Announced job cuts from U.S. employers pushed further past the 1 million mark for the year in November, as corporate restructuring, artificial intelligence and tariffs continued to trim payrolls, according to a Thursday report from consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
Companies announced 71,321 planned layoffs in November. While that’s a pullback from the sharp spike in October, it was still enough to lift total planned cuts for 2025 to 1.17 million. That’s 54% higher than during the same 11-month stretch a year earlier and the highest level since 2020, when the Covid pandemic slammed the global economy.
Verizon’s decision to cut more than 13,000 jobs was a major contributor to November’s tally. Tech firms, which have been aggressively reshaping their workforces amid rapid advances in artificial intelligence, reported 12,377 job reductions for the month, bringing the sector’s 2025 total to 17% above last year’s pace. AI specifically has been cited as the reason for 54,694 layoffs so far this year.
Tariffs were blamed for more than 2,000 job cuts in November and nearly 8,000 year to date. The most common explanation given for layoffs last month was corporate restructuring, followed by business closings and broader market or economic pressures.
“Layoff plans fell last month, certainly a positive sign. That said, job cuts in November have risen above 70,000 only twice since 2008: in 2022 and in 2008,” said Andy Challenger, workplace expert and chief revenue officer at Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
He also noted that since the 2008 financial crisis, employers have moved away from the old pattern of announcing major layoffs at year’s end.
“It used to be common to roll out layoff plans toward the end of the year, to match most companies’ fiscal year-ends. After the Great Recession, that became unpopular, and best practice shifted toward avoiding holiday-season announcements,” Challenger said.
Even with November’s moderation, the month still looked better compared with October, when more than 153,000 planned cuts were announced — the highest October total in 22 years.
The data land as concern builds around the health of the U.S. labor market. On Wednesday, ADP reported that private employers reduced headcount by 32,000 in November, the steepest drop in more than two and a half years.
Hiring plans have also cooled, the Challenger report showed. Employers have announced 497,151 intended hires so far this year, down 35% from the same point in 2024.
Yet official Labor Department figures have not shown a broad spike in layoffs. On Thursday, the department reported that initial weekly jobless claims unexpectedly fell to 191,000, the lowest level in more than three years. The roughly 27,000 decline from the prior week was driven largely by unusually sharp drops in California and Texas and likely was influenced by the Thanksgiving holiday.
