US job cuts in March highest since 2020

Layoffs announced by U.S. employers increased in March 2025 to the highest level since the pandemic recession.

This comes as the Donald Trump government purged federal workers and contractors to slash spending.

Global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas on Thursday, revealed that planned job cuts increased 60% to 275,240 last month.

It is the highest since May 2020, when the economy was reeling from the first wave of the Coronavirus pandemic. It was also the third highest monthly total on record.

About 497,052 layoffs were announced in the first three months of the year, the highest since the first quarter of 2009, when the economy was at the tail end of the Great Recession.

Challenger said it had over the past two months tracked 280,253 planned layoffs of federal workers and contractors impacting 27 agencies.

Another 4,429 job cuts were from the downstream effect of cutting federal aid or ending contracts, impacting mostly non-profits and health organizations.