The Challenger, Gray & Christmas April jobs report is out and 105,441 cuts happened in the U.S. That’s up 63% from the 64,789 cuts announced in April 2024. However, it’s a 62% decrease from the 275,240 cuts that were announced last month.
The job cuts in the April Challenger report are the second-highest the global outplacement and executive coaching firm has ever recorded for that month. This puts it behind April 2020, when 671,129 jobs were cut as the COVID-19 pandemic spread.
How Much Did DOGE Contribute to April Job Cuts?
While Elon Musk’s DOGE has been front and center in the media for its job cuts, the federal government only laid off 2,782 employees last month. Of those, 2,731 were due to DOGE, while the others were attributed to Economic Conditions and Cost-Cutting.
Instead, it was the technology sector that was behind the biggest job cuts in April 2025. That saw 27,021 cuts made, up 79% from the 15,055 cuts in March. Retail, healthcare, non-profit, and media sectors also strongly contributed to April job cuts. However, the federal government leads 2025 job cuts at 282,227, largely thanks to DOGE’s efforts.
Andrew Challenger, Senior Vice President and workplace expert for Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said, “Employers are slow to hire and limiting hiring plans as they wait and see what will happen with trade, supply chain, and consumer spending.”
Is More Jobs Data Coming?
Those tracking the jobs market will want to keep an eye out tomorrow, as that’s when the nonfarm payrolls report for April will be released. This will come out at 8:30 a.m. ET and experts expect 133,000 jobs were added during the month.
All of this information is easy to track with the help of the TipRanks Economic Calendar and Economic Indicators Dashboard.
