U.S. Planned Job Cuts Drop Sharply in November, Still Above Last Year

Planned U.S. job cuts announced by employers plunged 53 percent in November to 71,321, Challenger, Gray and Christmas reported on Thursday, delivering a stark month to month moderation in layoff activity after an October surge. The decline still left November cuts roughly 24 percent above the same month in 2024 and represented the largest November total since 2022.

The November tally followed October, which implied roughly 152,000 planned cuts, and it contributed to a cumulative total of about 1.171 million planned job cuts through the first 11 months of 2025. That year to date total was about 54 percent higher than the first 11 months of 2024, suggesting employers have adopted a considerably more defensive stance this year as they balance inflation adjusted costs and softer demand.

Challenger also highlighted a striking weakness on the hiring side. Announced hires so far in 2025 totaled roughly 497,151, the lowest year to date total since 2010 and down about 35 percent from the prior year. That contraction in hiring intentions, taken together with elevated layoff plans, paints a mixed and nuanced picture of the U.S. labor market. Companies appear to be trimming payroll commitments while remaining cautious about adding staff even as headline unemployment has remained relatively low.

For markets and policymakers the numbers carry several implications. A pronounced reduction in planned cuts from October should alleviate some immediate downside risk to consumer spending and corporate earnings. At the same time the elevated level of cuts relative to a year earlier, and the dramatic drop in announced hires, point to growing slack in labor markets that could slow wage growth and weigh on services inflation, a key focus for the Federal Reserve.

Economists will parse whether these trends represent a cyclical rebalancing following tight labor conditions in 2023 and 2024 or the start of a more persistent cooling. If layoffs translate into slower payroll gains, the Fed may face less pressure to tighten policy further, but if hiring remains muted while resignations fall, labor market frictions could persist and complicate the path for wages and consumer demand.

Sectoral patterns in 2025 have varied, but Challenger’s aggregates underscore that firms are contending with demand uncertainty and cost pressures in an environment of still elevated interest rates. The 1.171 million announced cuts year to date implies a sizable pool of displaced workers and potentially higher unemployment claims in coming months, which would amplify fiscal and state level pressures for job retraining and unemployment support.

For households the immediate effect is twofold. Workers in vulnerable industries face a higher chance of job loss than a year ago, while those seeking work confront a noticeably weaker hiring environment compared with recent years. For investors and policymakers the data signal that the labor market is shifting from overheating to a more fragile balance, with implications for growth, inflation, and the trajectory of monetary policy into 2026.