by Mitti Hicks
November 7, 2025
Job reductions are up 175% this October, from the 55,597 cuts that were announced a year ago.
New data show that job reductions in October were the worst for the month in 22 years.
According to the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, layoffs climbed to over 153,000. That number is up 175% from the 55,597 cuts announced a year ago and up 183% from the 54,064 announced in September.
The firm’s report reflects a significant decline in the labor market, as employers have reportedly cut 1.1 million jobs this year alone, according to CBS News. This marks the largest number of layoffs since October 2020, when unemployment surged amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“October’s pace of job cutting was much higher than average for the month,” Andy Challenger, workplace expert and chief revenue officer for Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in a statement.
Layoff numbers from this past October are the highest since October 2003, when 171,874 cuts were recorded.
‘Technology Is Changing The Landscape,’ Challenger Says on October Job Reductions
According to Challenger, while some industries are correcting after the pandemic hiring boom, AI adoption, softening consumer and corporate spending, and rising costs are driving “belt-tightening and hiring freezes” among companies.
“Those laid off now are finding it harder to quickly secure new roles, which could further loosen the labor market,” he added.
Recently, tech giant Amazon announced it would lay off about 14,000 employees as it invests in AI, which NPR reports is about 4% of its workforce. Amazon’s announcement came weeks before it made headlines again for a $38 billion deal between Amazon Web Services and OpenAI.
So far, the industries getting hit the hardest continue to be technology amid AI integration, slower demand, and efficiency pressures. The technology industry has announced 141,159 job cuts, up from 17% of the workforce last year.
The retail industry cut 2,431 jobs in October, which is down from 2,577 in September. The sector, however, remains the most brutally hit. There have been 88,664 job cuts so far this year, representing a 145% increase from the 33,136 cuts reported last year.
Services, warehousing, consumer products, nonprofits, media companies, and news are among the top industries seeing the most cuts.
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