A busy scene inside the new five-story Amazon robotics fulfillment center at 2519 Bellevue Ave. in Daytona Beach, Fla. on Sept. 17, 2025.
Ashton Ford, left, loads her delivery vehicle with packages at Amazon's Elkhart Delivery Station on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025, in Elkhart, Ind.

After a record-setting volume of job cuts in October, employers in November posted fewer layoffs. But reductions were 24% higher than a year ago and the highest since the COVID-19 pandemic – another sign of a volatile job market buffeted with economic challenges from slowing demand to tariff uncertainties.

U.S. employers announced 71,321 job cuts in November, down 53% from the 153,074 layoffs announced in October, according to consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. But the November layoffs were up 24% from the 57,727 announced in November 2024, the global outsourcing and executive coaching firm said.

November’s job cuts were the highest for the month since 2022, when 76,835 job cuts were announced – the continuation of a troubling trend as it is the eighth time this year job cuts were higher than the corresponding month one year earlier.

"Layoff plans fell last month, certainly a positive sign," said Andy Challenger, workplace expert and chief revenue officer for Challenger, Gray & Christmas, in the report. "That said, job cuts in November have risen above 70,000 only twice since 2008: in 2022 and in 2008," he said, referencing the years of the Great Resignation and the Great Recession.

Year-to-date job cuts hit a five-year high: Employers have announced 1,170,821 job cuts in 2025, up 54% from this time last year and the highest year-to-date job cuts since 2020 during the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, when 2,227,725 cuts were announced through November, the firm said.

Job market is 'choppy of late'

The Challenger report comes a day after ADP’s National Employment Report, published Dec. 3, which found private employers cut 32,000 jobs during November, after adding 47,000 in October.

"Hiring has been choppy of late as employers weather cautious consumers and an uncertain macroeconomic environment," said Nela Richardson, ADP's chief economist, in the report, which is based on anonymized payroll data of more than 26 million U.S. employees. "And while November's slowdown was broad-based, it was led by a pullback among small businesses."

Government data has yet to reflect an increase in layoffs. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 27,000 to a seasonally adjusted 191,000 for the week ending Nov. 29, the lowest level since September 2022, the Labor Department reported Thursday, Dec. 4.

The most recent jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics found U.S. employers added 119,000 jobs in September, which surpassed expectations but tracked activity before the government shutdown. The unemployment rate rose slightly from 4.3% to 4.4% in September, the BLS said. October and November payroll data will be released Dec. 16, the BLS has said.

Market conditions, including tariffs, lead reasons for job cuts

Market and economic conditions, along company restructuring, led the reasons for job cuts. Tariffs were cited for 2,061 job cuts in November and 7,908 year-to-date, according to the Challenger report.

Telecommunication and technology had the most job cuts in November, the report said, with 15,139 job cuts in telecom – Verizon announced more than 13,000 job cuts on Nov. 20 – and 12,377 in tech, likely bolstered by Amazon's reduction of thousands of corporate employees, a move confirmed in late October.Retail and nonprofit organizations have reported the highest percentage increase in job cuts so far this year. Retail companies have reported 91,954 job cuts, up 139% from a year ago, and nonprofits announced plans to cut 28,696 this year, an increase of 409%.

Layoffs from the Trump administration's controversial Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, cost-cutting initiative have not been the cause of job cut announcements in two months, according to the Challenger report. But it remains the leading reason for job cuts for the year, having been cited in 293,753 planned layoffs.

The report attributed an additional 20,976 cuts to what it called "DOGE Downstream Impact," for the loss of federal funding for private companies and nonprofits.

'Forever layoffs' leave workers concerned

A soft jobs market with smaller but regular layoffs – rather than infrequent large cuts – has employees feeling insecure and disconnected from management, according to Glassdoor's Worklife Trends 2026 report, released Nov. 12. In reviews on the job site, mentions of layoffs or similar terms and job insecurity have surpassed the level in March 2020.

"While serial layoffs may fly under the radar, they don’t fool the employees who take on more work afterwards and wonder if they might be next," Glassdoor said in the report. "The persistent drag from forever layoffs are likely to damage worker morale and workplace culture in 2026 and beyond."

In the past, most companies tended to announce layoffs near the end of the year, but "it became unpopular after the Great Recession especially, and best practice dictated layoff plans would occur at times other than the holidays," the Challenger report said.

As for planned hiring, employers announced 497,151 planned hires this year, down 35% from the 761,954 announced at this point in 2024, the report said. That's the lowest year-to-date total since 2010, when 392,033 new hires were planned through November.

Contributing: Reuters; Rachel Barber

Mike Snider is a national trending news reporter for USA TODAY. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, X and email him at mikegsnider & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider & msnider@usatoday.com

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: US job cuts down 54% in November, but 'forever layoffs' worry workers

Reporting by Mike Snider, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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