The short answer
US employers announced 43,994 job cuts in October 2026, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a firm that has counted layoff announcements for decades. That's about the same as September (43,281) and 71% fewer than in October 2025, when employers announced 153,074 cuts. It's the fewest for any October since 2023.
For the year so far, employers have announced 617,189 cuts, down 44% from the first ten months of 2025. At the same time, companies announced plans to hire 444,692 people in October, the most for any October since at least 2009. Most of that came from two holiday hiring announcements, though, so it doesn't mean every kind of job is easier to find.
Here's what the report says, which industries and reasons led the cuts, what our own data from company career pages shows, and what it means if you're looking for work.
What is the Challenger job cuts report?
Challenger, Gray & Christmas is an outplacement firm, which means companies hire it to help laid-off workers find new jobs. Every month it adds up the job cuts that US employers announce in news releases, company filings and state layoff notices. It sorts them by industry, state and the reason the company gave.
The report comes out early each month, usually on a Thursday, so the October report was released on November 5. The next one, covering November, is due on December 3, 2026.
Two things are worth knowing before you read the numbers:
- It counts announcements, not people who actually lost a job that month. A company might announce 1,000 cuts in October and carry them out over the next year.
- It's different from the government's numbers. The government's job openings report counts every layoff in the country, about 1.6 million in September alone, including small businesses that never make an announcement. Challenger's count is much smaller because it only tracks cuts that are announced in public, but it comes out sooner and says why the cuts happened.
The October 2026 numbers
| Measure | October 2025 | September 2026 | October 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Announced job cuts | 153,074 | 43,281 | 43,994 |
| Hiring plans | 283,138 | 90,787 | 444,692 |
Source: Challenger, Gray & Christmas, October 2026 Job Cuts Report, released November 5, 2026.
| Measure | 2025 | 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Announced job cuts | 1,099,500 | 617,189 | Down 44% |
| Hiring plans | 488,077 | 655,304 | Up 34% |
| Seasonal hiring plans | 372,520 | 470,400 | Up 26% |
Source: Challenger, Gray & Christmas, October 2026 Job Cuts Report, released November 5, 2026.
October was the eighth month this year with fewer announced cuts than the same month a year earlier. The October total was also below the average for October from 2015 to 2025, which was 56,348. Andy Challenger of the firm summed it up as "a low-fire environment," meaning employers aren't letting many people go.
That's only half the picture, because a job seeker needs employers to hire, not just to stop cutting. The latest government data shows hiring is still slow, with 5.4 million hires in September, only a little more than the 5.2 million a year earlier.
What it means for you: fewer announced layoffs means fewer people are being pushed into the job market at once, so there's a bit less competition for each opening than a year ago. It doesn't mean hiring has picked up across the board.
Which industries cut the most jobs?
In October, food companies announced the most cuts, their highest monthly total this year. Technology, which leads for the year as a whole, had its smallest month of 2026.
| Industry | Cuts in October | Cuts so far in 2026 | Change from Jan to Oct 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Food | 9,677 | 39,370 | Up 43% |
| Technology | 5,576 | 171,501 | Up 21% |
| Services | 5,458 | 35,542 | Down 44% |
| FinTech | 4,173 | 11,979 | Up 543% |
| Retail | 3,692 | 18,126 | Down 80% |
| Consumer products | 3,672 | 34,324 | Down 16% |
Source: Challenger, Gray & Christmas, October 2026 Job Cuts Report, released November 5, 2026.
A few more details from the report:
- Technology still leads the year. Its 171,501 announced cuts so far are already more than it had in all of 2025 (154,445), and they make up 28% of all cuts this year.
- Transportation cuts are way up. The industry has announced 44,838 cuts so far, up 188% from last year.
- Government cuts have almost disappeared. Government cuts are down 93% from last year, when federal job cuts made the total large.
- Most industries are cutting less. Of the 30 industries Challenger tracks, 22 have fewer cuts than at this point last year.
- Microsoft's buyout offer isn't in the count. Microsoft offered voluntary exit packages to 60,000 employees in October, and Challenger says those aren't part of the October total.
If you want the details on a specific company, our layoffs page lists confirmed layoff announcements with the number of people, the date and a link to the source.
Why are companies cutting jobs?
Each announcement comes with a reason, and Challenger sorts them into groups. In October, a weak economy or market was the reason given most often, for the second month in a row.
| Reason | October 2026 | January to October 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Market or economic conditions | 16,407 | 130,531 |
| Closing a store, plant or office | 10,250 | 109,342 |
| Fewer customers or orders | 6,118 | 21,347 |
| Restructuring | 5,499 | 85,391 |
| Artificial intelligence | 1,265 | 121,401 |
Source: Challenger, Gray & Christmas, October 2026 Job Cuts Report, released November 5, 2026.
AI was named in 1,265 cuts in October, its lowest month this year. For the year it's still the second most common reason, linked to about 20% of all announced cuts. "Market or economic conditions" passed it in October to become the top reason for 2026.
What it means for you: in October, employers talked more about the economy and slower sales than about AI. If you work in an industry where companies are pointing to slower sales, it's worth keeping your resume up to date even if your own company hasn't announced anything.
Where were the most job cuts?
California had the most announced cuts in October with 10,032, followed by Washington with 7,233, New York with 4,671, Ohio with 4,592 and Michigan with 2,937. New York and Ohio both jumped from much lower numbers a year earlier.
For the year, California leads with 124,850 cuts, which is 20% of the national total, though that's down 21% from last year. Michigan is up 89% to 36,564, and Tennessee is up 68% to 19,446. Cuts are higher than last year in 24 states and lower in the other 26 and Washington, DC.
Why are hiring plans so high?
Hiring plans hit 444,692 in October, but two announcements made up most of that. Amazon said it would hire 300,000 people for the holidays, the largest single seasonal hiring announcement Challenger has tracked, and UPS said it would hire 100,000.
Without those two, October's hiring plans would have been about 44,700. So the big number tells you holiday warehouse and delivery work is easy to find right now. It says much less about office, engineering or sales jobs. Our guide to seasonal jobs covers who is hiring for the holidays and what they pay.
What company career pages show
Challenger counts announcements, but it doesn't show what companies are posting. For that, we look at the open jobs on company career pages, which Hiring Tempo checks every day.
On November 5, the 764 companies we track had 75,744 open jobs on their own career pages. To compare fairly over time, we look only at the 447 companies we've tracked since early October:
| Date | Open jobs |
|---|---|
| October 5, 2026 | 34,855 |
| November 5, 2026 | 34,256 |
| Change | Down 1.7% |
Source: Hiring Tempo, open jobs on company career pages, checked daily. Leaves out three companies whose lists are capped at a set number of jobs.
That's close to flat. Of those 447 companies, 193 had more open jobs than a month earlier and 196 had fewer, and 10,122 of their jobs were posted in the last 30 days. So companies are still filling and replacing roles, but most aren't growing their hiring quickly. That fits the slow-hiring, low-layoff picture in the Challenger and government reports.
Some companies did grow steadily through October, rising most days instead of jumping once:
| Company | October 5 | November 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Shield AI | 597 | 659 |
| Cloudflare | 399 | 455 |
| Airbnb | 149 | 205 |
| Samsara | 244 | 297 |
| Anthropic | 638 | 681 |
Source: Hiring Tempo, open jobs on company career pages, checked daily.
Engineering is the biggest team on the board with 24,592 open jobs, and sales is next with 9,454. For a longer list of who is adding jobs, see Companies Hiring Right Now: November 2026.
What this means for your job search
- Fewer layoffs means a little less competition. With fewer announced cuts than a year ago, fewer people are entering the job market at the same time as you.
- Hiring is still slow outside the holidays. Most of October's hiring plans were holiday warehouse and delivery jobs. If you're looking for an office job, expect it to take a while and apply to more places than you'd like.
- Look at your own industry. The national total is low, but food, FinTech and transportation all have more cuts than last year, so the picture depends on where you work.
- Apply to new posts early. When companies are hiring slowly, each opening gets a lot of applicants in the first few days, so being early helps.
- Check the next reports. The government's jobs report for October comes out on Friday, November 6, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern, and the next Challenger report is due December 3.
Sources
- Challenger, Gray & Christmas, October Layoffs at Three-Year Low; Seasonal Hiring Plans Up 26%, November 5, 2026.
- Challenger, Gray & Christmas, 2026 Challenger Job Cut Report Release Calendar.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Job Openings and Labor Turnover, September 2026, released November 3, 2026.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Release calendar, November 2026.
- Hiring Tempo, open jobs on the career pages of 764 companies, checked daily. Counts are from November 5, 2026. Month-over-month figures use the 447 companies tracked since October 5, leaving out three companies whose lists are capped.