June 3 (Bloomberg) -- Employers in the U.S. last month announced the fewest job cuts since September and reductions posted their smallest year-over-year gain since they last dropped in February 2008, according to a private report.

Planned firings rose to 111,182, compared with 103,522 in May 2008, Chicago-based placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. said today. Government agencies and companies in the computer, chemical and automotive industries announced the biggest cutbacks, accounting for 53 percent of layoffs.

“Corporate downsizing may continue to remain slow during the summer months,” John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of the placement company, said in a statement. “We could see the pace accelerate again in the latter half of the third quarter,” he said, citing restructuring by auto companies.

The slowing pace of announced job cuts provides further evidence that the worst of the recession that began in December 2007 may have passed. Even so, General Motors Corp.’s bankruptcy filing this week portends another wave of job losses as dealerships and suppliers also go out of business.

Detroit-based GM, seeking to revamp itself as a smaller, more competitive company, said June 1 it will close 12 more plants by the end of 2011 under an accelerated plan to shutter 30 percent of its U.S. factories.

Still, a government report on June 5 may show payrolls fell by 520,000 in May, according to the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg. That would be the first time since November that the economy lost fewer than 600,000 jobs.

The jobless rate, already at a 25-year high of 8.9 percent, probably jumped to 9.2 percent, according to the survey.

Unemployment Rolls

The economy has lost about 5.7 million jobs since the slump began, marking the biggest employment drop in any postwar economic downturn. The number of people on unemployment rolls has broken records for 17 straight weeks, according to the Labor Department, totaling 6.79 million as of the week ended May 15.

Today’s report, meanwhile, showed that on a month-to-month basis job cuts fell 16 percent from April, declining for a fourth month since reaching a peak of 241,749 in January. The figures aren’t adjusted for seasonal effects, so economists prefer to focus on year-over-year changes.

Industrial companies remain on the front lines of the job cuts. DuPont Co., the third-biggest U.S. chemical maker, plans to eliminate an additional 2,000 jobs, bringing total workforce reductions to 7.5 percent, as it reduces costs amid persistently weak demand, the Wilmington, Delaware-based DuPont said in a statement on May 7.

Presidential Choppers

Lockheed Martin Corp., the world’s largest defense company, said May 19 it will eliminate 130 jobs at its plant in Owego, New York, following the cancellation of programs including its VH-71 Presidential Helicopter.

A “further reduction will likely be necessary in the near future,” Troy Scully, a Lockheed spokesman, said by e-mail.

The Challenger report on firings does not always correlate with figures on payrolls or first-time jobless claims as reported by the government.

Many job cuts are carried out through attrition or early retirement. Some employees whose jobs are eliminated find work elsewhere in their companies, and many announced staff reductions never take place because business improvements.

Challenger’s totals also include foreign affiliates.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bob Willis in Washington bwillis@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 3, 2009 07:30 EDT