Internet Job Cuts Fewest Since July 2000

U.S. Internet companies announced 2,986 job cuts last month, the smallest amount since July 2000, corporate recruiting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. said in a report.

Dot-com companies eliminated 38% fewer jobs in September than in the same month a year earlier and 39% fewer than in August 2001, the Chicago-based firm said. Challenger tracked publicly announced job cuts, a spokesman said.

The smaller number of firings might show “the dot-com sector is stabilizing,” Chief Executive John Challenger said, as hundreds of Net firms have gone out of business and others have reduced operating costs.

“Many of the weakest firms no longer exist and those once considered titans of the Internet are trimming payroll and other costs to the bare minimum,” Challenger said in a statement.