The Challenger report on layoff intentions for October shows a 22.4 percent decline to 36,836 after 47,457 in September and an 8.8 percent increase from 33,843 in October 2022. For the first ten months of 2023, job cut announcements total 641,350, or up 163.6 percent from 243,338 for the same period in 2022. Layoffs in 2023 continue to be dominated by cuts in technology at 158,513 for the year to date compared to 28,207 in the first ten months of 2022. Senior Vice President Andy Challenger said,"Job cut plans have slowed significantly since the first half of the year, and consumers have continued to spend, even in the face of high inflation. Pandemic savings and higher wages have gotten many workers through economic uncertainty."

For the month of October, the largest share of layoff announcements is 6,524 in technology, or 17.7 percent of the total. The next largest is 4,138 in warehousing, or 11.2 percent of the total. Together, the two account for 28.9 percent of all announcements.

The most common reason given for layoffs is restructuring at 10,553, or 28.6 percent of the total. The next largest category is"no reason provided" at 9,650, or 26.2 percent of the total. The third largest reason given is closing at 7,365, or 20.0 percent of the total.

Hiring intentions are down 94.0 percent to 35,202 in October after 509,353 in September when retailers, wholesalers, and delivery companies announced their holiday hiring plans. There is some holdover in October as 12,100 intentions in warehousing, probably in anticipation of strong e-commerce sales during the winter holidays. This was the largest industry contribution and accounts for 65.6 percent of all intentions. The next largest is 9,293 in real estate, or 26.4 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.