Bloody Monday: Over 71,400 jobs lost

[ProSense]

Bloody Monday: Over 71,400 jobs lost

Seven companies announce massive job cuts in a scary start to the week.

By Julianne Pepitone, CNNMoney.com contributing writer
Last Updated: January 26, 2009: 5:58 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The final week of January began with a bloodbath for the job market, as over 71,400 more cuts were announced on Monday alone.

At least six companies from manufacturing and service industries announced cost-cutting initiatives that included slashing thousands of jobs.

More than 200,000 job cuts have been announced so far this year, according to company reports. Nearly 2.6 million jobs were lost over 2008, the highest yearly job-loss total since 1945.

"It's all about the consumer, and the consumer's been hit hard," said Robert Brusca, chief economist at Fact and Opinion Economics. "It's a vicious circle as weakness begets layoffs, which beget more spending weakness."

Construction machinery manufacturer Caterpillar (CAT, Fortune 500) said Monday it will cut 20,000 jobs amid a "very challenging global business environment." The company had already planned to cut 15,000 workers since the fourth quarter of 2008, but added another 5,000, bringing the total to 20,000.

Pfizer (PFE, Fortune 500) said in an earnings report it would cut 10% of its staff of 81,900 and close five of its manufacturing plants. And a second round of cuts will shed about 15% of employees from the combined Pfizer/Wyeth staff of 120,000. That makes a total of 26,000 jobs lost. The company already cut 4,700 jobs in 2008.

Sprint Nextel Corp. (S, Fortune 500) will cut a total of about 8,000 jobs by March 31, the company said in a release. The telecommunications company's plan is to reduce internal and external labor costs by about $1.2 billion on an annual basis.

Home Depot (HD, Fortune 500), the world's largest home improvement retailer, announced Monday it will eliminate its EXPO design center business and cut 7,000 associates, or approximately 2% of the company's total workforce. The company blamed a lack of demand for big ticket design and decor projects.

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[muntrv]

1. Repukes: "We cannot pass the Obama stimulus package! We must cut

taxes like Bush did and let market forces work!":eyes:

[ProSense]

4. Repubs are the party of disasters., and when disaster strikes, they resort to their favorite mantra:

stay the course.

Yes, they're pretending they had nothing to do with creating this mess.

[Danger Mouse]

2. Oh shit.

:scared:

[DCBob]

3. Yet the stock market went up..

It is amazing how investor mentality works.

[WinkyDink]

7. "Yet"? Cost-cutting//worker-shedding = Good for investor returns. SICK economy.

[DCBob]

8. Companies cutting massive numbers of employees....

suggests a major downturn in the overall economy. If we approach double digit unemployment we are talking depression. Hard to imagine investors seeing that as "good".

[Ichingcarpenter]

5. One report has it at 85,000 job loss for today

this link:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Crisis_claims_govt_85000_jobs_in_single_day/articleshow/4033892.cms

[AllentownJake]

6. For every one of those laid off

There will be 2-3 more laid off who support them in restraunts, dry cleaners, grocery stores, suppliers, etc.