WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Corporate layoff announcements dropped to their slowest pace in 15 months during June, Challenger Gray & Christmas said. The monthly tally of 74,393 was 33% lower than the 111,182 announced in May and 9% less than June 2008, the outplacement firm's data showed. Announced job cuts have exceeded the 100,000 mark for every month going back to last September. But in a vivid reflection of the toll taken by the U.S. recession, the six-month tally of 896,675 job cuts is the largest since Challenger Gray started tracking such announcements in 1989. Since they account for only announced layoffs, the job cuts in the Challenger Gray survey represent a fraction of the workers who actually lose their jobs each month. The figures are not seasonally adjusted. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/job-cut-announcements-at-lowest-since-september