By fitsnews – October 5, 2011
At least 115,730 planned layoffs rocked the private sector during the month of September – the highest total since April 2009, when the first round of the lingering American recession was still in full swing.
The layoffs more than double August’s total of 51,114, according to Challenger, Gray and Christmas – the firm which released the report.
Meanwhile, other indicators point to modest job growth in advance of this week’s scheduled employment situation report from the U.S. Department of Labor. Most early surveys point to job growth in the neighborhood of 75,000 to 90,000 new positions – compared to zero job growth during the month of August.
The economy needs to create at least 150,000 jobs a month just to keep up with gains in population – which it clearly isn’t doing. As a result, a total of 14 million Americans are currently unemployed – including 6 million who have been without a job for more than 27 weeks.
Most analysts expect that the national unemployment rate will remain unchanged at 9.1 percent. Here in South Carolina, the unemployment rate is 11.1 percent – fourth-highest rate in the nation.
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