Workers be warned. The layoff slips will probably begin flowing in bigger numbers in coming months.

Research by Chicago-based outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. finds that employees are more likely to lose a job in the final four months of the year than the previous eight. The reason: Employers are finalizing budgets and business plans for 2004, which impact payroll levels, says the firm.

From 1995 to 2002, job cuts announced during the last four months outnumbered summer job cuts by 36 percent, according to a survey by the company. Nearly 2.6 million job cuts were announced between September 1995 and December 2002. That was roughly 700,000 more than the nearly 1.9 million announced between May 1995 and August 2002, the firm said.

Job cuts from September through December 1995 to 2002 were also 15 percent higher than the 2.3 million job cuts announced between January and April of those years.

The trend is holding for this year, said the firm, which contracts with employer clients to help terminated workers land other jobs. After heavy job cutting in the beginning of the year, the cuts dropped substantially in May, June and July, which so far are the three lowest job-cut months so far this year, according to Challenger.