American companies are laying off workers in large numbers. In just five months of 2025, employers have already announced about 7 lakh job cuts, an 80% rise from the same period the previous year.
Through May, employers have announced 696,309 job cuts, an increase of 80% from the 385,859 announced in the first five months of last year, according to a report released by global outplacement and business and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. It is 65,049 cuts away from matching the entire year’s total for 2024.
US-based employers announced 93,816 job cuts in May, down 12% from 105,441 cuts in April, and up 47% from 63,816 announced in the same month last year.
According to Andrew Challenger, Senior Vice President of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the reasons behind company layoffs include consumer spending, funding cuts, tariffs, and general economic gloom. Due to the extreme strain these circumstances are placing on their workforces, businesses are cutting back on expenditure, delaying recruiting, and issuing layoff letters.
Technology continues to be a leading sector for job cuts as it faces mounting and rapidly changing disruptions. Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and other tech companies are expected to let off more than 1 lakh employees by 2025. Technology companies announced 10,598 job cuts in May for a total of 74,716 cuts in 2025. This is up 35% from the 55,207 cuts announced during the same period last year.
Microsoft plans to cut thousands of jobs, mainly in sales, as it streamlines its workforce amid increased AI investments, following a previous round of job cuts in May, which affected about 6,000 employees. Microsoft is scheduled to undertake yet another wave of job cuts next week, with its Xbox division facing significant layoffs as part of a bigger restructuring initiative.
AI has emerged as a big disruptor of tech employment, with firms increasingly announcing job layoffs to make way for AI expertise and investments.
The services sector has announced plans to cut 44,273 jobs, up 79% from the 24,770 cuts announced through this period last year. Retail is the second-leading industry in job cuts this year, behind the Government. Retailers followed with 11,483 job cut plans for a total of 75,802. This is a 274% increase from the 20,276 Retail job cuts announced in the first five months of 2024.
In 2024, foreign-born workers saw a slightly higher rate of unemployment than their native-born counterparts. The Trump administration’s immigration policies of 2025 are expected to further skew the results in favour of native-born American workers as job layoffs across the board increase.
The US unemployment rate remained steady at 4.2% in May 2025, meeting market expectations and remaining within a narrow range of 4.0%–4.2% since May 2024. DOGE impact remains the leading reason for job cut announcements in 2025, cited in 284,044 planned layoffs so far this year.
In an attempt by Secretary of State Marco Rubio to simplify what he has described as a “bloated” bureaucracy, the State Department may start firing hundreds of workers located in Washington, D.C., as early as this Friday, according to internal staff communications obtained by CBS News.
Hyatt has decreased its customer service personnel in the United States by “approximately 30%” in its customer services and support departments, according to a corporate spokeswoman and employee accounts on social media.
Layoff notices were delivered to 639 employees of Voice of America (VOA) and the United States organization that regulates it, effectively shutting down the channel, reported Al Jazeera.