U.S. employers announced 1,206,374 job cuts in 2025, a 58% increase from 2024, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The firm also counted 372,520 seasonal hiring plans for the 2025 fourth quarter, the lowest total since its tracking began in 2012. Those figures describe employer announcements and plans—not a count of people who ultimately lost jobs or were hired.
What the 2025 job-cut total means
Challenger, Gray & Christmas tracks announced job cuts by U.S.-based employers. Its year-end report counted 1,206,374 announced cuts in 2025, 58% more than in 2024. An announcement signals an employer’s stated plan; it does not establish that every planned reduction was completed or that the affected workers became unemployed.
The year-end figure followed a sharp October reading. Challenger reported 153,074 announced cuts that month—175% above October 2024 and 183% above September 2025. October pushed the year-to-date announcement tally past one million. The November 6 report described the October result and gave a then-current outlook; Challenger’s later year-end report supplied the full-year total.
Why the announcement count is not the same as actual layoffs
The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) measures a different thing: monthly layoffs and discharges, alongside hires and openings. For October 2025, JOLTS reported 1.9 million layoffs and discharges, 5.1 million hires, and 7.7 million job openings. These are monthly flow estimates, not announced plans. The JOLTS figure should not be added to Challenger’s October announcement count.
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The BLS noted that the September 2025 JOLTS release was canceled during a lapse in appropriations and described the collection of October data after the shutdown. The two measures therefore answer separate questions: Challenger tracks employer announcements, while JOLTS estimates separations that occurred during a reference month.
What happened to seasonal hiring plans
By October 2025, Challenger had counted 372,520 seasonal hiring plans. That was the lowest through-October total since the firm began tracking the measure in 2012. In its November 6 outlook, the firm said that rate cuts and a strong November could still prompt a late hiring push, but it did not expect a strong seasonal hiring environment in 2025.
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The subsequent year-end report recorded 372,520 announced seasonal plans for the fourth quarter, the lowest since the series began in 2012. Challenger found no new seasonal plans announced in November or December. The October forecast was a forecast at the time; the later report confirms the low plan tally, not the number of seasonal workers ultimately hired.
How many holiday jobs were companies adding?
At the time, the Associated Press reported Challenger’s forecast that Q4 2025 holiday hiring would likely be below 500,000 positions, compared with 543,000 the prior year; AP described the projected gain as the smallest since 2009. That was a forecast, not a final count of people hired. Challenger’s year-end total of 372,520 refers to announced plans, a distinct measure.
Individual company announcements show why a national total can conceal differences among employers. AP reported that Amazon planned to hire 250,000 workers for the 2025 shopping period, unchanged from the year before, while some other firms planned fewer seasonal hires. These examples provide context; they do not represent a survey of all employers.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Were seasonal jobs harder to find?
Reported job-seeker activity and employer listings did not move in step. Axios, citing Indeed figures through September 30, 2025, reported that seasonal-work searches were up 27% year over year while seasonal listings were up 2.7%. This is a signal from one job-search platform, not a measure of every employer or the entire labor market. Searches indicate interest; listings indicate posted opportunities; neither establishes how many positions were filled.
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What the numbers can—and cannot—tell a job seeker
- For layoff risk: Challenger’s total shows the scale of announced plans, not a personal forecast or a confirmed count of completed job losses.
- For seasonal work: The low announced-plan total suggests a weaker hiring outlook than in recent seasonal cycles, but plans are not final hires and availability varies by employer and location.
- For timing: A company’s stated plan, a live job listing, and a completed hire are different stages. Check current listings and employer updates rather than treating a national announcement total as a count of open positions.
- For comparisons: Keep announcement totals, monthly BLS layoffs and discharges, hiring plans, job listings, and search activity separate; each measures a different part of the labor market.
Sources and definitions
- Challenger, Gray & Christmas: October 2025 job cuts and seasonal hiring outlook
- Challenger, Gray & Christmas: 2025 year-end job-cut report
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: October 2025 JOLTS release
- Associated Press: 2025 holiday hiring outlook and employer examples
- Axios: Seasonal job searches and listings, citing Indeed data
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