Nationwide Layoffs Modest in May

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 11, 10:58PM EST · Published May 31, 7:00AM EDT

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Nationwide Layoffs Modest in May — © Thinkstock

Layoffs were moderate nationwide in May, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which is known for tracking the trend. There were 31,517 layoffs this month. That number is down from 36,081 in April. One month does not make a trend, but it is still part of a national surge in jobs, which has sent joblessness to a rate of 3.9%.

John Challenger, the chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said: “On average, job cuts are at their lowest in May and June. Companies typically make their staffing moves at the beginning of the year or in the fourth quarter.”

The trend so far this year is not as promising:

So far this year, employers have announced 207,977 job cuts, 6.2 percent more than the 195,895 announced through the first five months of 2017.

Retail leads all sectors in job cuts this year, with 69,316, 4,946 of which occurred in May. Retailers have announced 24 percent more cuts than through the same period last year, when 55,910 cuts were announced. So far this year, Challenger has tracked 2,565 store closures.

Health Care/Products companies announced the second highest number of job cuts in May, with 4,003, for a total of 21,453 this year. Companies in the Services sector announced 19,363 cuts, with 4,698 in May.

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No one should be surprised by the retail number as the brick-and-mortar segment of retail continues to fall apart and traditional retailers continue to close stores. Certainly, earnings from some of the largest retailers were bleak last quarter.

As late spring and summer progress, the Challenger number should be expected to range between 30,000 and 40,000, with retail layoffs continuing to lead the way. If the numbers go higher, there is good reason to worry that the jobs market may have turned for the worse.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.