Layoffs in the U.S skyrocketed in October to their worst monthly level for 22 years, with Americans now facing the type of job cuts typically seen during recessions.
Despite President Donald Trump repeatedly touting that the US economy “has never been hotter,” a new report has fueled concerns about a labor market slowdown with more people out of work.
The data, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, shows that company layoffs soared last month to more than 153,000, marking the worst October for job reductions since 2003.
US employers have also announced 1.1 million layoffs so far this year – the biggest number of layoffs since the pandemic and on par with job cuts during the global financial crisis.
Trump, however, took a victory lap on the economy on the one-year anniversary of his successful election on Wednesday.
Speaking at the America Business Forum in Miami the day after Republicans were rebuked at elections across the country, the president said the U.S. was the envy of the world.
“We have the greatest economy right now,” he declared, adding that “a lot of people don’t see that.”
The report shows that the labor market has shifted from one where workers had job security even though their bosses weren’t hiring as much, to one where more companies are cutting costs and reducing staff as they replace humans with AI.
Amazon, for instance, announced 14,000 job cuts this week, citing a shift toward AI.
“October’s pace of job cutting was much higher than average for the month,” said Andy Challenger, chief revenue officer for Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
“Some industries are correcting after the hiring boom of the pandemic, but this comes as AI adoption, softening consumer and corporate spending, and rising costs drive belt-tightening and hiring freezes.
“Those laid off now are finding it harder to quickly secure new roles, which could further loosen the labor market.”
The numbers are politically sensitive for Trump because they undercut one of the administration’s central claims – that it has restored economic confidence and “brought jobs back.”
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell also cited concerns about slower hiring in announcing interest rate cuts in September and October.
While Trump continues to talk up the economic landscape under presidency, Democratic victories in coast-to-coast elections this week suggest many voters are not feeling as confident.
In Virginia, for instance, which has a high number of federal workers, former Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger rode to victory in part due to anger over job cuts and the government shutdown.
In New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, Democrats also defeated their opponents by talking about economic and cost-of-living pressures.
Necessary-Drawer-173 on
Wow this was my concern as I can see what’s happening around me. My mom’s job is laying off all the temps at the end of the month as well. I can’t wait to see the mental gymnastics and gaslighting on this one.
This is all sad and I’ve been buckling down because i saw it coming
RiffRaffCatillacCat on
This is what happens with you let MAGAs run Govt.
akd432006 on
1 million Americans lost their jobs in 2025. In 2026, it will be 10 million.
The Great Recession 2
Historical_Bend_2629 on
He doesn’t care.
Umami-Ice-Cream on
Thanks maga
root_fifth_octave on
Hey, watch out for those recessionary feedback loops.
Virtual_Energy_416 on
Can’t wait for”Biden layoffs”
sugarlessdeathbear on
But they also claim unemployment is down, so really the economy is shedding jobs.
RamonaQ-JunieB on
We’re on the economic Titanic and the band is still playing at Mar-a-Lago. I’m beginning to think Trump doesn’t know what he’s doing. (Just kidding about that last part. )
LockheedMartinLuther on
Okay, sure, but that new golden ballroom is going to be amazing
thistimelineisweird on
How many days away are we from the stock market crash, I wonder?
AlabamaHotcakes on
He has the biggest numbers!
tomdurk on
Trump did that!
heapinhelpin1979 on
Because other countries are paying the tariffs right?
TheHomersapien on
>“DOGE Impact” remains the leading reason for job cut announcements in 2025, cited in 293,753 planned layoffs so far this year. **This includes direct reductions to the Federal workforce and its contractors**. An additional 20,976 cuts have been attributed to DOGE Downstream Impact, which reflects the loss of federal funding to private and non-profit entities.
We have yet to begin to feel the trickle down effect of firing all those federal workers. October’s data is just a taste of what’s to come when fired federal workers approach a year of unemployment because of some absolute fucking moron firing government employees at the same time that the economy softens because of said fucking moron’s other socialistic/communistic meddling in the economy.
Likestoread25 on
Are we great again??
TheStoicSlab on
He is going to fire the guy that calculates the numbers. Solved /s
CrashInspecta on
But hey, MAGA still thinks it’s winning.
WeatherWindfall on
So👏🏻Much👏🏻Winning, am I right?
HousingOk6362 on
All the CEO’s and Board Members prepping for those fat returns, if/when Donnie’s tax extensions go through.
Texadad on
But your 401 is doing phenomenal. And I lost $10k today. Another year added before retirement
luri7555 on
Stocks go up!
aza-industries on
It frustrates me how disconnected from reeality the Heritage Foundations plan is.
All their ideas are predicated on bigottry and fellacius reasoning.
A lot of their plans have been empirically proven elswhere to be dog shit ideas that don’t work.
Their ideas of what the past looked like completely ignores huge swathes of demographics that suffered to support that rose tinted glasses history.
Just so frustrating that basically uneducated yokals think they have a fucking clue what is good for society.
DenseVeterinarian187 on
hit with? didn’t he cause them??
nkassis on
“The report shows that the labor market has shifted from one where workers had job security even though their bosses weren’t hiring as much, to one where more companies are cutting costs and reducing staff as they replace humans with AI.”
I call bullshit on this and I work in automation and AI. I guarantee the cuts are due to increased costs and lower revenue in most sectors not actually tied to the AI capacity incestuous boom (data center, energy, hardware manufacturers)
Reality is there was enough people before for the work to be done, AI didn’t make that problem go away it would be a force multiplier but the cuts are due to budgets not replacement.
Realistic-Jelly-1092 on
Yeppers, since his first Money making scream in 2020 all his Taxpayer funds was running low so he had to run again! Now that he is on a roll he most definately wants to stay in office because he will lose all that free money!
eyeQ on
but hey at least hamburger helper sales have gone up, right?
Iainfixie on
MAGA shit and Trump is pure fuckin poison for everyone who isn’t a horrid billionaire pedo.
mr_evilweed on
Hang on a second… the president who presided over the biggest loss of american jobs ever during his first term is… presiding over more job losses? This cant be right…
rangerfan123 on
Republicans simply do not know how to run a country
GODGK2 on
This is the beginning of the recession that could have been avoided.
ddubyeah on
Its time for republicans to admit that they were given power in january and promptly fucked the economy up so badly they they need leftists to step in to fix the situation.
Im_Talking on
Should it say: Trump gets hit with jaw-dropping statistics he won’t care about.
whiznat on
Isn’t this the guy who promised an unrealistic increase in jobs? Oh well, just another broken promise MAGA will forget about when he campaigns again with the tagline “Promises Made! Promises Kept!”
ChafterMies on
Trump wasn’t hit the layoffs. Workers were. Thanks, MAGA.
Commercial_Page1827 on
Whatever number they present you can be sure the real number is waaay higher. Don’t forget he install a puppet to give those reports.
Significant_Cow4765 on
*jaw-drooping
Embarrassed-Crazy112 on
Trump isn’t hit with anything.
We are.
He’s a court jester getting rich while his project 2025 handlers continue to rape a pillage the country while we watch him.
Dicktasticly on
America is going to be the 7th bankruptcy of Broke Loser Donald
Miss-Tiq on
I mean, *he* wasn’t hit with them. *He* hit *us* with them.
41 Comments
As per the original article:
Layoffs in the U.S skyrocketed in October to their worst monthly level for 22 years, with Americans now facing the type of job cuts typically seen during recessions.
Despite President Donald Trump repeatedly touting that the US economy “has never been hotter,” a new report has fueled concerns about a labor market slowdown with more people out of work.
The data, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, shows that company layoffs soared last month to more than 153,000, marking the worst October for job reductions since 2003.
US employers have also announced 1.1 million layoffs so far this year – the biggest number of layoffs since the pandemic and on par with job cuts during the global financial crisis.
Trump, however, took a victory lap on the economy on the one-year anniversary of his successful election on Wednesday.
Speaking at the America Business Forum in Miami the day after Republicans were rebuked at elections across the country, the president said the U.S. was the envy of the world.
“We have the greatest economy right now,” he declared, adding that “a lot of people don’t see that.”
The report shows that the labor market has shifted from one where workers had job security even though their bosses weren’t hiring as much, to one where more companies are cutting costs and reducing staff as they replace humans with AI.
Amazon, for instance, announced 14,000 job cuts this week, citing a shift toward AI.
“October’s pace of job cutting was much higher than average for the month,” said Andy Challenger, chief revenue officer for Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
“Some industries are correcting after the hiring boom of the pandemic, but this comes as AI adoption, softening consumer and corporate spending, and rising costs drive belt-tightening and hiring freezes.
“Those laid off now are finding it harder to quickly secure new roles, which could further loosen the labor market.”
The numbers are politically sensitive for Trump because they undercut one of the administration’s central claims – that it has restored economic confidence and “brought jobs back.”
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell also cited concerns about slower hiring in announcing interest rate cuts in September and October.
While Trump continues to talk up the economic landscape under presidency, Democratic victories in coast-to-coast elections this week suggest many voters are not feeling as confident.
In Virginia, for instance, which has a high number of federal workers, former Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger rode to victory in part due to anger over job cuts and the government shutdown.
In New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, Democrats also defeated their opponents by talking about economic and cost-of-living pressures.
Wow this was my concern as I can see what’s happening around me. My mom’s job is laying off all the temps at the end of the month as well. I can’t wait to see the mental gymnastics and gaslighting on this one.
This is all sad and I’ve been buckling down because i saw it coming
This is what happens with you let MAGAs run Govt.
1 million Americans lost their jobs in 2025. In 2026, it will be 10 million.
The Great Recession 2
He doesn’t care.
Thanks maga
Hey, watch out for those recessionary feedback loops.
Can’t wait for”Biden layoffs”
But they also claim unemployment is down, so really the economy is shedding jobs.
We’re on the economic Titanic and the band is still playing at Mar-a-Lago. I’m beginning to think Trump doesn’t know what he’s doing. (Just kidding about that last part. )
Okay, sure, but that new golden ballroom is going to be amazing
How many days away are we from the stock market crash, I wonder?
He has the biggest numbers!
Trump did that!
Because other countries are paying the tariffs right?
>“DOGE Impact” remains the leading reason for job cut announcements in 2025, cited in 293,753 planned layoffs so far this year. **This includes direct reductions to the Federal workforce and its contractors**. An additional 20,976 cuts have been attributed to DOGE Downstream Impact, which reflects the loss of federal funding to private and non-profit entities.
We have yet to begin to feel the trickle down effect of firing all those federal workers. October’s data is just a taste of what’s to come when fired federal workers approach a year of unemployment because of some absolute fucking moron firing government employees at the same time that the economy softens because of said fucking moron’s other socialistic/communistic meddling in the economy.
Are we great again??
He is going to fire the guy that calculates the numbers. Solved /s
But hey, MAGA still thinks it’s winning.
So👏🏻Much👏🏻Winning, am I right?
All the CEO’s and Board Members prepping for those fat returns, if/when Donnie’s tax extensions go through.
But your 401 is doing phenomenal. And I lost $10k today. Another year added before retirement
Stocks go up!
It frustrates me how disconnected from reeality the Heritage Foundations plan is.
All their ideas are predicated on bigottry and fellacius reasoning.
A lot of their plans have been empirically proven elswhere to be dog shit ideas that don’t work.
Their ideas of what the past looked like completely ignores huge swathes of demographics that suffered to support that rose tinted glasses history.
Just so frustrating that basically uneducated yokals think they have a fucking clue what is good for society.
hit with? didn’t he cause them??
“The report shows that the labor market has shifted from one where workers had job security even though their bosses weren’t hiring as much, to one where more companies are cutting costs and reducing staff as they replace humans with AI.”
I call bullshit on this and I work in automation and AI. I guarantee the cuts are due to increased costs and lower revenue in most sectors not actually tied to the AI capacity incestuous boom (data center, energy, hardware manufacturers)
Reality is there was enough people before for the work to be done, AI didn’t make that problem go away it would be a force multiplier but the cuts are due to budgets not replacement.
Yeppers, since his first Money making scream in 2020 all his Taxpayer funds was running low so he had to run again! Now that he is on a roll he most definately wants to stay in office because he will lose all that free money!
but hey at least hamburger helper sales have gone up, right?
MAGA shit and Trump is pure fuckin poison for everyone who isn’t a horrid billionaire pedo.
Hang on a second… the president who presided over the biggest loss of american jobs ever during his first term is… presiding over more job losses? This cant be right…
Republicans simply do not know how to run a country
This is the beginning of the recession that could have been avoided.
Its time for republicans to admit that they were given power in january and promptly fucked the economy up so badly they they need leftists to step in to fix the situation.
Should it say: Trump gets hit with jaw-dropping statistics he won’t care about.
Isn’t this the guy who promised an unrealistic increase in jobs? Oh well, just another broken promise MAGA will forget about when he campaigns again with the tagline “Promises Made! Promises Kept!”
Trump wasn’t hit the layoffs. Workers were. Thanks, MAGA.
Whatever number they present you can be sure the real number is waaay higher. Don’t forget he install a puppet to give those reports.
*jaw-drooping
Trump isn’t hit with anything.
We are.
He’s a court jester getting rich while his project 2025 handlers continue to rape a pillage the country while we watch him.
America is going to be the 7th bankruptcy of Broke Loser Donald
I mean, *he* wasn’t hit with them. *He* hit *us* with them.