U.S. employers slashed payrolls last month, the government reported Wednesday, and the job cuts are likely to worsen over the next few months. The Labor Department said that mass layoffs—or job cuts of 50 or more by a single employer—increased to 2,227 in January, up nearly 50 percent from the same month a year ago. More than 235,000 workers were laid off in last month's cuts. January was a bad month for the labor market. Companies from a wide range of sectors announced tens of thousands of layoffs, including Home Depot, Boeing, Pfizer, and Caterpillar. Not all of those job cuts were reflected in the department's mass-layoffs report, which counts actual firings as reported by laid-off workers making jobless claims. Many of the layoffs announced in January are not in effect for several months, meaning that the government's mass-layoff figures will likely increase.
