Layoffs announced in December plummeted from the prior month, and 2012 saw the lowest annual total for announced layoffs since 1997, outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas said Thursday. The number of planned job cuts announced in December fell to 32,556, down 43% from November, and 22% below the level in December 2011. "The overall pace of downsizing was at its slowest since the end of the recession. In fact, we have not seen this level of job cutting since before the dot.com collapse and subsequent 2001 recession," said John Challenger, chief executive. However, looking forward layoff announcements ... (full story)