Layoffs

According to job placement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas, the number of planned layoffs at U.S. companies dropped 37 percent from a year ago.

Google announced this morning it will lay off 4,000 people. They're all employees of Motorola Mobility, which Google recently bought.

The big defense contractors -- including Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney -- say they may have to send out mass layoff notices to their employees in a few months. That's because they're worried that hundreds of billions of dollars in expected cuts to the Pentagon's budget will have a big effect on them.

As more people find work where there are jobs to be found, fewer workers are needed in state unemployment offices.

Several big American companies -- General Electric, Schlumberger, Microsoft -- reported weak earnings and quarterly losses today. The question is, are we due for another round of major layoffs?

Ahead of tomorrow's June jobs report, data today shows the number of planned job cuts at U.S. companies has dropped to the lowest level in 13 months.

This morning, the job placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported that the number of planned layoffs dropped last month to a 10-month low -- a good sign as we await unemployment numbers from the government tomorrow.

Today, we learned from the job placement firm, Challenger, Gray & Christmas about the number of planned layoffs at American companies in February.

According to early numbers out ahead of official unemployment figures from the government out tomorrow, planned layoffs went up in January -- but that is actually fairly typical.

Planned layoffs are up in 2011 over the previous year -- and there's still a month to go.