650K jobs cut in January

Employers eliminated 650,000 jobs last month, bringing the total number of job cuts in the United States since September 2008 to 2.3 million, according to a new report released today by TrimTabs Investment Research. The latest round of cutbacks, coupled with the 683,000 jobs that were shed in December, makes the last two months the worst period for job losses that the Sausalito, Calif.-based research firm has on record. TrimTabs has employment data going back to the early 1970s. The firm's outlook for future employment figures doesn't get much better, either. It estimated that the economy could lose 1 million to 2 million more jobs in the next few months. At the same time, TrimTabs said that its data showed the national personal savings rate remained negative and did not break into positive territory in December, as the Washington-based Bureau of Economic Analysis recently reported. The savings rate is actually 1.8, according to TrimTabs, and not the 3.6% level that the BEA reported earlier in the week.