Private Sector Job Cuts Decline Month-Over-Month but Increase Year-Over-Year in October

According to the Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. (CG&C) Job Cuts Report released Thursday (11-2-23), US-based employers announced 36,836 job cuts in October. This is down 22.0% from the 47,457 job cuts announced in September but 9.0% higher than the 33,843 job cuts announced in October 2022.

CG&C says employers have announced plans to cut 641,350 jobs year-to-date, an 164% increase from the first ten months of 2022. This is the highest January–October total since 2020 (2,162,928 cuts) and the second-highest total since 2009 (1,192,187 cuts).

CG&C reports that through the month of October, employers announced plans to add 759,935 positions—down 46% from the 1,400,468 new positions announced in the same period in 2022. This total includes the 573,000 seasonal positions CG&C tracked in September and October of this year. CG&C will continue to add seasonal hiring announcements from companies, but as of now, it is the lowest year for seasonal hiring announcements since 2013 when employers announced 518,000 seasonal hiring plans. By this point in 2022, CG&C had tracked 590,200 seasonal hiring plans; and in 2021, CG&C had tracked 939,200.