Corporate layoffs have all but vanished (6)

I've been showing this chart since early this year, saying that it was a good indicator of improvement in the economy. Corporate layoff announcements (which are presumably a fairly accurate gauge of distress in the large corporate sector of the economy) are now down to levels that in the past have been consistent with healthy economic growth. The storm has clearly passed. The next shoe to drop will be net new hirings. Earlier this year I called this a "green shoot," and now it's beginning to look like a V-sign. Not quite yet, but potentially, if the next phase for corporate America is new hiring campaigns.