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Employers have cut more than 1.1 million jobs through November, the most since 2020, when companies laid off 2.2 million workers as the pandemic was slamming the U.S. economy, according to a new report from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
The layoffs represent a 54% increase from the same period a year earlier, when employers cut 761,358 jobs, according to the firm. It’s also only the sixth time since 1993 that job cuts during the first 11 months of the year have risen above 1.1 million.
Here’s what is driving the increase in 2025 layoffs, according to Challenger.
Tech is driving the surge in job cuts
The technology sector is leading this year’s job cuts, laying off 153,536 workers through November, according to Challenger. That’s a 17% jump from the 130,701 layoffs tech firms announced by the same point in 2024.
Amazon is among the tech firms that have announced substantial workforce reductions. In October, the company said it would cut 14,000 jobs as it leans on AI tools to boost efficiency.
The retail sector reduced its workforce by 91,954 jobs through November, as consumers grapple with higher prices and pull back on spending on discretionary goods. While retailers typically ramp up hiring toward year-end to accommodate holiday shoppers, 2025 is shaping up to be the weakest in 15 years for seasonal work.
Retail stores are expected to hire between 265,000 and 365,000 seasonal workers this year, down from the 442,000 seasonal hires companies brought on last year, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF), a trade organization.
These are the other sectors with the largest number of job cuts:
- Services: 69,089
- Telecommunications: 38,035
- Food: 34,165
- Nonprofit: 28,696
- Media and news: 17,163
Top reasons for layoffs
Layoffs from the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, were a primary driver of job cuts, leading to nearly 300,000 job losses this year, according to the Challenger report. DOGE, a cost-cutting effort, reduced both funding and employment at some federal agencies earlier this year.
DOGE accounted for another 21,000 indirect job cuts at private and nonprofit entities that lost federal funding.
Market and economic conditions were cited as the cause behind an additional 245,086 layoffs. More than 178,500 workers lost jobs because a company store, unit or department closed. Companies cited restructuring as the reason for another 128,255 layoffs.
Artificial intelligence advances accounted for 54,700 job cuts, while tariffs were cited for nearly 8,000. President Trump’s levies on trade partners have raised costs for companies, prompting some to trim spending elsewhere, including on labor.
Small businesses, which operate on thin margins, say the tariffs have hit them especially hard. New data from payroll firm ADP shows that private-sector employers cut 32,000 jobs in November, driven largely by firms with fewer than 50 employees. These smaller employers have borne the brunt of rising costs and ongoing policy uncertainty.
