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US: Challenger Job-Cut Report
| Actual | Previous | Revised | |
| Level | 33,429 | 45,489 | 45,849 |
Highlights
Job cuts come in very low at 33,429 in July 2026, down 46 percent from 62,075 in July 2025. That tends to confirm perceptions that the economy remains in low hire, low fire mode. As these numbers are not seasonally adjusted, it makes sense to compare to the year-ago month, not the 45,849 announced in June 2026.
July’s figure is the lowest for one month since July 2024, when there were 25,885 cuts. Through July, employers have announced 477,033 layoffs, down 41 percent from the 806,383 cuts announced in the first seven months of 2025. It is the fifth time this year cuts are lower than the corresponding month one year earlier.
Definition
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.
Description
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.
