Employers eliminated 650,000 jobs last month, bringing the total number of job cuts in the U.S. since September to 2.3 million, according to a new report released Wednesday, February 4, by TrimTabs Investment Research.
The latest round of cutbacks, coupled with the 683,000 jobs that were shed in December, makes the last two months the worst period for job losses that the Sausalito, California-based research firm has on record. TrimTabs has employment data going back to the early 1970s.
The firm’s outlook for future employment figures doesn’t get much better either. It estimated that the economy could lose 1 million to 2 million more jobs in the next few months.
At the same time, TrimTabs said its data showed the national personal savings rate remained negative and did not break into positive territory in December, as the Washington-based Bureau of Economic Analysis recently reported.
(For more, read "The Country’s Outdated Unemployment Insurance System Gets a Makeover—Maybe.")
Filed by Mark Bruno of Investment News, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.
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