The pace of layoffs slowed considerably in the last month of 2010, according to a new report released this morning.

After reaching a seven-year high in 2009, downsizing activity in 2010 fell to its lowest level since 1997 as employers announced plans to eliminate 529,973 positions. Planned layoffs in December totaled 32,004 positions, down 34 percent from 48,711 in November, according to the 2010 year-end job-cut report by global outplacement consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.

Iowa employers shed nearly 5,000 jobs through layoffs in 2010, but only 33 of those layoffs were announced in December, according to the report.

“The downsizing phase of the recession really came to an end in 2009,” said John Challenger, the firm’s CEO, in a press release. “Job cutting fell dramatically in the second half of that year. The pace of downsizing continued to slow in 2010 to levels we have not seen since before the 2001 recession.”

Nationally, nearly 8,000 workers were laid off in the insurance industry in 2010, a 24 percent decrease from the more than 10,500 laid off in 2009. In the financial services sector, 53 percent fewer employees received pink slips this year compared with 2009. Nearly 24,000 financial services workers were laid off in 2010, compared with more than 51,500 in 2009.

Click here to download the press release.