Challenger Gray tracks on planned layoffs. Today they released their report.

Planned layoff announcements at major U.S. corporations increased 59% in January, reaching 71,482 from a nine-year low of 45,094 seen in December, according to the latest job-cut tally by Challenger Gray & Christmas.

This is 70% lower than last year but when it seems everyone has been fired already and the country desperately needs to add jobs, this isn't a good sign.

Realize Challenger Gray layoff tallies are always significantly lower than the actual. Many companies hide planned layoffs, or one cannot find any official announcement.

According to CBS Market Watch Challenger Gray has 1.28 million layoffs in their tallies versus the BLS's official number of 2.05 million layoffs in 2009.

Bloomberg is all happy, cheery talk, but note this detail from the Challenger report:

The Challenger report also showed companies in January announced plans to hire 31,381 workers, down from 35,592 in December.

Bloomberg won't even mention the sudden increases in announced mass firings, the main point of the Challenger layoff report.

This is the first increase on a month-to-month basis since July 2009.