Last month marked worst October for layoffs in more than 20 years: Challenger

Last month was the worst October for layoff announcements since 2003 as companies slashed roles to save money, pare back pandemic-era hires, and plan ahead for artificial intelligence, according to the global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Employers announced 153,074 cuts last month, compared to 55,597 cuts in October 2024. Last month’s figure was “the highest total for October in over 20 years, and the highest total for a single month in the fourth quarter since 2008,” Andy Challenger, chief revenue officer for Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in a report Thursday.

Altogether, US firms had announced the end of 1,099,500 positions through the first 10 months of this year, up 44% from the 761,358 cuts seen for the entirety of 2024. Technology businesses led private-sector layoffs.

“October’s pace of job cutting was much higher than average for the month,” Challenger said in a statement.

“Some industries are correcting after the hiring boom of the pandemic, but this comes as AI adoption, softening consumer and corporate spending, and rising costs drive belt-tightening and hiring freezes,” he continued. “Those laid off now are finding it harder to quickly secure new roles, which could further loosen the labor market.”

Recent notable layoff announcements have come from Amazon, Target, and UPS. Year-to-date cuts are at their highest since 2020, Challenger said, when the pandemic wreaked havoc on the labor market.

The Challenger report comes amid a data drought from the Labor Department due to the government shutdown — now the longest in US history. The last official jobs report reflects labor conditions from August, while data from September has yet to be published. October’s jobs report, due out tomorrow, is unlikely to be published.

Through August, the story was that the labor market was essentially in stasis: an environment of low hiring and low firing, with unemployment nudging up to 4.3% as the unemployed struggled to find available positions and the employed clung to their roles.

It’s unlikely the situation has changed dramatically since then — data from the payroll processor ADP published Wednesday actually showed modest job growth among private employers for October, with hiring gains mixed by sector.

Still, Challenger found that for the year through October, employers had announced 488,077 planned hires compared to the 750,333 announced at the same point in 2024 — marking the lowest year-to-date total since 2011. Announced seasonal hiring plans through October were also at their lowest in Challenger’s data dating back to 2012.

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Emma Ockerman is a reporter covering the economy and labor for Yahoo Finance. You can reach her at [email protected].

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