America's jobs since 2024 ... Trumps Economy
Total announced job cuts surged
from 761,358 in the first 11 months of 2024 to 1,170,821 through
November 2025, representing a 54% increase. This 2025 total is
significantly higher than the 664,839 cuts recorded in the first 10
months of 2024 and exceeds the full-year 2024 figure by 44%.
The surge was driven by major reductions
in the government sector (over 300,000 losses), technology, warehousing, retail,
and services. Key drivers included federal budget cuts, DOGE-related
federal actions, and corporate restructuring due to automation and AI adoption.
Key Sector and Regional Impacts
- Technology: Approximately 127,000 workers
were laid off from U.S.-based tech companies in 2025, with major cuts from
firms like Intel (24,000 layoffs).
- Regional
Disparities: The Eastern U.S. was
most affected, with Washington, D.C. seeing a 219% year-over-year
increase in job cuts (from 136,149 in 2024 to 434,385 in
2025). New York and the South also reported
significant rises of 43% and 34% respectively.
·
Blue-Collar
Industries: The U.S. lost 65,000 industrial
jobs over the last year, reversing the 250,000 job gains seen in
2024, with Construction, Industrial Goods, and Energy sectors
experiencing severe hiring declines.
2025
·
Total layoffs announced
by U.S. employers in 2025 reached approximately 1.17 million, marking the
highest volume since the onset of the COVID-19
pandemic in 2020.
This surge
was driven by significant job cuts in the technology,
government, warehousing, and retail sectors,
with artificial intelligence adoption and restructuring cited as primary
factors.
·
While gross job losses were high, net job growth for the
year was revised downward to just 181,000
jobs, making 2025 the
weakest year for employment growth since 2020.
Specific
sectors saw substantial declines, with manufacturing losing
roughly 100,000 jobs and federal employment dropping by 336,000 since
January 2025.
Revised Data Paints a Grim Picture of 2025 Jobs Market
Today’s delayed report shows the United States added even fewer jobs in 2025 than previously reported. Total job creation in 2025 was revised down from 584,000 to 181,000, or just 15,000 jobs per month. This downward revision is a worrying sign for the economy, despite the modest bump in employment last month. The unemployment rate remains elevated at 4.3%, near its highest level in four years. President Trump promised a jobs boom, but today’s data shows the economy is shedding jobs outside a small number of sectors, and more Americans are struggling to find stable work. Rising underemployment, long-term unemployment, and slow wage growth all point to a labor market buckling under the weight of Trump’s economic mismanagement.
· https://groundworkcollaborative.org/news/revised-data-paints-a-grim-picture-of-2025-jobs-market/January 2026: Historic Layoffs
The year began with the worst start to a year for job cuts since the Great
Recession in 2009. According to data from Challenger, Gray
& Christmas, employers announced 108,435 layoffs in January,
a 118% increase from the previous year. Major corporations
like Amazon and UPS led this wave, driven by restructuring
and a shift toward automation. However, the official Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS) report for January showed a net gain of 130,000
nonfarm payroll jobs, with the unemployment rate holding steady at 4.3%.
February 2026: Unexpected Decline
In contrast, the economy unexpectedly lost 92,000 jobs in
February. This contraction was widespread across sectors, including
manufacturing, construction, and the federal government, which shed workers due
to efficiency initiatives. The unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 4.4%,
marking the sixth contraction of the job market under the current
administration.
Cumulative Context and Revisions
The narrative of job losses is complicated by major benchmark revisions to
the 2025 data. The Federal Reserve and BLS revealed that
total job growth in 2025 was slashed from 584,000 to just 181,000,
indicating that the labor market was significantly weaker than initially
reported. Consequently, while January saw high announced layoffs,
the net employment figures for the start of 2026 reflect a
mixed picture of structural shifts rather than a simple linear decline.
In 2026, the number of unemployed Americans has fluctuated between approximately 6.9 million and 7.6 million, with the official unemployment rate holding steady around 4.1% to 4.3%.
As of August 2026, the number of unemployed persons was 7.03 million, while earlier in the year, February saw 7.6 million unemployed individuals.
By July 2026, the count had dipped to 6.92 million, reflecting a labor market where job openings (7.3 million in July) roughly matched the number of job seekers, though significant long-term unemployment persisted with 1.9 million people jobless for 27 weeks or more.
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