The U.S is witnessing an unparalleled rate of job cuts, unlike anything seen before, and the scale continues to proliferate all over the map. Employers across the country have already disclosed the layoffs of over 1.1 million jobs through October, which has gone up 65% year over year. This number is so staggering that it has surpassed the annual totals seen during the pre-pandemic years.
The pattern is broadening and bruising: geographically, most of the losses are concentrated in areas where America has a foothold in building and shipping. Driven by sweeping federal workforce overhauls, Washington, D.C. has logged 303,778 layoffs; meanwhile, California has reached job losses up to 158,734, signaling the distress that even the country’s largest labor market is softening. In the tech sector, announced cuts have totaled 141,159, rising from 120,470 around this time last year, as giants like Intel pare back 5,000 U.S. roles and Salesforce cuts away another 4,000.
New York’s corporate base shows the same signs as firms have laid off 81,700 workers, a 20% rise from last year, with Verizon alone accounting for 13,000 cuts in November. The floor beneath the labor market is undergoing uneven shifts, and the result is clear for workers who are now at constant risk. Cuts are reaching deeper pockets, re-hiring has slowed down, and income stability feels more brittle than ever since the pandemic.
The numbers tell a story
July was the bearer of bad news, as companies announced a staggering 62,075 job cuts, a 29% rise from June last year. Behind this data, there’s a clear undertone of cultural shift wherein employers are positioning themselves for an AI-heavy workforce model.
Corporate layoffs in tech, admin and engineering have become a recurring occurrence because of AI adoption and cost-cutting as companies automate high-cost office ends and even out management layers. At the same time, sectors that saw an economic boom post-pandemic are now slowly withdrawing. About 80,487 jobs have been laid off from retail, with warehousing constituting another 38,943, underscoring how consumer-oriented sectors are cooling down fast. Even the public sector is under contraction, with 292,294 government jobs now eliminated.
The cumulative effect is a sweeping reset of the workforce as businesses dissolve headcounts, the pipeline for hiring grows thinner, and employees in tech, retail and corporate offices are at the first line of losing their jobs anytime. With 2026 coming into view, the labor market looks precarious without any rebound in demand, and the biggest challenge for the workforce is entering an economy that eliminates jobs faster than it creates them.