Layoff announcements soar to the highest since 2020 as DOGE slashes federal staff
Source: CNBC
Published Thu, Mar 6 2025 7:30 AM EST | Updated 9 Min Ago
President Donald Trump’s efforts to pare down the federal government workforce left a mark in the labor market in February, with announced job cuts at their highest level in nearly five years, outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported Thursday.
The firm reported that U.S. employers announced 172,017 layoffs for the month, up 245% from January and the highest monthly count since July 2020 during the heightened uncertainty from the Covid pandemic. In addition, it marked the highest total for the month of February since 2009 during the global financial crisis. More than one-third of the total came from billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s efforts, with Trump’s blessing, to reduce the federal headcount.
Challenger put the total of announced federal job cuts at 62,242, spanning 17 agencies. “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,” Andrew Challenger, the firm’s workplace expert, said in the release.
January’s planned reductions brought the total through the first two months of the year to 221,812, also the highest for the period since 2009 and up 33% from the same time in 2024.
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/06/layoff-announcements-soar-to-the-highest-since-2020-as-doge-slashes-federal-staff-.html
The two analogous instances where similar happened BOTH resulted in the triggering of a recession (or the beginning of the peak of one).
(from here tracking one of the indices - https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/mi/research-analysis/monthly-pmi-bulletin-december-2024.html)
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