Job losses nationwide are the highest in five years, driven primarily by layoffs in California and layoffs in Washington.
California employers announced they were cutting 173,022 jobs from January through November, up nearly 14% from the same period last year, according to the latest monthly report from employment firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
Nationwide, the total number of job cuts rose 54% to 1.17 million, Challenger, Gray & Christmas said in a report released Thursday.
This is the highest level since 2020, when COVID caused mass layoffs. The last time national job losses were this high without a pandemic was 2009.
California is experiencing a restructuring storm in its two largest business centers: Hollywood and Silicon Valley.
The layoffs are being driven by economic uncertainty, as well as a shrinking entertainment industry and radical rethinking of technology driven by the advent of artificial intelligence.
Thousands of workers from Intel, Salesforce, Meta, Paramount, Walt Disney Co. and other companies lost their jobs. Even Apple announced a rare round of cuts.
Workers are on edge as no sector of the California economy appears to be immune from cost cuts.
The Trump administration's initiative to cut government spending—through the so-called Department of Government Effectiveness, also known as DOGE—has been the largest driver of government job losses. At the same time, economic problems and technological changes have put pressure on the private sector.
California's tech industry announced it would cut 75,262 jobs, the most of any industry in the Golden State this year.
As the battle for dominance in AI heats up, companies are shedding workers, investing in other areas or trying to move faster with fewer middle managers.
Across the country, tech companies said they were cutting 153,536 jobs this year through November.
No other industry came close, although more than 40,000 job cuts were announced in the auto, consumer staples, financial services and healthcare sectors, according to the report.
The main reason companies cut jobs was restructuring. Store closures, economic and market conditions and artificial intelligence were also mentioned.
Technology companies are releasing more artificial intelligence-powered products that can generate text, images, code and other content, raising fears among workers across industries that their jobs could be automated.
According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, artificial intelligence has caused 71,683 job cuts since 2023.
At the same time, some technology companies are announcing plans to hire workers even amid layoffs. Tech employers also announced 258,084 planned hirings from January to November, up from 14,707.
There were signs that layoffs were slowing, with totals for November alone lower than a year ago.
This may mean that companies have completed downsizing. It could also mean that some firms take a break from cutting jobs over the holidays, when laying off people is harmful to the company's brand.
“Layoff plans slowed last month, which is certainly a positive sign,” Andy Challenger, workplace expert and chief revenue officer at Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in a press release.
“There has been a tendency to announce layoff plans towards the end of the year to coincide with the end of most companies' financial year,” he said. “This became unpopular, especially after the Great Recession, and best practice dictated that layoff plans would be implemented at times other than holidays.”
