Business Update: Pink slips surge

February 04, 2009

American companies continued to swing the ax in January, slicing away another half a million jobs and announcing plans to cut almost 242,000 more, as they respond to the recession. The private jobs data comes ahead of the official government employment report released on Friday. President Obama announced a compensation cap at companies receiving government bailout funds. The U.S. services sector shrank at a less-severe pace in January. Conway Gittens reports from New York.