedly large layoffs announced by Microsoft helped push July job cuts to the second highest level of the year. In all, U.S.-based employers reported plans to reduce payrolls by 46,887 during the month, according to the report released Thursday by global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.

The July total was up 49 percent from June’s 31,434 job cuts, which was the fewest number of cuts announced, year to date. It was 24 percent higher than the 37,701 cuts recorded in July 2013. The only month to see more job cuts so far this year was May, when job cuts reached 52,961.

Employers have announced 292,921 job cuts, to date. That is 1.3 percent fewer than the 296,633 job cuts announced in the first seven months of 2013.

Read more at http://www.challengergray.com/press/press-releases/2014-july-job-cut-report-46887-job-cuts-announced-boosted-microsoft#sthash.3IlGfNFj.dpuf