Job cuts. They’re happening in America. Lots of them by appearances.

The monthly Challenger, Gray & Christmas report isn’t a top-tier macro release, but like all private sector labor market indicators, it’s taken on a higher profile with US government data suspended.

Thursday’s update showed a very sharp increase in announced cuts for October, which nearly tripled from September to 153,074, the most since the DOGE shock and a 175% increase from the same month a year ago.

If you’re keeping score at home, 153,074 was the most for any October in 22 years and, as the color accompanying the numbers remarked, was “the highest total for a single month in the fourth quarter since 2008.”

Andy Challenger blamed, in part anyway, AI for the layoffs. “A disruptive technology is changing the landscape,” he said, drawing a parallel with the environment that prevailed two decades ago. Recall that Amazon announced 14,000 cuts late last month as corporate roles were automated.

AI was “credited” for more than 31,000 cuts in October, behind only cost-cutting on the list of most-cited layoff rationales. For the year as a whole, AI’s responsible for almost 50,000 cuts.

“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,” Challenger went on, adding that “those laid off now are finding it harder to quickly secure new roles.”

That’s the sort of assessment which makes the case for more Fed cuts, although I’d be remiss not to note that the balance of the data — or the balance of what little data we have — argues against the sort of cavalier easing Donald Trump and his man on the inside, Stephen Miran, insist is necessary.

Hiring plans were 488,077 as of October. That’s the fewest through the month in 14 years.

The figure above also shows seasonal hiring plans. At 372,520, 2025’s total is the fewest in the 13-year history of Challenger’s seasonal data.

As far as the outlook, Challenger didn’t sound especially hopeful. “It’s possible with rate cuts and a strong showing in November, companies may make a late-season push for employees,” he said. “But at this point, we don’t expect a strong seasonal hiring environment in 2025.”

Cue Trump: “We’re going to start saying ‘Merry Christmas’ again.”