Archive for December, 2010

The pace of job cuts surged to its highest level in eight months, as employers across the country announced plans to reduce payrolls by 48,711 in November, according to a report released Wednesday by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Nearly 1,000 of those announced job cuts affected Georgians.

November job cuts were 28 percent higher than the 37,986 planned layoffs reported in October, Challenger said. It was the highest job-cut total since March, when employers announced plans to cut 67,611.

Despite the increase, Challenger said job cuts this year are still below last year’s levels. Last month’s total was 3.3 percent lower than the job cuts announced in November 2009.

Overall, employers announced 497,969 job cuts from January through November — a 60 percent decline from the same period a year ago, Challenger said.

Leading the November job-cut surge was the government and non-profit sector, Challenger said. This marks the seventh time this year that the …

Continue reading Planned job cuts surge in November »

For 25,000 Georgians who are out of work, the last check is in the mail. For tens of thousands more, that day is fast approaching, AJC reporters Craig Schneider and Katie Leslie write.

Congress has not acted to extend federal unemployment benefits beyond this week, so, week by week, more unemployed Georgians will see their financial safety net disappear as their current benefits run out, the reporters say.

Georgia Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond expects more than 25,000 people statewide to stop receiving benefits next week, unless Congress approves an extension.

By the year’s end, 84,400 Georgians may lose their weekly unemployment check, according to the U.S. Labor Department. Nationwide, about 2 million people are expected to stop receiving checks in December, the reporters write.

“Food, shelter, heat, clothing and transportation are going to be cut back,” Jeffrey Wenger, associate professor of public policy analysis at the University of Georgia, told the …

Continue reading Power Breakfast: Jobless start losing unemployment benefits, home prices, schools, food safety, Social Security, Google »