U.S. job cut announcements rise 3.7% Y/Y in October: Challenger report

U.S.-based employers announced plans to cut 55,597 jobs in October, down ~24% from those announced in September, but the year-to-date number, 664,839, has increased 3.7% from the first 10 months of 2023, outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said on Thursday.

The aerospace and defense industry led the job cut announcements, with Boeing unveiling plans to cut 17,000 jobs. For the year, the industry has announced 29,526 job cuts, up fourfold from the same period a year ago. And that’s likely to have a knock-on effect.

Major cuts from bellwether companies tend to have downstream effects which could mean more job losses for suppliers and customers in the near term,” said Andrew Challenger, senior vice president at Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Overall, “job openings have fallen and hiring is pretty flat at the moment,” Challenger said. “Companies appear to be in a holding pattern as we await election results and the potential regulatory and market environment that follows.”

U.S.-based employers announced plans to hire 266,743 workers, including seasonal hiring plans for Amazon (AMZN) (+250K) and Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS) (+8K). For the year, employers plan to hire 750,333 new workers, the lowest YTD total since 2016.

Other industries that contributed to the job cuts include retailers (-7,696) and consumer products manufacturers (-4,571).

For the YTD tally, technology announced 120,470 job cuts, down 24% from the 158,513 cuts announced through October of 2023.