Challenger Job Cuts Report

Data Employment

Source: Challenger Gray
Source Link: https://www.challengergray.com/
Frequency: Monthly
Next Release(s): September 4th, 2025 7:30 AM

Latest Updates

U.S. employers announced 62,075 job cuts in July 2025, up +29% MoM and +140% YoY, bringing the YTD total to 806,383—the highest since 2020 and already surpassing 2024’s full-year total.
- The top drivers of layoffs YTD are Federal budget cuts ("DOGE Impact", 289,679 cuts), economic conditions (171,083), closures (120,226), and AI/tech automation (20,219).
- Retail (80,487, +249% YoY), Tech (89,251, +36% YoY), and Non-Profits (17,826, +413% YoY) led private-sector cuts; Government cuts totaled 292,294 YTD.
- Regional job cuts rose most in the East (+219% YoY), with large increases in Washington D.C., New Jersey, and New York.
- Hiring announcements remain low at 86,132 YTD (+17% YoY), led by Entertainment & Leisure (28,190), while Tech hiring plunged -58% YoY to 5,510.
- Tariff-related cuts impacted ~6,000 jobs YTD; Auto sector cuts totaled 16,883 (-31% YoY) but spiked MoM in July.
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U.S. employers announced 47,999 job cuts in June 2025, down -49% MoM and -2% YoY, bringing the Q2 total to 247,256 up 39% YoY and the highest second quarter since the pandemic.
- So far this year, companies have announced 744,308 job cuts, the highest YTD since 2020 when 1,585,047 were announced. Outside of 2020, it is the highest YTD since 896,675 cuts were announced in the first six months of 2009.
- Government led job cuts YTD with 288,628, while Retail (79,865, +255% YoY) and Technology (76,214, +27% YoY) followed among private sectors.
- Non-profits reported 16,930 cuts (+407% YoY), mainly due to federal budget reductions; Media and News cuts declined -46% and -52% YoY, respectively.
- “DOGE Impact” accounted for 286,679 layoffs YTD, followed by economic conditions (154,126), closures (107,142), and restructuring (64,487).
- The East region saw the largest YoY increase in job cuts (+222%), led by Washington D.C. (289,586); Midwest, South, and West regions showed mixed trends.
- Hiring announcements totaled 82,932 YTD (+19% YoY), but remain historically low, with June’s 3,191 hires marking the weakest monthly figure of the year.
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U.S. employers announced 93,816 job cuts in May 2025, down -12% MoM but up +47% YoY, bringing the YTD total to 696,309 (+80% YoY), just shy of 2024’s full-year total.
- The Services sector led with 22,492 cuts in May, the highest since May 2020; Retail followed with 11,483 cuts and 75,802 YTD (+274% YoY).
- Technology cut 10,598 jobs in May, totaling 74,716 YTD (+35% YoY); Non-profits announced 8,565 May cuts, with a 504% YoY increase YTD.
- “DOGE Impact” remains the top reason for layoffs (284,044 YTD), followed by economic conditions (131,257) and closures (94,439).
- The East region saw the biggest surge in job cuts (+234% YoY), led by federal reductions in D.C.; California posted 93,586 cuts (+42% YoY).
- Hiring plans rose to 79,741 YTD (+57% YoY) but remain below pandemic-era highs, indicating cautious labor market expansion.
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Total US job cuts announced in April were 105,441, down -62% MoM from March’s 275,240 but up 63% YoY from April 2024, marking the highest April total since 2020.
- YTD cuts reached 602,493, up 87% YoY and the highest since 2020.
- The government sector leads with 282,227 YTD cuts, 281,452 of which are DOGE-related, up 680% YoY.
- In April, government job cuts totaled just 2,782, a significant drop from the over 64k cuts reported in February and the 216k reported in March.
- Technology saw 27,021 cuts in April (+79% MoM), bringing its YTD total to 64,118 (+35% YoY).
- Retail announced 7,235 April cuts; its YTD total of 64,319 is up 296% YoY.
- Market/Economic Conditions were cited for 95,348 job cuts, as economic uncertainty, consumer spending, and trade difficulties impact US-companies. Tariffs were cited for 1,413 cuts so far this year, with 1,350 occurring in April.
- Hiring plans increased to 16,191 in April (+65% YoY), with 70,058 planned hires YTD (+50% YoY).
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The US saw 275,240 job cuts in March, up 60% MoM and 205% YoY, which is the third-highest monthly total ever recorded.
- The Government led all sectors in job cuts in March with 216,215. So far this year, the Government has cut 279,445, an increase of 672% from the 36,195 cuts announced in the Q1 2024.
- Over the last two months, DOGE actions have been attributed to 280,253 layoff plans of federal workers and contractors impacting 27 agencies.
- So far this year, employers have announced 497,052, the highest year-to-date and quarterly total since Q1 2009.
- So far this year, companies plan to hire 53,867 workers, a 16% decrease from the 64,163 new hires announced in the first quarter of 2024. It is the lowest Q1 hiring total since 2012 when 52,540 new hiring plans were announced.
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US firms reported 172,017 job cuts in February, the highest total for a February since 2009 and the highest monthly total since July 2020.
- Cuts in February are up 245% MoM and 103% YoY, and in the YTD period, cuts are up 33% from the same period in 2024 and at the highest level since 2009.
- The government sector reported 62,242 job cuts as DOGE looks to reduce the federal workforce substantially. Last year in February, government job cuts were just 151.
- Retail was the second largest sector cutting with 38,956 followed by technology with 14,554 cuts.
- “DOGE Impact” leads job cut reasons this year and was attributed to 63,583 layoffs.
- While cuts surged, so did hiring plans. Challenger notes that companies reported plans of hiring 34,580 workers in February, the highest February total since 2022.
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US job cuts increased 28% MoM to 49,795 in January but were down -40% YoY. Notably, this was the lowest number of January cuts since 2022 (which was the lowest number of January cuts on record).
- Tech job cuts led with 7,488, up 128% MoM, and retail job cuts followed with 6,419 job cuts, a 96% increase.
- Why were firms cutting? Closures drove the highest number of layoffs last month with 16,123. Restructuring efforts followed closely, accounting for 12,618 job losses. Market and economic conditions were cited for 8,159 layoffs.
- US employers announced plans to hire 6,089 workers in January, a 24% decrease from the 7,999 hiring plans announced in December. It is up 13% from the 5,376 plans announced in January last year.
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US firms announced 38,792 job cuts in December, down -33% MoM but up 11% YoY. In Q4 2024, total job cuts were 152,116 or a decline of -13% QoQ but an increase of 30% YoY. Finally, for the full year of 2024, cuts totaled 762,358, a 5.5% increase over 2023 and the highest annual total since 2020, and before that, since 2009.

The industry with the most cuts in 2024 was Technology for the second straight year, but the sector did see a decline of -20.3% YoY. Besides the government which saw cuts from a reduction in armed services roles, the Automotive sector saw the largest percentage increase in cuts, up 43.2% from 2023.

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