In the UK, 112,000 manufacturing jobs were axed in 2001, i.e. a manufacturing job was lost every working minute of the year. (GMB union survey in the Belfast Telegraph; Jan 9, 2002)

American companies announced 128,115 job cuts in february 2002, down from 212,704 layoff announcements in January (Reuters, 5 March 2002)

American employers initiated 2,146 mass layoff actions in January 2002 according to data from the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the number of workers involved totaled 263,821. Last year, american companies cut 1,956,876 jobs, a record since the survey began in 1993 and three times more than in 2000. (Challenger, Gray & Christmas, January 5, 2002).

Japan's economy shed 230,000 jobs in January, the biggest decline in four months. Job losses may accelerate as companies try to complete severance plans before the March 31 end of the fiscal year so they can put billions of yen in charges behind them. The manufacturing industry, which employs one in five Japanese workers, shed 70,000 jobs. (Bloomberg, March 1st, 2002)

Every month, we compile a list of job cuts announcements from the 10000 largest companies worldwide.

In february, we recorded 64 layoffs announcements from the largest corporations, resulting in 98806 job cuts. The complete list, with links to company profiles and press releases, can be found here:

 http://www.transnationale.org/anglais/dossiers/finance/emploi_022002.htm