The labor market experts at Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. forecast fewer layoffs, more hiring and increased wages in 2016.
U.S.-based employers announced 574,888 job cuts for the year through November 2015, already far surpassing the 2014 year-end total (483,171) and setting up for the largest year-end total for job cuts since 2009, when 1.2 million job cuts were announced.
The rise in job cuts this year was due primarily to the dramatic decline in oil prices and heavy downsizing in the public sector, according to John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, based in Chicago.
