June sees 49 per cent decline in job cuts: Report

Job cuts in the US witnessed a significant reduction in June with just 40,709 layoffs announced in the month. This is a 49 per cent reduction from the previous month when there were 80,089 job cuts.

According to a report by US-based global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc, despite the reduction, the layoffs in June are still 25 per cent higher than the 32,517 announced in the corresponding month last year.

So far this year, as many as 4,58,209 have been announced. This is an increase of 244 per cent from 1,33,211 layoffs announced through June 2022.

“The drop in cuts is not unusual for the summer months. In fact, June is historically the slowest month on average for announcements. It is also possible that the deep job losses predicted due to inflation and interest rates will not come to pass, particularly as the Fed holds rates,” senior vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc Andrew Challenger has been quoted as saying.

With 141,516 job cuts announced this year, the technology sector continues to lead in the number of layoffs. This is an increase of 2,353 per cent from 5,769 layoffs announced in the same period in 2022.

Second-most layoffs were announced in the retail sector—48,212 cuts, an increase of 718 per cent—followed by financial firms.