More U.S. Job Cuts Coming

ByJohn S. McClenahen The overall U.S. unemployment rate has stayed shy of the 6% that several economists had forecast for late 2002. The U.S. Labor Department currently puts joblessness at 5.7%. But that figure seems destined to rise in the coming year. A 60% majority of the 150 CEOs belonging to the Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers of corporations whose annual revenues total $3.7 trillion, foresees more layoffs in 2003. Only 11% of the CEOs expect to be adding to their workforces next year. And some 28% believe employment will remain about the same.