The Challenger report on layoff intentions for April is down 25.3 percent month-over-month to 66,995 after 89,703 in March, but up 175.9 percent from 24,286 in April 2022. For the year-to-date in 2023, the number of job cuts announced is 337,411 compared to 79,982 in the first four months of 2022.

The largest number of layoffs announced by industry is in retail with 14,689 planned cuts followed by 11,553 in technology and 9,146 in consumer products. The three industries account for 52.8 percent of all layoffs.

Among reasons cited for planned layoffs, the largest is in market/economic conditions with 24,091 announcements, or 36 percent of the total. The second largest is 17,429 in cost cutting, or 26.0 percent of the total.

There are 23,310 announced hiring intentions in April, up 157.7 percent from 9,044 in March, but down 73.7 percent from 88,622 in April 2022. The largest number of planned hires is 4,061 in transportation, or 17.4 percent of the total.

This monthly report counts and categorizes announcements of corporate layoffs based on mass layoff data from state departments of labor. The job-cut report must be analyzed with caution. It doesn't distinguish between layoffs scheduled for the short-term or the long term, or whether job cuts are handled through attrition or actual layoffs. Also, the job-cut report does not include jobs eliminated in small batches over a longer time period. Unlike most economic data, this series is not adjusted for seasonal variation.

The job-cut report is basically a rehash of the weekly jobless claims report but provides additional insight into where layoffs are occurring. There is industry and geographic (states) detail that is not available with weekly jobless claims.