Thousands of American Job Losses Announced After Worst Month for Employment Since 1980

Corporate America announced it was shedding thousands more jobs yesterday as Wall Street braced itself for official unemployment figures that are expected to show almost half a million job losses last month.

According to analysts' estimates, the government could confirm that between 330,000 and 470,000 Americans were made redundant in November, in what could be the worst month for the US jobs market since 1980.

The news came as AT&T, the largest telecoms group in the US, announced plans to cut 12,000 jobs, or 4% of its workforce, at a cost of $600m (£400m). AT&T is facing pressure on two fronts: an economic downturn that is hitting businesses and households; and the defection of landline customers to wireless networks.

Chemicals manufacturer DuPont also announced plans to reduce its workforce by 2,500 today, after forecasting a quarterly loss. It said most of the cuts would come from businesses linked to the car and construction markets in the US and Europe.

Charles Holliday, DuPont chief executive, said he was cutting jobs at the country's third-largest chemicals firm "in response to current market challenges".

Media group Viacom, owner of the MTV networks and Paramount Pictures, said it will cut 850 jobs, or 7% of its workforce, and freeze executive pay next year. "We are moving rapidly to adapt to the challenges presented by the current economic environment. The changes we are making in our organization and processes will better position Viacom to navigate the economic slowdown," said Philippe Dauman, Viacom's president and chief executive.

The jobs announcements gave some insight into the differing pay scales and conditions in the telecoms and media sectors. AT&T revealed that the average cost per redundancy would be $50,000, whereas at Viacom it will be $500,000.

On a grim day for US industry, car parts maker Hayes Lemmerz said it would cut its staff by 19%, or about 1,700 people, while jet engine company Pratt & Whitney said 350 white-collar staff would lose their jobs and office-furniture maker Steelcase plans to lay off 300 manufacturing workers.

However, there was some upbeat news from the US labor department yesterday. It said the number of people claiming jobs benefits fell by 21,000 last week. New claims for unemployment benefit fell from 530,000 to 509,000, the department said. However, the moving monthly average, which removes weekly blips, rose to 524,000 from 518,250. Continuing claims rose to 4.09 million people.

Economists are adamant that any reduction in claims is an anomaly and the wider trend is pointing to an unemployment rate of closer to 10% by next year, against 6.5% currently. In 2007 US employers added 1.1m jobs to the economy. So far this year they have shed 1.2m posts and the news today of a bad start to the season for retailers is expected to put employment under further pressure.