March Sees Uptick in US Layoff Announcements
In a recent report released by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the United States witnessed a 7 per cent increase in layoff announcements during March, marking the highest level of such announcements since January 2023. Despite this uptick, the overall job market remains resilient, with year-to-date cuts down by 5 per cent compared to the previous year.
The surge in March brought the total number of job cut announcements to 90,309, up from 84,638 in February. This represents a marginal year-over-year increase of 0.7 per cent from the 89,703 cuts recorded in March 2023. The technology sector, which has been leading in job cuts throughout the first quarter of the year, reported 14,224 layoffs in March alone, accumulating to 42,442 since the beginning of the year.
However, it was the US government sector that topped the charts for job eliminations last month, with a staggering 36,044 layoffs announced—the most significant number since September 2011. These cuts were predominantly within Veterans Affairs and the United States Army.
Despite these figures, the cumulative layoffs for the first three months of 2023 stand at 257,254, a decrease from the 270,416 layoffs announced in the same period last year. This data aligns with other positive indicators in the job market, including ADP’s report of an unexpected creation of 184,000 private-sector jobs in March and the anticipation of an additional 200,000 payroll jobs overall to be reported by the government.
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The current landscape suggests that while there are pockets of reductions, particularly in technology and government sectors, the overall job market is demonstrating a degree of strength and adaptability amid economic pressures such as high interest rates.
