Companies lay off workers even in the best economic times

Ben Bradford Aug 1, 2019
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Scott Barbour/Getty Images

Companies lay off workers even in the best economic times

Ben Bradford Aug 1, 2019
Scott Barbour/Getty Images
HTML EMBED:
COPY

The U.S. job market remains strong right now, with the official unemployment rate at 3.7%, but layoffs have spiked recently. A new report from employment consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas shows that so far in 2019, companies have announced layoffs of 36% more workers than by this time last year. The automotive and industrial goods sectors have shed the most jobs in the past few months. On Friday, the Labor Department will shed more light on how those layoffs affect the overall unemployment rate with its June jobs report.

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