America's job cuts slowing down
12 April 2012
HOPES that America's economic slump has bottomed out received a boost today as figures showed that companies carried out a much smaller jobs cull in January.
The crucial non-farm payrolls report from the Labour Department, headed by Elaine Chao, showed that 89,000 US workers were sacked during the month compared with 130,000 in December and 355,000 in November. Most of the additional job losses came from the ailing manufacturing sector.
Gross domestic product figures on Wednesday showed a surprise 0.2% rise in output during the fourth quarter, indicating that America has avoided recession.
