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US: Challenger Job-Cut Report
| Actual | Previous | |
| Level | 43,994 | 43,281 |
Highlights
US employers announce 43,994 job cuts in October, up 2 percent from 43,281
in September. This is down 71 percent from the 153,074 job cuts in October 2025.
October’s total is the lowest for the month since 2023, when the number was 36,836, and below the 56,348 average for October from 2015 to 2025. It is the eighth month this year in which cuts came in below the same month one year earlier, an excellent illustration of the low hire/low fire economy.
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.
