ABOUT HALF OF MAJOR U.S. COMPANIES CUT JOBS.(BUSINESS)

Byline: RICK GLADSTONE - Associated Press

Nearly half of major U.S. companies cut staff between July 1992 and June 1993, slashing at the sharpest rate since the last recession, the American Management Association said in a survey released Thursday.

The seventh annual survey of job reductions also suggests that despite the slowly growing economy, cutbacks are likely to persist at a similar pace over the coming year.

Forty-seven percent of respondents shrank their staffs over the period covered in the survey, up from 46 percent the year earlier. In the 1990-91 recession, 56 percent of survey respondents cut jobs.

The level of …