February 4, 2016

Challenger, Gray and Christmas, an outplacement firm, released its job cuts report for January. Layoffs increased by 218%, the highest since last summer, mostly due to a loss of 16,000 jobs at Wal-Mart, America’s biggest non-government employer, and 4,800 at Macy’s. The low-wage retail sector suffered cuts of 22,246, the highest total since 2009. The energy sector shed 20,103 jobs, mostly from Halliburton, Baker Hughes, and Schlumberger, the nation’s largest oilfield services firms.