Thank's To HP , Industry Layoffs are 10 Times Higher

[Anonymous]

Thanks to Hewlett-Packard, computer industry layoffs are 10 times higher than last year
In the first half of 2012, layoffs in the computer industry were more than 10 times higher than a year ago, mostly thanks to Hewlett-Packard Co.    , which said in May it planned to cut 27,000 jobs.

According to Chicago’s Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., which crunched the numbers, computer companies announced 34,380 job cuts in the first half of 2012. That’s more than 10 times the 3,178 cuts that industry announced in the first six months of 2011.

Transportation came second in the first half of this year, with 26,615 cuts, followed by No. 3 education, with 24,815.

Palo Alto-based HP also helped put California on the top of the list of states with the most layoffs. So far this year, California companies have said they plan 44,667 job cuts. Texas took the No. 2 spot with 34,145 job cuts, while New York was No. 3 with 26,842.

Though John Challenger, CEO of the eponymous outplacement consultancy that prepared the report, said there’s still no sign of the mass job cuts that might precede a double-dip recession, nevertheless he’s still concerned about weak consumer spending.

"Without the government propping up the economy, the responsibility falls to consumers and businesses and there is simply no evidence that either is ready to go on a recovery-sustaining spending spree," he said.

A separate report from the Society for Human Resource Management    in Alexandria, Va., predicted no big increases in hiring in either manufacturing or the service sector in July. About 37 percent of manufacturers are likely to hire in July, while fewer than a quarter of service sector businesses will.

Trends are hard to see in the tohubohu of surveys and statistics — transportation, for example, was hard hit by airline layoffs, particularly United  Delta  and SkyWest , but trucking companies, another part of that industry, are having trouble finding enough drivers, according to Challenger.

[Author]

July 10, 2012 at 8:36 AM