Challenger July 2022 Job Cuts Report
Published August 4, 2022
July Job Cuts Fall 21% From June, Up 36% from July 2021; Hiring Announcements Lowest Since November 2021
U.S.-based employers announced 25,810 cuts in July, a 20.6% decrease from the 32,517 cuts announced in June. It is 36.3% higher than the 18,942 cuts announced in the same month last year, according to a report released Thursday from global outplacement and business and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.
July marks the second-highest monthly total this year. It is the third time this year that cuts were higher in 2022 than in the corresponding month a year earlier.
So far this year, employers announced plans to cut 159,021 jobs, down 31.3% from the 231,603 cuts announced through July in 2021. It is the lowest recorded January-July total since Challenger began tracking monthly job cut announcements in 1993*.
The Automotive sector leads all industries this year with 25,088, 9,510 of which occurred in July. Last month, the Technology sector had the second-highest number of cuts with 3,558 for a total of 9,338 this year. Financial firms announced the third-most cuts last month with 2,165 for a total of 12,965.
Health Care/Products, which includes hospitals, providers, and health care products manufacturers, has announced 20,341 cuts this year, 951 of which occurred in July.
“The job market remains tight, and large-scale layoffs have not begun. There are some indicators that hiring is slowing after months of growth, however,” said Andrew Challenger, Senior Vice President of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.
Hiring plans fell to 25,506 in July, the lowest level since November, when 6,527 hiring plans were announced, according to Challenger tracking. The latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey found job openings fell by 605,000 in June, primarily led by Retail and Wholesale.
Another indicator that cuts are rising: The 133,211 cuts announced in the first half of 2022 are up 21.9% from the 109,309 cuts announced in the last half of 2021, according to Challenger.
Source: Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.
“Job cut levels are nowhere near where they were in the 2001 and 2008 recessions right now, though they may be ticking up. If we’re in a recession, we have yet to feel it in the labor market,” said Challenger.
According to Challenger, in 2001, employers cut 1,956,876 jobs after cutting 613,960 in 2000. In 2008, employers announced plans to cut 1,223,993 and 1,288,030 the following year. In 2020, when the nation experienced its shortest recession, employers cut 2,304,755, the most on record.
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Contact Colleen Madden Blumenfeld for more data or to set up an interview with SVP Andy Challenger.
