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108,435
Employers laid off 108,435 people last month, the highest January number since 2009, according to a new report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas. At the same time, hiring intentions haven’t been lower since then.
1.1 million
Companies said they laid off 153,074 employees last month, the most since 2003, according to a report the consulting firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas published yesterday. That’s nearly triple the number of jobs cut in September, and it puts the total for the year through October at almost 1.1 million jobs lost—44% more than in all of 2024. Most of October’s redundancies came from just two industries. Warehouses were the biggest job cutters last month with 48,000 layoffs, followed by 33,000 in tech. Amazon, UPS, Paramount, and Target were just some corporate names that announced layoffs last month.
22,000
The U.S. added 22,000 jobs in August, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, reports ABC News. That figure showed a sharp decrease from 79,000 jobs added in the previous month. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.3%, but it remained at a historically low level.
256,000
“Job growth was much stronger than expected in December, possibly providing the Federal Reserve less incentive to cut interest rates this year,” CNBC reports. “Nonfarm payrolls surged by 256,000 for the month, up from 212,000 in November and above the 155,000 forecast from the Dow Jones consensus.”
227,000
America’s job market rebounded in November, adding 227,000 workers in a solid recovery from the previous month, when the effects of strikes and hurricanes had sharply diminished employers’ payrolls, reported the Associated Press. Last month’s hiring growth was up considerably from a meager gain of 36,000 jobs in October. The government also revised up its estimate of job growth in September and October by a combined 56,000.
254,000
“The pace of hiring picked up strongly in September and the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.1%, signs the economy had continued momentum in a month the Federal Reserve delivered its first interest-rate cut in four years,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
339,000
CNBC: Nonfarm payrolls in May increased by 339,000, better than the 190,000 Dow Jones estimated.
The unemployment rate rose to 3.7% in May against the estimate for 3.5%. May’s jobless rate was the highest since October 2022. Professional and business services led job creation followed by government and health care.
9.59 million
US job openings dropped to 9.59 million in March, roughly 1.6 million fewer than in December, according to government data released yesterday. Analysts claim the figure—the lowest level in nearly two years—indicates the tight labor market is normalizing, which the Federal Reserve sees as a necessary step in reducing inflation (see explanation).
311,000
“U.S. hiring grew solidly but cooled some in February as employers added 311,000 jobs, while unemployment rose to 3.6%,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
$11.4 billion
According to a wages study done by law firm Bisnar Chase, the average Florida employee in the private sector worked about 2.5 hours of “unpaid overtime” per week during 2022. The national average for unpaid OT is 2.1 hours. When this figure is applied to the number of exempt workers in the Sunshine State (and based on the median wage), and then annualized, Florida workers are collectively owed about $11.4 billion in backpay, researchers said.
