Job Cuts Explode – Up 65 Percent Compared To Last Year – The Employment Market Has Become A Twisted Game Of Musical Chairs

It is starting to look a lot like the Great Recession again.  I thought that the pace of layoffs in 2024 was bad, but it has just exploded here in 2025.  Vast numbers of good paying jobs are being ruthlessly eliminated, and competition for any decent jobs that are still available has become extremely fierce.  In some cases, workers that have many years of experience are applying for hundreds of jobs but are not even able to get a single interview.  I have said this before, and I will say it again.  If you currently have a job that you highly value, hold on to it as tightly as you can.  You don’t want to be left without a chair when the music stops playing.

On Thursday, we got the latest employment numbers from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, and they are extremely sobering…

U.S.-based employers announced 153,074 job cuts in October, up 175% from the 55,597 cuts announced in October 2024. It is up 183% from the 54,064 job cuts announced one month prior, according to a report released Thursday from global outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

“October’s pace of job cutting was much higher than average for the month. Some industries are correcting after the hiring boom of the pandemic, but this comes as AI adoption, softening consumer and corporate spending, and rising costs drive belt-tightening and hiring freezes. Those laid off now are finding it harder to quickly secure new roles, which could further loosen the labor market,” said Andy Challenger, workplace expert and chief revenue officer for Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

I specifically warned that the pace of job cuts was accelerating.

But these numbers are so bad that they even surprised me.

183 percent higher than last month and 175 percent higher than last October?

Are you kidding me?

The number of job cuts in the U.S. hasn’t been this high during the month of October since 2003.

That was 22 years ago.

Just think about that.

Overall, during the first 10 months of 2025 the number of job cuts was 65 percent higher than during the first 10 months of 2024…

Through October, employers have announced 1,099,500 job cuts, an increase of 65% from the 664,839 announced in the first ten months of last year. It is up 44% from the 761,358 cuts announced in all of 2024.

When the number of job cuts increases by 65 percent in just one year, you have got a major crisis on your hands.

And this is just the beginning.

We were warned that AI would be taking a lot of our jobs, and that is precisely what is starting to happen…

Challenger reports the highest level of layoffs coming from the technology sector amid a time of restructuring due to AI integration. Companies in the sector announced 33,281 cuts, nearly six times the level in September.

How many times have I written about this over the past few years?

A lot of people thought that this would be a threat that we would be facing “someday”, but the truth is that it is a threat that we are facing now.

Eventually, AI and robots will be able to do almost everything less expensively and more efficiently than humans can.

What will we be needed for then?

With each passing day, we get more bad news.

For example, we just learned that Outback Steakhouse “abruptly closed 21 restaurants in October”…

Outback Steakhouse abruptly closed 21 restaurants in October as it begins a “comprehensive turnaround strategy” to keep up with its trendier competitors.

Bloomin’ Brands, Outback’s parent company, disclosed in its earnings report Thursday that in addition to those closures, an additional 22 locations will not have their leases renewed and will shutter over the next four years.

More restaurants are being closed every single day.

More stores are being closed every single day.

And more mass layoffs are occurring every single day.

It is time to wake up.

Meanwhile, household debt in the United States just set another brand new record high as families wrestle with our seemingly endless cost of living crisis…

Total household debt climbed to a record $18.6 trillion last quarter, and while most borrowers remain on track with payments, young Americans are feeling the pressure.

During the third quarter, 3 percent of outstanding balances became seriously delinquent — 90 days or more past due — the largest quarterly increase since 2014, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Among those ages 18 to 29, the rate was about 5 percent — more than double a year earlier and the highest of any age group.

Much of that strain reflects missed student loan payments, with total outstanding debt climbing to a record $1.65 trillion last quarter.

Delinquency rates are really starting to spike just like we witnessed in 2008 and 2009.

As I mentioned yesterday, the credit card delinquency rate just hit the highest level that we have seen since 2011.

For a long time, people have been piling up enormous amounts of debt in a desperate attempt to maintain their former lifestyles, but now vast numbers of U.S. consumers are simply tapped out.

The top 20 percent of the population still has plenty of money to spend, but most of the rest of us are deeply struggling…

While the top fifth of earners now account for almost two thirds of spending — a record — the bottom 80%, which made up nearly 42% of spending before the pandemic, now accounts for just 37% of it, according to Moody’s Analytics. Low- and middle-income shoppers are spending less on all sorts of merchandise like apparel and toys, especially since tariffs were announced earlier this year, data from research firm Circana show.

Student loan payments have resumed and the ranks of subprime borrowers are on the rise, according to credit reporting firm TransUnion. Concerns about inflation — particularly for necessities like rent and groceries — persist, alongside slower pay gains, tepid hiring and more layoffs. And the shutdown has made matters worse for millions, with disruptions to food aid benefits and child care as well as spiking health insurance premiums.

Hopefully this government shutdown will be resolved soon.

But right now there is no end in sight.

One official that works for the the Rhode Island Department of Human Services is claiming that one impoverished woman is concerned that if food stamp benefits are completely cut off “she’d have to go back to eating cat food”…

Since then, family recipients have clogged phone lines and seniors and disabled recipients have lined up outside the Rhode Island Department of Human Services building where Stacy Smith, president of AFSCME local 2882 works in hopes of getting more information about where they can go for food or help.

Smith spoke to USA TODAY in her role as a union representative.

“We had a client that came in and was afraid she’d have to go back to eating cat food,” Smith said. “It’s so frustrating and disheartening. We’re talking about humans, these are people, these aren’t statistics, these aren’t numbers on a paper, these are human lives. Children, elderly, veterans, working moms, working dads. That is who we serve.”

I have heard from so many people out there that are facing nightmare scenarios because of the shutdown.

If you have never been in a situation where you don’t know where your next meal is going to come from, it may be difficult to identify with what these people are going through right now.

The level of emotional stress in this country is moving into uncharted territory, and this is particularly true for our young people…

• 63% of young adults (ages 18-34) and 53% of parents have considered leaving the U.S. due to the state of the nation
• Half of all adults report signs of loneliness, while 69% say they needed more emotional support this year than they received
• AI anxiety nearly doubled among students (78%, up from 45%) and surged across all age groups in just one year
• 75% of Americans are more stressed about the country’s future than before, with political division tied to isolation, physical symptoms, and daily struggles

If people are this stressed out now, what is going to happen when things really start hitting the fan?

A lot of these stressed out people are simply not going to make it.

It is time to toughen up, because it is going to take an extraordinary amount of toughness to make it through what is ahead.

The system is beginning to fail all around us, and a lot more economic pain is on the horizon.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

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