Job Cuts Soared 60% In March To Highest Since Spring 2020—Almost All Because Of DOGE

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Topline

More than 275,000 jobs were eliminated last month, according to a report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas—a 60% increase from last month’s layoffs—and the cuts were spearheaded by the Department of Government Efficiency.

Key Facts

In its report, career services firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said an estimated 216,670 cuts—or 79%—were made as a result of DOGE actions, with senior vice president Andrew Challenger saying, “it would have otherwise been a fairly quiet month for layoffs.”

In the last two months, the report said DOGE actions have led to 280,253 planned layoffs across 27 agencies, and another 4,429 jobs have been cut largely from nonprofits and health organizations because of “the downstream effect of cutting federal aid or ending contracts.”

Challenger estimates 497,052 job cuts were announced in the first three months of the year—the highest quarterly total since Q1 in 2009, during the Great Recession.

Outside of the government and DOGE, technology companies led job cuts in March with 15,055 announced, followed by 11,709 cuts announced in retail.

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What Is The Record For The Most Layoffs In One Month?

March had the third-most monthly job cuts recorded since Challenger began tracking in 1989. April 2020, shortly after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, saw 671,129 jobs cut—the most on record—and May 2020 saw the second most when 397,016 jobs were cut. This March is the highest total on record for the month of March.

Big Number

205%. That’s how much job cuts were up this March compared to last March. There were 90,309 layoffs announced in the same month in 2024, and that was the highest monthly total recorded last year, according to the report.

Tangent

Hiring plans fell from 24,580 in February to 13,198 in March, according to the Challenger report, and first quarter new hires were down 16% from new hires announced in Q1 last year—marking the lowest Q1 hiring total since 2012.

Key Background

Last year saw the most layoffs in the last 15 years, except for 2020. About one-fifth of last year’s layoffs came from the technology sector, followed by the health care and automotive industries. In Challenger’s end-of-year report, it warned most employers were “anticipating additional uncertainty with the upcoming administration” and said that was leading to “slower hiring and more layoffs in the short term” in some sectors.

What To Watch For

How tariffs impact job cuts. Andrew Challenger said in Thursday’s report “several sectors will be impacted by tariffs going forward, including consumer, auto and retail,” all of which are “already cutting more workers than last year.”