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SCOTT JAGOW: April may have been positive for the stock market, but the tone was negative for corporate payrolls. More than 70,000 job cuts were announced last month — that’s an 18-percent increase from last year. Ashley Milne-Tyte reports.

ASHLEY MILNE-TYTE: Nearly half the losses came from the financial services industry — notably Citigroup, which announced it was laying off 17,000 people.

There were also heavy losses blamed on the meltdown in the sub-prime mortgage industry. John Challenger is CEO of the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas:

JOHN CHALLENGER: What we’re starting to see is the slowdown that’s affected the GDP — which is now down below 1.5 percent — start to impact other sectors of the economy than housing or automotive.

MILNE-TYTE: Challenger says the flurry of private equity deals could mean a lot more job cuts in the months ahead. A separate survey this morning reported that April job growth was the weakest in four years.

In New York I’m Ashley Milne-Tyte for Marketplace.