>NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Job reductions continued at a record
>pace in March, with companies announcing 68,984 in the
>month, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.,
>an outplacement firm.
>
>March marked the 12th straight month in which job cuts
>were higher on a year-to-year basis. And it brought
>total job reductions for the past six months to a
>record 456,860.
>
>The firm also said March marked the first month in "a
>long time" that job cuts exceeded job creation. Last
>Friday, the Labor Department said 46,000 new jobs were
>created in March.
Minor statistical point: the 46,000 new jobs figure is a net figure - gains less losses. So the implication of the third paragraph - that since losses exceed gains, there's was a net decline - is wrong. Since the Feb 92 trough in employment, the U.S. has added 19.6 million new jobs. Many of them suck, of course, but the most prominent problem of the U.S. economy isn't really the lack of new jobs.
Doug