US job cuts cross one lakh for fifth consecutive month

NEW YORK: A spring blizzard of job cut announcements chilled an otherwise hot stock market rally on Wednesday, as the number of Americans who lost their jobs surpassed 100,000 for the fifth consecutive month, according to data in an upcoming consultant's report.

The early morning announcement of up to 3,000 management job cuts by computer and printer maker Hewlett-Packard Co pushed the number of April's job cuts past 100,000, according to Chicago-based outplacement consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Other job cuts announced on Wednesday came from telecom equipment maker Tellabs Inc., which said it was cutting 6 per cent of its workfoce, or 550 people, and from online sports news and commerce Web site SportsLine.com Inc., which said it would cut between 15 and 20 per cent of its staff, or about 90 employees.

Job cuts in the first quarter of 2001 nearly tripled to 406,806, rising from 141,853 in the first quarter of 2000, according to Challenger, Gray and Christmas, whose monthly job cut report for April will be released on May 3.

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.