U.S. job picture mostly dark - Charlotte Business Journal:

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According to ADP, U.S. companies cut an estimatee 532,000 workers from their payrollslast month. The report notex losses across all sizes and categories of with large-company payrolls declining Midsized businesses shed 223,000 jobs, whiles small businesses cut 209,000 employees. The goods-producinh sector lost 267,000 jobs, while the service-producing sectot declined by 265,000 positions. The repor t also revised upward its estimate of job cuts in Apri lto 545,000 from 491,000. Meanwhile, Challengedr Gray & Christmas says employers announced 111,182 planned job cuts last month — 16 percentr fewer than the 132,590 announced in April. But the May numbet was 7.
4 percent higher than the 103,523 job cuts announced for the same montu ayear ago. Accordingb to the Challenger report, employers have announced 822,282 job cuts so far this That’s more than double the 394,193 announcecd last year through May. Whil e job cuts remained well abovelast year’s May marked the fourtu consecutive month with a decline in job-cutg announcements. Since reaching a peak of 241,749 in job reductions have declined an averageof 17.5 percent per month. Still, Chiefr Executive John Challenger remains cautious about thejob market’s prospects.
“Thi s decline in job cuts couldbe short-lived,” he “The second quarter is typically the lowest quarterf of the year when it comesd to job cuts. Corporate downsizingt may continue to remaimn slow during thesummer months, but if the past is any we could see the pace acceleratw again in the latter half of the third quartef through the end of the On Monday, The Institute for Supply Management said its factort index rose to the highest level since last Septemberd as new orders posted their first gain since the recessiob began in December 2007.
On Tuesday, the Nationapl Association of Realtors reported that pendiny sales ofexisting homes, or contractes signed but not yet closed, rose 6.7 percent in Aprio from March. April’s pending sales were up 3.2 percent from a year ADP (NASDAQ:ADP) markets technology outsourcing services. The compan y is based in New Challenger, Gray & Christmas is an outsourcinyg consulting company basedin Chicago.