Employers announced plans to slash 101,840 jobs in October, the second straight month the number exceeded 100,000.
But the cuts represented a decline from September, according to the latest report from Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
Job-cut announcements fell by 5.6 percent from 107,863 in September. The October figure marked the first time since early 2003 that more than 100,000 cuts were announced in back-to-back months.
Employers have announced 826,160 job cuts through the first 10 months of 2004--21 percent below the 1,043,954 announced during the same period in 2003.
Illinois-based companies announced 86,725 cuts through October this year, up from 85,865 during that period in 2003.
Nationally, if employers announce more than 86,920 cuts in November and December, that would make 2004 the fourth straight year in which the cuts exceeded 1 million. Before 2001, the highest announced total was 677,795 experienced in 1998.
The Challenger report doesn't track actual firings or whether cuts are achieved through early retirements or attrition.
The report also doesn't track the Labor Department's weekly tally of first-time claims for unemployment benefits. The average number of weekly jobless claims was 343,250 in October, down from 344,250 in September. And for the year so far, initial claims have averaged 344,791, compared with 402,000 in 2003.
Still, employers have been slow to add workers amid productivity gains and higher energy and health-care costs.
''The labor market is still having a hard time adding significant numbers of new jobs,'' said Drew Matus, senior economist at Lehman Brothers Inc. in New York.
Payrolls have increased less than forecast in the last four months. The latest report suggests that "the economy from a jobs standpoint just isn't gearing up in a way that is sustainable," said John A. Challenger, chief executive of the recruiting and outplacement firm.
"Not as many people are finding jobs as many had hoped," he said. "Since June, we've averaged about 100,000 jobs created. It's not enough."
Economists have said 150,000 new jobs are needed each month to keep pace with population growth.
The biggest job-cut announcements last month occurred in the telecommunications industry, with 16,664; health care, with 10,590; and the financial sector, with 8,226.
Companies that announced plans to hire, which Challenger tracked for the first time in May, fell to 11,425 in October from 16,166 a month earlier.
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