Just lately fired U.S. Company for Worldwide Improvement (USAID) workers carry bins with a message as they go away work and are applauded by former USAID staffers and supporters throughout a sendoff outdoors USAID workplaces in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 21, 2025.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
President Donald Trump’s efforts to pare down the federal authorities workforce left a mark on the labor market in February, with introduced job cuts at their highest stage in practically 5 years, outplacement agency Challenger, Grey & Christmas reported Thursday.
The agency reported that U.S. employers introduced 172,017 layoffs for the month, up 245% from January and the very best month-to-month depend since July 2020 throughout the heightened uncertainty from the Covid pandemic. As well as, it marked the very best whole for the month of February since 2009 throughout the international monetary disaster.
A couple of-third of the entire got here from billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s efforts, with Trump’s blessing, to scale back the federal headcount. Challenger put the entire of introduced federal job cuts at 62,242, spanning 17 businesses.
“With the influence of the Division of Authorities Effectivity [DOGE] actions, in addition to canceled Authorities contracts, worry of commerce wars, and bankruptcies, job cuts soared in February,” Andrew Challenger, the agency’s office skilled, mentioned within the launch.
January’s deliberate reductions introduced the entire by the primary two months of the yr to 221,812, additionally the very best for the interval since 2009 and up 33% from the identical time in 2024.
The report comes amid heightened concern in regards to the state of the labor market and the economic system typically as Trump’s plans for tariffs, slashing the scale of presidency and mass deportations and stringent immigration restrictions take form.
There was a slew of combined indicators about the place issues are heading, with client surveys displaying concern over inflation and layoffs whereas different knowledge reveals financial power persevering with. Payrolls processing agency ADP reported Friday that personal sector hiring grew by simply 77,000 in February.
In response to the Challenger report, it isn’t simply authorities slicing again.
Retail noticed 38,956 cuts for the month as corporations equivalent to Macy’s and Perpetually 21 introduced sharp workers reductions. The sector’s cuts in 2025 are up practically six-fold from the place they have been in 2024. Know-how corporations additionally listed one other 14,554 in reductions, although the sector’s cuts are literally decrease from a yr in the past.
On the upside, corporations introduced plans in February to rent a complete of 34,580 new employees, placing the yr thus far whole up 159% from a yr in the past.
Preliminary unemployment claims have perked up in current weeks, notably in Washington, D.C., with its massive share of presidency employees.
