Bloomberg News 2000-12-21 13:16 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. corporations ranging from General Motors Corp. to Whirlpool Corp. announced at least 40,000 job cuts in December, and the month is on track to rank as the year's busiest for layoffs. It used to be taboo to fire people between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. That isn't the case anymore -- in fact, many companies now push to trim employment during December to meet year- end budget goals, job recruiters and company officials said. ``It's supposed to be a period of light and happiness and family, but some people are seeing a lot more of their families than they bargained for,'' said John Challenger, chief executive of Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., a job-placement firm. The culprit this year is a slowdown in sales of everything from cars to washing machines. U.S. retail sales fell for the first time in seven months in November. Automakers like GM, which is reducing its workforce by 15,000, are idling plants. Manufacturers are trying to handle rising energy costs without boosting prices, leading to retrenchment like that at Whirlpool, which is eliminating as many as 6,000 positions. A slowing economy isn't solely to blame. As the reluctance to dismiss people during the holidays eroded in the 1990s, ``it's become quite the opposite'' and many companies actually prefer to give notice to workers at the end of the year, Challenger said. The number of layoffs in the year's last month has gradually increased from about 30,000 in 1993 to a peak of more than 100,000 in 1998, according to Challenger's Chicago-based firm, which tracks employment figures. This December's cuts are likely to rank as the most in any month of 2000, with more than 60,000 after figures from smaller companies are included, Challenger said. Others announcing cuts include Chase Manhattan Corp., Aetna Inc., Gillette Co. and Unisys Corp. Tough Choice A decade of relentless ``downsizing'' and the popularity of management techni ques that preach continuous improvement have made companies more willing to unveil cuts at any time, said Kathleen Sinclair, president of Detroit-based Executive Recruiters International. ``Back in the 1980s, they might have thought `Let's not do it during Christmas, let's wait three weeks,''' she said. ``Now the attitude is, `Let's do it now.''' Many companies say they had little choice. ``We absolutely agonized over it. If there were a way that we didn't have to announce it now, we wouldn't have,'' said Joyce Oberdorf, a spokeswoman for Aetna, which said this week it will eliminate 5,000 jobs and take $565 million in charges. Aetna, the largest U.S. health insurer, needed to move now to ensure that the charges would take place in the fourth quarter, Oberdorf said. ``It was our last chance to sweep away everything associated with the old Aetna and start fresh in 2001.'' Brian Akre, a GM spokesman, said it also wanted to take the charge for its cuts in the fourth quarter. They won't actually take place until next year. Gillette, which said this week it would fire 2,700 workers and close eight factories, wanted to let employees know as soon as the board approved the plan, said Edward DeGraan, the company's acting chief executive. ``Any type of leak would have been awful,'' he said. A list of big job cuts announced since 2000-12-10 follows. General Motors 15,000 Whirlpool 6,000 Chase Manhattan 5,000 Aetna 5,000 Motorola 2,870 Gillette 2,700 Unisys 2,000 Norfolk Southern 1,300 Dun & Bradstreet 1,000 2000-12-21 13:16 ET For more stories from Bloomberg News, click here . (C) Copyright 2000 Bloomberg L.P. NO METRIC - NO EXPORTS - NO JOBS John Keiner ist hoffnungsloser versklavt als derjenige, der irrt�mlich glaubt frei zu sein. There are none more hopelessly enslaved then those who falsely believe they are free! Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
