U.S. layoffs have quietly climbed to their highest level since the darkest months of the COVID-19 pandemic, raising fresh questions about the stability of the so-called “Trump economy.” Through November 2025, U.S. employers have announced roughly 1.17 million job cuts, a 54% jump from last year and the worst year for layoffs since 2020, according to data from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
On paper, the job market doesn’t look like a classic recession. Weekly unemployment claims remain relatively low, and many companies insist they’re just “restructuring.” But the scale and persistence of job cuts tell a different story. November alone saw more than 71,000 announced layoffs—down from October’s spike, yet still 24% higher than a year ago and the highest November total since 2022. Telecom and tech firms lead the way, with AI-driven automation and cost-cutting cited as major reasons; more than 54,000 layoffs this year have explicitly mentioned AI as a factor.
Critics argue this pattern reflects structural weaknesses baked into Trump’s economic approach. Tariff battles and trade uncertainty have pressured manufacturing and global supply chains, while aggressive federal spending cuts have cooled public-sector and contract jobs. Reuters+1 At the same time, a sharp pullback in immigration—accelerating in President Biden’s final year and deepening under Trump—has squeezed the labor supply, raising costs in some areas while failing to deliver broad wage gains for working-class Americans. The result is a “no fire, no hire” environment: firms are wary of expanding, yet still shedding workers in bursts, particularly in white-collar and entry-level roles.
New York offers a clear window into this uneasy reality. Statewide, private-sector employment fell by 13,300 jobs in August 2025, even as the unemployment rate held at 4.0%. In New York City, the unemployment rate has ticked up to 4.9%, a four-month high, while private-sector payrolls slipped by 4,600 jobs in August. Key engines of the city’s economy—finance, professional and business services, and construction—have all lost jobs over the past year. Recent data show unemployment claims in New York rising compared with the prior week, suggesting more workers are starting to feel the impact of cuts. Visual analyses of job losses by state show that New York, with its heavy exposure to finance and tech, is among the places most vulnerable to this layoff wave.
At the same time, NYC’s employment-population ratio sits at a record high and tax revenues are still growing—signs that the economy is tilting toward higher-paid, more secure workers while everyone else gets pushed to the margins. That widening gap is exactly what many feared from a Trump-era model that prioritizes corporate profits, deregulation, and aggressive cost-cutting over job stability and broad-based security.
If layoffs remain elevated while hiring plans sink to their lowest level since 2010, the “Trump economy” may go down not as an era of shared prosperity, but as a period of chronic job insecurity—especially for workers in states like New York who are already living on the edge of affordability.
References:
Challenger, Gray & Christmas, “October Challenger Report: 153 074 Job Cuts on Cost-Cutting, AI,” November 2025. Challenger Gray & Christmas
“Layoffs for October surge to two-decade high,” Journal Record / Reuters summary, November 2025. The Journal Record+1
eWeek, “AI-Driven Job Cuts Push 2025 Layoffs Past 1 Million,” November 2025. eWeek
New York State Department of Labor, “NYS Private Sector Employment Down 13,300 Jobs in August 2025,” September 2025. Department of Labor+1
NYC Labor Statistics, “Private sector jobs in New York City: August 2025,” September 2025. Department of Labor+2NYCEDC+2
