U.S. planned layoffs down in March but up for quarter

NEW YORK, April 1 (Reuters) - Planned layoffs at U.S. firms fell in March to their lowest in six months, but quarterly job losses are at the highest in more than seven years as the U.S. recession continues to take a toll on employment, a report showed on Wednesday.

Scheduled job losses fell 19.3 percent in March to 150,411, the lowest since October, but the more than 578,000 cuts so far in 2009 are the most for any quarter since the last one of 2001, outplacement company Challenger, Gray & Christmas said in a monthly report.

"The good news is that job cuts appear to be stabilizing in the financial sector," said John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, about the relatively low 8,651 job cuts in that sector in March.

"Unfortunately, other sectors are seeing an increase in cuts as the recession works its way through the economy. State and local governments across the country are struggling with falling tax revenues as more and more people lose their jobs and homes."

March layoffs were led by the government and non-profit sector with more than 25,000 job cuts, and the sector also led in announced hirings with 11,741.

Layoff totals for the month were followed by pharmaceuticals with almost 18,000, aerospace and defense with over 15,000 and electronics with 11,550.

For the quarter, the most job losses came from the automotive and retail sectors, each shedding more than 76,000 jobs.

According to the report, New York is the largest layoff location so far in 2009.

Challenger's data comes ahead of the government's closely watched non-farm payrolls report on Friday, which is expected to show 650,000 jobs were lost in March, according to a Reuters poll. (Reporting by Rodrigo Campos, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)