United States Challenger Job Cuts

US employers announced 275.240K job cuts in March 2025, the highest value since May 2020, compared to 172.017K in February. March 2025 figure is the third-highest monthly total ever recorded. “Job cut announcements were dominated last month by DOGE plans to eliminate positions in the federal government. It would have otherwise been a fairly quiet month for layoffs", said Andrew Challenger, Senior VPfor Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The Government led all sectors in job cuts in March with 216,215, all of which occurred in the federal government. Over the last two months, DOGE actions have been attributed to 280,253 layoff plans of federal workers and contractors impacting 27 agencies, according to Challenger tracking. Another 4,429 job cuts have come from the downstream effect of cutting federal aid or ending contracts, impacting mostly Non-Profits and Health organizations. So far this year, employers have announced 497,052, the highest year-to-date and quarterly total since Q1 2009.