This post was originally published on this site.
Job cuts in the government, retail and technology sectors led to February having the highest monthly total of job cuts since July 2020, Challenger, Gray & Christmas said Thursday (March 6).
The global outplacement and executive and business coaching firm attributed the biggest share of these cuts to “DOGE actions,” referring to the Department of Government Efficiency, and “retail woes,” according to a Thursday (March 6) press release.
Employers announced 172,017 job cuts in February, up from 49,795 in January and the highest number since the 262,649 seen in July 2020, the release said.
“Private companies announced plans to shed thousands of jobs last month, particularly in retail and technology,” Andrew Challenger, senior vice president and workplace expert for Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in the release. “With the impact of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) actions, as well as canceled government contracts, fear of trade wars and bankruptcies, job cuts soared in February.”
The Department of Labor said Feb. 27 that the number of Americans filing initial claims for unemployment insurance during the week ended Feb. 22 increased by 22,000 and that the four-week moving average rose by 8,500.
The greatest number of job cuts was in the government sector, which announced 62,242 cuts in February, the Thursday press release said. This was followed by retail, with 38,956 job cuts; technology, with 14,554; and consumer products, with 10,625.
Year to date, the number of job cuts announced in the government sector is 41,311% higher than the total announced during the same period in 2024, and the number in the retail sector is 572% higher, per the release.
While the technology sector saw the third-highest number of job cuts in the first two months of 2025, its total was 22% lower than the number announced during the same period a year earlier, the release said.
The top reason for job cuts so far in 2025 is what Challenger, Gray & Christmas dubbed in the release the “DOGE Impact,” which includes 63,583 layoffs affecting federal workers and contractors and another 894 job cuts attributed to downstream effects of DOGE, such as loss of funding to private nonprofits.
Other leading reasons for companies cutting jobs were market/economic conditions (36,257), bankruptcy (35,411), and store, unit or plant closing (28,095), per the release.
At the same time, some sectors are hiring. The number of workers companies said they planned to hire in the first two months of 2025 totaled 40,669, up from the 15,693 announced during the same period in 2024 and the highest number for February since the 215,127 announced in 2022, according to the release.
The sectors with the biggest hiring plans announced in January and February are entertainment/leisure (28,000), automotive (4,831) and technology (3,225), the release said.
ADP, a provider of human resources (HR) and payroll solutions, said Wednesday (March 5) that private sector job growth slowed in February amid employers’ concerns about an uncertain economic outlook. The number of jobs added in the private sector in February was the lowest since July.