U.S. Job Cuts Increased 14% in September, Challenger Reports

According to the latest released Job Cuts Report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas (CG&C), Inc, a global outplacement and business and executive coaching firm, U.S.-based employers’ announced job cuts rose by 14% in September to 17,985 — up from the 24-year low of 15,723 cuts announced in August. September 2021 total is 85% lower than September 2020, when 118,804 cuts were announced.

Employers announced 52,560 job cuts in Q3 of 2021 — the lowest quarterly total since Q2 of 1997, when 51,309 cuts were recorded. So far this year, employers have announced plans to cut 265,221 jobs from their payrolls, down -87% from the 2,082,262 jobs eliminated through the same period last year. It is the lowest January-September total on record. The second lowest occurred in 1997, when 281,496 cuts were tracked in the first nine months of the year.

In remarks prepared for the release of the September report, Andrew Challenger, Senior Vice President of CG&C said, “Companies are in hiring and retention mode, and job seekers have a lot of power to make demands at the moment.”

Challenger added, “We know there are millions of open positions, but many employers are having trouble keeping up with their applicants, taking too long to reach out, not making offers fast enough, or losing out to more attractive offers.”