Job Cuts Hit 2022 Low as Laid-Off Workers Wait Longer for Work

Fewer pink slips, fewer job offers

American employers are cutting fewer workers than they have in years. Hiring is also slowing, and that matters more for anyone already out of work.

Outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas counted 43,281 announced U.S. job cuts in September 2026, according to its report released Oct. 1. That was 18% fewer than in August and the lowest September total since 2022 13. Compared with the 54,064 cuts announced in September 2025, the decline was about 20% 3, a year-over-year figure also cited by Axios 2. Through the first nine months of the year, employers announced 573,195 cuts, 39% fewer than the 946,426 announced over the same stretch of 2025 13. Third-quarter layoff plans totaled 129,591, down 43% from the second quarter 3.

Hiring intentions moved the same way. Employers announced plans to hire 90,787 workers in September, 23% fewer than a year earlier and the weakest September reading since 2011 1. Seasonal hiring has also been unusually thin 13.

Claims data shows the same split

Weekly unemployment filings point to the same pattern. Initial jobless claims for the week ending Oct. 3 fell to 197,000, below the 200,000 forecast. It was the fourth straight week under that threshold 4. Axios reported that the Labor Department has marked historically low layoffs as a milestone. It noted that claims surged alongside layoffs in past downturns, including the recessions after the financial crisis and the pandemic, and that no such surge has appeared this time 2.

Continuing claims tell a different story. They count people who keep collecting benefits after their first week. For the week ending Sept. 26, they rose by 17,000 to 1.716 million, above the 1.710 million estimate 4. The likely explanation is that employers are holding on to staff, but workers who do lose jobs are taking longer to find new ones 4. Bond traders paid attention to this. One market analysis argued that rising continuing claims kept yields from climbing on the falling headline number and made the Federal Reserve's next decision harder to read 4.

The broader jobs report

The government's September employment report fits this picture of slowing churn. Employers added just 29,000 jobs and unemployment rose to 4.2%, according to The New York Times 5. Gains for July and August were revised down by a combined 60,000 jobs 5. Workers are also losing ground on pay. Annual growth in average hourly earnings slowed to 3.0%, the weakest since the pandemic and below inflation, which has climbed since the start of the war in Iran 5.

Tech and AI remain the exception

The overall numbers improved, but technology went the other way. Tech companies announced 10,799 cuts in September, up 77% from August, and the sector accounts for 29% of all cuts announced in 2026 3. Artificial intelligence was cited for 3,961 September cuts and 120,136 so far this year, making it the leading stated reason for 2026 layoffs 3.

California, home to much of the tech industry, led all states with 9,920 announced cuts in September and 114,818 for the year. That is still below the 144,528 it recorded a year earlier 1.

Reading the signals

The sources agree on the facts but stress different parts of them. Axios focuses on how unusual it is for layoffs to stay this low, and argues that the lack of a claims spike is hard to dismiss 2. The Times emphasizes weak job creation and falling real wages, which may explain why the economy feels less prosperous than the headline numbers suggest 5. The market analysis frames the labor market as "stickier" rather than breaking 4. An employment-law perspective notes that severance becomes more valuable when re-employment is slow 1.

Taken together, the most reasonable reading is that this is a low-hire, low-fire economy. Workers who keep their jobs are fairly safe. Workers who lose them face a thinner pool of openings, longer searches, and paychecks that buy less. That should concern policymakers, because a slow-moving labor market can weaken without triggering the layoff alarms that usually signal a downturn.

For tech workers, the risk is higher. The sector's share of cuts and the growing number of layoffs attributed to AI suggest that some of these jobs are being restructured away, not just paused. In a market where hiring plans are at a 15-year September low, displaced workers may have a hard time finding comparable roles. The number to watch in the coming months is continuing claims, more than the headline layoff counts.