Dot.com Job Cuts Slow

Dot.com firms announced 8,697 job cuts in July, the lowest figure since October 2000 when 5,677 jobs were cut.

Dot.coms providing consumer services in July ranked as the top job cutters with 3,843 announced cuts. It was the first time since February that a dot.com business category other than technology had the most monthly cuts, according to a Friday report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., an international outplacement firm.

Technology ranked second behind consumer services with 2,738 job cuts.

July dot.com job cuts fell 6% from June (9,216), marking the third consecutive month of declines. However, July was up 296% from July, 2000 (2,194), the eighth consecutive time that the monthly figure increased over the same month a year ago.

Since January, dot.coms have announced 82,896 job cuts, more than double the number of cuts announced in all of 2000 (41,214).

“We are seeing job cuts spread out among fewer firms, which may result from the fact that many dot.coms have already gone out of business,” John A. Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in a statement. “Among those that are left we will probably see job cuts come in spurts–cut some each month, hope for a turnaround and then cut more if the situation does not improve.”