California hammered as national job cuts jump to a five-year high

Layoffs across the country have reached a five-year high, led by layoffs in California and cuts in Washington.

According to the latest monthly report from job placement company Challenger, Gray & Christmas, employers in California announced 173,022 layoffs from January to November; This figure increased by approximately 14% compared to the same period last year.

The total number of outages nationwide rose 54% to 1.17 million, Challenger, Gray & Christmas said in a report released Thursday.

This is the highest level since 2020, when Covid-19 forced mass layoffs. The last year national layoffs were this high without a pandemic was 2009.

California is experiencing a restructuring storm in Hollywood and Silicon Valley, two of its biggest job centers.

The layoffs were driven by a shrinking entertainment industry as well as economic uncertainty and a radical rethinking of technology with the dawn of the age of artificial intelligence.

Intel, Salesforce, Meta, Paramount, Walt Disney Co. and thousands of workers elsewhere lost their jobs. Even Apple announced a rare round of discounts.

Workers are on edge because it seems no corner of California’s economy is immune from cost-cutting.

The Trump administration’s attempt to reduce government spending through what it calls the Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE, has been the biggest driver of government layoffs. At the same time, economic concerns and technological change were also burdened by the private sector.

The tech industry in California announced 75,262 layoffs; That’s the highest number of any industry in the Golden State this year.

As the race to master AI intensifies, companies are laying off workers while investing in other areas or trying to move faster with fewer middle managers.

Nationwide, tech companies said they would cut 153,536 jobs by November this year.

Automotive, consumer products, finance and healthcare sectors each announced more than 40,000 layoffs, although no other industry was close to that total, according to the report.

The most important reason why companies decided to cut jobs was restructuring. Store closures, economic and market conditions, and artificial intelligence also came to the fore.

Tech companies are launching more AI-powered products that can generate text, images, code and other content, raising fears among workers across industries that their jobs could be automated.

Artificial intelligence has been mentioned in 71,683 layoffs since 2023, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

At the same time, some tech companies are announcing hiring plans even amid disruptions. Tech employers also announced plans to hire 258,084 people, up from 14,707 from January to November.

There were signs that layoffs were slowing; only totals for November were below a year ago.

This could mean companies are done downsizing. This may also mean that some companies are pausing layoffs for the holidays, when laying people off is bad for the company’s brand.

“Layoff plans fell last month, which is certainly a positive sign,” Andy Challenger, workplace expert and chief revenue officer at Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in a news release.

“It was a trend for most companies to announce layoff plans towards the end of the year to align with the fiscal year end,” he said. “It became unpopular, especially after the Great Recession, and best practice was to plan layoffs at times other than holidays.”