April 3 (UPI) — Elon Musk’s DOGE was behind a huge increase in U.S. March job cuts, according to a Thursday report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
Employers announced 275,240 job cuts, a 60% increase from February. In the federal government alone 216,215 jobs were cut in March.
Only the COVID-19 pandemic in April and May 2020 caused more government job losses.
Government job cuts so far this year total 279,445, a 672% increase over the same quarter in 2024.
“Job cut announcements were dominated last month by Department of Government Efficiency plans to eliminate positions in the federal government. It would otherwise have been a quiet month for layoffs,” said Challenger, Gray & Christmas Senior Vice President Andrew Challenger in a statement.
The DOGE job slashing in March pushed layoffs to the third-highest monthly total ever recorded, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
“DOGE Impact” is the leading cause of job cuts so far this year with 280,253. Market and economic conditions have caused 47,851 job losses.
“Over the last two months, DOGE actions have been attributed to 280,253 layoff plans of federal workers and contractors impacting 27 agencies, according to Challenger tracking,” the company said in a statement. ” Another 4,429 job cuts have come from the downstream effect of cutting federal aid or ending contracts, impacting mostly Non-Profits and Health organizations.”
Total U.S. job cuts announced this year have hit 497,052. That’s the highest year-to-date and quarterly total since Q1 2009. It’s a 93% increase from the same period in 2024, when 257,254 job cuts were announced.
The cuts are having a strong impact on federal agencies including 10,000 job cuts at the Department of Veteran’s Affairs, while the U.S. Army cut 24,000 jobs.
Other sectors beyond government are also shedding jobs. Tech companies cut 15,055 jobs and retailers have cut 11,709, consumer products makers have eliminated 14,619 and automakers 7,146.
In Financial services 15,982 people lost their jobs. That’s 44% fewer than the 28,715 jobs lost in that sector at this time last year.
Media and news companies have laid off 1,820 so far this year. That’s 74% fewer than in the first quarter of 2024.
By region the East suffered deep job cuts, primarily due to DOGE, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. There were 355,992 cuts, a 277% increase year-to-year.
The Midwest had 25% more job cuts that this time last year.
The West had a 19% decline in job cuts. Job cuts in the South dropped 41%.
The 2025 layoff rate is the highest since 2009 when more than 428,000 job cuts were planned over the same time period.
