U.S. employers announced more than 71,000 job cuts in November, pushing total layoffs for 2025 past 1.17 million, the highest level since the 2020 pandemic, according to consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The monthly total was lower than October’s record-setting cuts but still marks a 54% increase compared with the same period last year.
Verizon’s plan to eliminate over 13,000 positions was a major driver of November’s layoffs. Tech companies, spurred by advancements in artificial intelligence, reported 12,377 cuts, bringing the sector’s 2025 total up 17% year over year. AI-related reductions accounted for 54,694 layoffs this year. Tariffs contributed to more than 2,000 cuts in November and nearly 8,000 year-to-date. The most cited reasons for layoffs last month were restructuring, followed by company closings and market or economic conditions.
Andy Challenger, workplace expert and chief revenue officer at Challenger, Gray & Christmas, noted that while November’s numbers were a decline from October’s 153,000 cuts—the highest November total in 22 years—they remain historically significant, as layoffs above 70,000 in a single month have occurred only a few times since 2008. He added that companies have generally moved away from announcing year-end layoffs since the Great Recession.
Hiring has also slowed, with employers planning 497,151 new hires in 2025, down 35% from last year. Yet, official Labor Department data has not mirrored the surge in layoffs: weekly jobless claims fell unexpectedly to 191,000, the lowest in over three years, influenced by unusually large declines in California and Texas and the Thanksgiving holiday. ADP data, however, showed private employers cut 32,000 jobs in November, the largest drop in more than two and a half years, highlighting ongoing weakness in the U.S. labor market.