Key Takeaways
- Employers announced almost 1.1 million job cuts through October 2025, the highest total since 2020.
- Government, tech, warehousing, and retail saw the largest increases in layoffs, while aerospace, apparel, and transportation saw sharp declines.
The U.S. job market has shifted dramatically in 2025. Employers announced more than a million layoffs through October, up 65% from the same period last year. Much of the increase came from government reductions, including large DOGE-related cuts.
Meanwhile, sectors like tech, retail, and warehousing continued to shed workers at an accelerated pace. This visualization ranks the industries facing the largest job cuts so far this year. The data for this rank comes from Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
Read more: Visual Capitalist