American employers in October announced the highest level of monthly job cuts since 2003, according to employment firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas.
Employers announced the reduction of 153,074 jobs in October due to lower consumer and corporate spending, the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI), belt tightening and hiring freezes related to the federal government shutdown. The October announcements increased by more than 180% compared to the September job cuts announcements, as well as the October 2024 figures.
"This is the highest figure for October in more than 20 years and the highest one-month figure in the fourth quarter since 2008," Challenger said. "As in 2003, disruptive technologies are changing the landscape. At a time when job creation is at its lowest level in recent years, the prospect of layoffs being announced in the fourth quarter is particularly unfavorable."
Federal Shutdown Slowing Job Creation
The monthly Challenger report comes as federal government data is largely unavailable due to the shutdown, leaving the Federal Reserve, government, and corporate planners with mostly personal data they can rely on to plan hiring and investments.
The last official U.
S. employment report before the shutdown showed that only 22,000 jobs were created in August, while 13,000 jobs were lost in July. Job growth in the 12 months to August averaged 128,000 jobs per month.
The job cuts announced in October by Challenger amounted to almost 2 million, which is the highest figure since 2020, when 2.3 million were announced in the first 10 months of the year when Covid — According to Challenger, 19 of them hired and shut down large sectors of the economy.
Compared to last year, hiring plans for October decreased to 488,077 from 750,333 announced during the same period last year. This is the lowest figure for October since the beginning of the year since 2011.
The main reason for job cuts in 2025 was cited as the "DOGE impact," referring to the Department of Public Administration Efficiency (DOGE) headed by Ilan Musk, which reported 293,753 planned layoffs, including direct cuts to the federal workforce and its contractors. The cost cuts, reflecting the loss of federal funding to private and non-profit organizations, resulted in 20,976 planned layoffs.
"Just like in 2003, disruptive technologies are changing the situation," Challenger said.
Cutting costs was the main reason why
