2026-01-08 09:51:00
It seems like Challenger published the report early again with job cuts in December 2025 totaling to 35,553, down 50% from the 71,321 layoffs announced in November. Compared to the previous December in 2024 (38,792), job cuts were down 8%.
The total for December last year is the lowest monthly total since 25,885 cuts were announced in July 2024 and the lowest December total since 2023. It is only the fourth time in 2025 that job cuts were lower than the corresponding month in the one year before that.
Looking as a whole, 2025 job cuts amounted to 1,206,374. That is the highest yearly total since 2020 i.e. the Covid pandemic year and the seventh highest annual total since 1989. The total is only behind the years 2001, 2002, 2003, 2008, 2009, and 2020 itself.
The breakdown for the year shows that the government sector led job cuts across all industries with 308,167 layoffs announced. All of that is primarily tied to the federal government with this being up 703% from the 38,375 job cuts in 2024. Much of that came in Q1 though amid Elon Musk’s DOGE initiative, with the total in the first quarter being 279,445 job cuts. The subsequent nine months only totaled to 28,722 job cuts.
In the private sector, it was tech that led job cuts last year with 154,445 layoffs announced. That is up 15% from the 133,988 job cuts in this sector in 2024. Challenger notes that:
“Technology has been pivoting to both developing and implementing artificial intelligence much more
quickly than any other industry. This coupled with over-hiring over the last decade created a wave of
job loss in the industry.”
The full report can be found here.
