Dive Brief:
- Job cuts made last month are up 175% from cuts announced in October 2024, layoff data analysis from Challenger, Gray & Christmas indicated. Compare 55,597 job cuts last year to 153,074 job cuts this year.
- More alarming: In over two decades of Octobers, last month marked the highest rate of job cuts since 2003, when 171,874 cuts were recorded. This is also the highest single-month total in Q4 since 2008, researchers noted.
- The high number of cuts can be explained mainly by an unforgiving economic climate and AI adoption. “Like in 2003, a disruptive technology is changing the landscape,” Andy Challenger, chief revenue officer for the research firm, said in a statement Thursday, threading the needle between past and present.
Dive Insight:
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has been in flux throughout 2025: President Donald Trump ousted then-Commissioner Erika McEntarfer in August, leveling accusations of number-fudging at BLS. Trump then named E.J. Antoni as McEntarfer’s replacement before withdrawing his nomination in late September. Due to the federal government shutdown, no BLS jobs report was issued for the month of October.
In the meantime, ADP has filled the gap, with business leaders across industries — including banking, manufacturing and media — using these metrics for data analysis. In ADP’s October 2025 report, published Wednesday, Chief Economist Nela Richardson noted that last month marked the first time since July that jobs had been added to the private sector.
Still, “hiring was modest relative to what we reported earlier this year,” Richardson said in the report. She also said that pay growth has been mostly flat for a year, which indicates that “supply and demand are balanced.”
While ADP’s view of the private workplace was even-keeled, Challenger, Gray & Christmas’ analysis was that employers have grown callous. Regarding fourth-quarter layoffs in particular, the firm noted that such a high number of workforce reductions at this time of year is unusual — the advent of social media and ability of workers to share their experiences made the practice of cutting before the holidays seem “particularly cruel,” Challenger said.
“At a time when job creation is at its lowest point in years, the optics of announcing layoffs in the fourth quarter are particularly unfavorable,” Challenger said.
