Speaking at Bloomberg Washington Summit Friday, Steven Rattner, the former head of the government's auto task force, wasn't exactly in the mood for pulling punches.

Referring to his time overseeing the government involvement in the auto industry, he said that "They were some of the worst-run companies I've ever seen in my life," and said there was plenty of blame to go around, including unions and the companies' executives.

Employers are planning to cut fewer jobs for the third month in a row, according to a new report that Challenger, Gray & Christmas has supplied to BloggingStocks.

The executive outplacement firm says that the number of planned reductions fell 16% in October to 55,679 positions -- from 66,404 in September. Last month's level was the lowest seen since March 2008, when 53,579 layoffs were planned. And, it's 51% lower than October 2008's 112,884 result. Planned staff reductions have fallen in eight of the past 10 months.

When the "cash for clunkers" program ended, the auto industry was cast adrift and sales fell off dramatically in September.

Here are the numbers:

• Ford Motor Company (NYSE F) fared best with sales down only 5%.
• General Motors and Chrysler's sales were down 45%.
• Overall sales were down 23%.
• On an annualized basis sales dropped to 9.2 million vehicles.
• Sales for the three major Japanese auto makers fell from 7 to 20%.
• The only big winner was Hyundai with sales up 27% in September.

Both GM and Chrysler are restructuring their companies. The key question is: can the two make money with sales at these depressed levels?

Morningstar analyst David Whiston said that the auto industry would face continued uncertainty in the months ahead. "With no customer stimulus, you have a weak consumer who is reluctant to make big ticket purchases unless they have to. . . . It's not just a Detroit problem."

Layoff announcements hit their lowest level since March 2008 last month, signaling market stabilization. Global outplacement consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. put the number of cuts at 66,404 for September, a 13% decline from July's 76,456. Year-over-year, the number of layoffs announced is down 30%, and September was the fourth month in a row in which job cuts fell relative to the same month a year earlier.

Planned job cuts reached 240,233 for the third quarter of 2009, according to Challenger, its lowest level since the first quarter of 2008, when there were 200,656 planned layoffs. For the third quarter of this year, job cuts fell 24.5% from the previous quarter's 318,165, and it's off 16.3% from 287,142 in the third quarter of 2009. At the beginning of 2009, the planned layoff rate reached a seven-year high of 578,510. Since then, the planned layoff rate fell 58.5%.

The Pep Boys -- Manny, Moe & Jack (NYSE: PBY) issued Q2 earnings on Tuesday after the bell. The aftermarket service business for automobiles, whose related companies include AutoZone (NYSE: AZO) and AutoNation (NYSE: AN), said net sales fell about 2%, and earnings per share increased 50% to 15 cents. The earnings growth was actually better than that since there were a couple of items in the previous year's quarter that benefited the bottom line.

According to Reuters, the expectation was for 14 cents per share in net income. Yep, we got the beat-by-a-penny cliche in full effect here. Management credited cost containment and service sales as drivers for the quarter.

Back in August of 2008, General Motors pulled out of car leasing altogether, citing slumping demand, declining resale values, and financing problems. Now the company, in partnership with GMAC, is planning to reenter the leasing market on August 1st of this year.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the final plan is still being worked out, but the Cadillac CTS, "which competes in a luxury market that is heavily dependent on the availability of lease deals," is likely to be among the models included in the leasing line-up.

Yesterday, automotive parts supplier Lear (NYSE: LEA) announced that it is preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company has also lined up financing to fund operations while it is under court protection.

LEA's subsidiaries outside of the United States and Canada will not be a part of the bankruptcy filing. According to the company, its "operations outside the United States and Canada are well-capitalized, well-positioned and have a strong backlog of new business."