Planned Layoffs Surge

Layoff announcements surged in March, to 60,357 from 35,369 in February for the highest total in nearly two years. Retail, increasingly affected by movement away from brick-and-mortar and toward e-commerce, is once again to blame with layoffs in the sector totaling 35,042 followed in the distance by telecommunications at 4,056. Though these results probably won't lower forecasts for tomorrow's employment report, they definitely point to weakness for retail payrolls.