U.S. Job Cuts Declined While Hiring Increased in February 2022

According to the latest Job Cut Report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas (CG&C), Inc, a global outplacement and business and executive coaching firm, U.S.-based employers announced 15,245 cuts in February 2022. This is a 20% drop from January’s total announced cuts of 19,064.

In February, U.S. based employers announced plans to hire 215,127 workers, the highest February total on record.

Year-over-year, February 2022’s total is -56% lower than the 34,531 cuts announced in February 2021. In the first two months of the year, employers announced 34,309 cuts, down -70% from the 114,083 cuts announced through February 2021. It is the lowest monthly total since June 1997, when 15,091 cuts were recorded. It is the lowest January-February total since the firm began tracking job cuts in 1993.

Over a third of cuts in February, or 5,558 jobs, were due to market conditions. Another 4,671 cuts were due to store, unit, or plant closing, while 1,430 cuts were due to workers refusing to get vaccinated against employer policy. Since June 2021, employers announced 14,821 cuts due to vaccine refusal.

In a statement prepared to accompany the release of the January report, Andrew Challenger, Senior Vice President of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. said, “The latest numbers give more evidence that job creation is strong, and employers continue to hold fast to their workforces. The churn in the labor market is coming from resignations.”