U.S. job picture mostly dark - Portland Business Journal:

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According to ADP, U.S. companies cut an estimatex 532,000 workers from their payrolls last The report notes losses across all sizes and categoriesof businesses, with large-companty payrolls declining 100,000. Midsized businessesw shed 223,000 jobs, while small businesses cut 209,00p0 employees. The goods-producing sector lost 267,000 while the service-producing sector declined by 265,000 The report also revised upward its estimat of job cuts in Aprilto 545,00 from 491,000. Meanwhile, Challenger Gray & Christmas says employeras announced 111,182 planned job cuts last monthn — 16 percent fewer than the 132,5900 announced in April. But the May number was 7.
4 percent highere than the 103,522 job cuts announced for the same montu ayear ago. According to the Challengerf report, employers have announced 822,2823 job cuts so far this year. That’s more than double the 394,193 announced last year through May. While job cuts remainesd well abovelast year’s pace, May markedc the fourth consecutive month with a decline in job-cut announcements. Sinc e reaching a peak of 241,749 in January, job reductionzs have declined an averageof 17.5 perceng per month. Still, Chief Executive John Challenger remains cautious aboutr thejob market’s prospects. “This declined in job cuts couldbe short-lived,” he says.
“Thw second quarter is typically the lowestg quarter of the year when it comes to job Corporate downsizing may continue to remain slow durinbg thesummer months, but if the past is any indication, we couldf see the pace accelerate again in the latter half of the third quarter through the end of the year.” On Monday, The Institutw for Supply Management said its factory index rose to the highestr level since last September as new orderxs posted their first gain sincwe the recession began in December 2007. On the National Association of Realtors reported that pendinbg sales ofexisting homes, or contractse signed but not yet closed, rose 6.7 percent in April from March.
April’s pending salesx were up 3.2 percent from a year ADP (NASDAQ: ADP) markets technology outsourcingv services. The company is based in New Jersey. Gray & Christmas is an outsourcing consulting company basecin Chicago.