The Challenger report on layoff intentions shows a decrease of 46.9 percent to 25,885 in July from 48,786 in June but is up 9.2 percent from 23,697 in July 2023. The July total is the lowest so far in 2024. Overall, the pace of layoffs is a bit lower for the year-to-date at 460,530 compared to 481,906 in the first seven months of 2023. The tech sector continues to have the largest share of job cuts for the year-to-date at 65,863, but is running at less than half the pace of 146,254 in the prior year.

In July, the largest share of layoff intentions was in technology (6,009, or 23.2 percent of the total), followed by services (2,932, or 11.3 percent), and food (2,423, or 9.4 percent). Layoff intentions remain modest for most industries, although why businesses are cutting jobs is unclear. In many instances no reason was given for layoffs (8,033 or 31.0 percent of the total). The next largest reasons are cost-cutting (6,626 or 25.6 percent) and closing (5,133 or 19.8 percent).

Announced hiring plans were few in July at 3,676 in all. The largest number is 1,636 for industrial goods (44.5 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.