Many Americans working at call centers were down on their luck last month.
Telecommunications firms experienced the most planned job cuts in March of any industry in the United States, according to a study by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. And all by its lonesome, phone provider T-Mobile's 1,900 call center layoffs accounted for almost half of the 4,089 telecommunications jobs that disappeared last month. Verizon, Wells Fargo and QVC also saved money on call centers by shedding another 1,435 from their payrolls, according to the Challenger press release.
Since the beginning of the year, most planned job cuts have taken place in the consumer products sector, with 18,438 in total, or four times the amount that happened in that industry by March of last year, the study reported.
Despite the signs of a recovering job market, U.S.-based companies plan to lay off more employees now than they did this time last year, the study found. That's bad, but there is good news, too: Last month, workers reportedly dealt with the lowest number of planned layoffs since May 2011.
This month's fate has not been fully determined, but internet service-provider Yahoo recently made headlines by announcing plans to cut 14 percent of its workforce, a move that will save the company $375 million a year. Layoffs aren't confined to the U.S. either. The Japan-based electronics company Sony recently announced plans to shed roughly 10,000 jobs.
But back to last month, here are March's top ten job-cutting industries with the number of layoffs included:
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