Published on: Jun 1, 2017
** CORRECTION: We have updated the Ford Motor Company number and reduced the company’s layoff announcement from 20,000 to 1,400. Ford has reached out and informed us that the 20,000 number was incorrectly reported several weeks ago. Many major media outlets reported the 20,000 number. The announcement now listed in our report is for a voluntary separation program for ten percent of Ford’s corporate staff – a layoff of 1400.
The number of workforce reductions announced by US-based employers remain at a steady level in May, as planned job cuts totaled 33,092 for the month.
May job cuts were 9.5 percent lower than the 36,602 job cuts announced in April, and 9.7 percent higher than the same month last year, when employers shed 30,157 jobs.
Employers have announced a total of 195,895 job cuts so far this year. That is down 29 percent from the 275,218 job cuts that occurred last year through May 2016.
Retailers continue to announce the most job cuts this year with 55,910, 5,777 of which occurred in May.
“The retail industry is still shedding jobs. We are now seeing the effect of changing consumer behavior in grocery shopping.
“Grocery stores are no longer immune from online shopping. Meal delivery services and Amazon are competing with traditional grocers, and Amazon announced it is opening its first ever brick-and mortar store in Seattle. Amazon Go, which mixes online technology and the in-store experience, is something to keep an eye on since it may potentially change the grocery store shopping experience considerably,” said Challenger.
Another 12,347 service industry jobs have been shed so far in 2017, with 4,082 announced last month. This is an 83 percent increase from May 2016 when only 673 jobs in service industries were shed.
The telecommunications sector cut 10,815 job cuts so far this year with 546 announced in May, and 10,815 for the entire year. This is 40 percent more than last year when the total was 6,404 layoffs.
Contact Colleen Madden Blumenfeld for more data or to set up an interview with SVP Andy Challenger.
