September Layoffs Most In 2 Years

While we did have some good news to report, it doesn’t seem to be hunky dory in the job market these days.

Employers announced 115,730 planned job cuts last month, more than double August’s total of 51,114, according to the report from consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.

The figure was the highest since April 2009 when 132,590 layoffs were announced.

September’s job cuts were also much higher than the same time a year ago, tripling from the 37,151 job cuts announced in September 2010. For 2011 so far, employers have announced 479,064 cuts, up 16.5 percent from the first nine months of 2010.

“It is important to keep in mind that 80,000 cuts, or nearly 70 percent of last month’s total, came from just two organizations: Bank of America and the United States Army,” John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in a statement. “Neither of these cuts is directly related to recent softness in the economy.”

So the bad news is that there were a ton of lost jobs. The good news is that most of these job losses came from two organizations, so it should be back up next month.

…Hopefully.