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Nov. dot.com layoffs surge
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November 27, 2000: 12:11 p.m. ET
Web job cuts soar 55 percent from October, outplacement firm says
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - The shakeout of dot.com employees accelerated sharply in November, with a record 8,789 job cuts announced, a 55 percent jump from the previous month's total, according to consulting firm Challenger Gray and Christmas.
Job cuts at companies doing business on the Internet rose for the sixth month in a row, according to the Chicago-based human resources firm, which tracks employment data in all sectors.
The firm noted that since December 1999, dot.com companies have lopped off some 31,056 jobs. The reductions came from 383 companies: 75, or about 20 percent, have gone out of business.
Three years of rapid revenue growth and surprising jumps in the prices of Internet stocks came to an abrupt halt this year, as the promise of a thriving, Web-based economy began to dim and advertisers and investors shied away.
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The collapse of the dot.com bubble has resulted in bad news about layoffs or losses being issued almost every day. Earlier this month, online cosmetics retailer BeautyJungle.com shut down, citing inadequate financing to help the company turn a profit, and Garden.com did the same. They follow Pets.com (IPET: Research, Estimates), an online pet-supply retailer that had spent millions promoting its brand, which decided to shut its doors and laid off roughly 255 of its 320 employees.
"Following the stock price plummet, many companies are running on fumes when it comes to cash," said John Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger Gray & Christmas.
The future may be even more difficult. He added that the addition of new internet suffixes to compete with ".com" would hurt companies that rely on their exclusive Web addresses to woo investors and advertisers.
"The fallout from all of this will likely continue on in December and January with more dot.com closures and job cut announcements," Challenger added.
Since last December, companies that deliver services, such as financial, consulting and information sites, have suffered the most job cuts. They account for 12,551, or about 40 percent, of the losses. The retail sector was second with 7,863 cuts, the report said, with health and fitness ringing up 2,505 layoffs. 
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