Economy

Job cuts for October totaled 153,074, a 183% surge from September and 175% higher than the same month a year ago. It was the highest level for any October since 2003 and has been the worst year for layoffs since 2009.
Companies in the technology sector announced 33,281 cuts, nearly six times the level in September.
“Like in 2003, a disruptive technology is changing the landscape,” said Andy Challenger, workplace expert and chief revenue officer at outplacement firm Challenger, Gray % Christmas

Jobseekers during a NYS Department Of Labor job fair at the Downtown Central Library in Buffalo, New York, US, on Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025.
Lauren Petracca | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Layoff announcements soared in October as companies recalibrated staffing levels during the artificial intelligence boom, a sign of potential trouble ahead for the labor market, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
Job cuts for the month totaled 153,074, a 183% surge from September and 175% higher than the same month a year ago. It was the highest level for any October since 2003. This has been the worst year for announced layoffs since 2009.

“Like in 2003, a disruptive technology is changing the landscape,” said Andy Challenger, workplace expert and chief revenue officer at the firm. “At a time when job creation is at its lowest point in years, the optics of announcing layoffs in the fourth quarter are particularly unfavorable.”
The report provides a glimpse into the labor market at a time when the government has suspended data gathering and releases during the shutdown in Washington, D.C.
To be sure, the Challenger monthly numbers can be highly volatile, and an accelerated pace of layoffs has yet to show up in state-level weekly jobless claim filings that continue to come in despite the shutdown. Payrolls processing firm ADP reported that October saw net job growth of 42,000 in October, reversing two consecutive months of losses in the private sector.
However, the report comes at a time when Federal Reserve officials have expressed concern about a softening labor market. The central bank has lowered its benchmark interest rate twice since September and is expected to approve another quarter percentage point reduction in December as policymakers look to get ahead of any more serious problems.
The Challenger reports the highest level of layoffs coming from the technology sector amid a time of restructuring due to AI integration. Companies in the sector announced 33,281 cuts, nearly six times the level in September.

Consumer products also saw a sharp gain to 3,409, while nonprofits, an area hit hard by the shutdown, listed 27,651 cuts year to date, up 419% from the same point in 2024.
In total, companies have announced 1.1 million cuts this year, a 65% increase from a year ago and the highest level since the Covid pandemic year of 2020. October saw the highest total for any month in the fourth quarter since 2008.
“Some industries are correcting after the hiring boom of the pandemic, but this comes as AI adoption, softening consumer and corporate spending, and rising costs drive belt-tightening and hiring freezes. Those laid off now are finding it harder to quickly secure new roles, which could further loosen the labor market,” Challenger said. More

Economists widely predicted that the BOE would vote to keep key interest rates unchanged.
A cut could come in February, or maybe as soon as December.
The BOE’s meeting comes ahead of the Autumn Budget on Nov. 26.

LONDON — The Bank of England on Thursday voted narrowly to hold interest rates steady, exercising caution ahead of the government’s Autumn Budget in November.
Out of the BOE’s nine-member monetary policy committee, five members voted to hold the key interest rate, known as Bank Rate, at 4%, while four opted for a 25 basis point cut.

The vote was slimmer than expected with economists polled by Reuters expecting a 6-3 split in favor of a hold.
The BOE said in a statement that the inflation rate, at 3.8% in September, had likely peaked and that a disinflationary trend was underway. This was “supported by the still restrictive stance of monetary policy,” it said.
“This is reflected in an easing of pay growth and services price inflation. Underlying disinflation is being underpinned by subdued economic growth and building slack in the labour market,” the bank added.
The BOE cautioned that future rate cuts “will therefore depend on the evolution of the outlook for inflation. If progress on disinflation continues, Bank Rate is likely to continue on a gradual downward path.”
“I think this is the doves winning the argument,” Victoria Clarke, U.K. chief economist at Santander CIB, told CNBC Thursday.

“[BOE Governor Andrew] Bailey has made it clear he wants a bit more data and that was certainly my judgement, that there is a lot of value in waiting for December. You’ve got two more CPI [inflation] prints coming and two more labor market prints and, of course, this massive budget,” she told CNBC’s Decision Time.
Yields on U.K. government bonds fell across the board, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year gilt shedding almost 3 basis points. Meanwhile the British pound trimmed earlier gains to trade 0.18% higher against the U.S. dollar.

A Union flag flutters from a pole atop the Bank of England, in the City of London on August 7, 2025.
Niklas Halle’n | Afp | Getty Images

The meeting on Thursday was the last one before the Autumn Budget later this month. Economists had said that while they believed the central bank was more likely to hold rates steady, it was not a given.
“We can never know for sure which way any meeting will go, but this one is … one of the hardest to call for some time,” Dean Turner, chief euro zone and U.K. Economist at UBS Global Wealth Management’s Chief Investment Office, had said Tuesday.
“It’s not a case of whether they will cut interest rates at some point — the answer to that is yes, we believe they will … if policy is tight, inflation is falling, and growth is lacklustre, then interest rates are going to come down. The hard part is anticipating when,” he added.
Economists had forecast, for the most part, that a majority of the BOE’s policymakers would vote to keep its key interest rate, known as Bank Rate, unchanged at 4% at its November meeting.
There were some dissenters, however, with the likes of Barclays, Nomura, Mizuho and Unicredit believing there could be a surprise cut today, to 3.75%. Julien Lafargue, chief market strategist at Barclays Private Bank, conceded Wednesday that while there was a case for a rate cut, it was “a very finely balanced decision.”

Cuts coming

In any case, there is a general consensus that rate-setters could trim rates as soon as December, and will cut again over the coming year in response to expected cooling inflation — the rate of which remained unchanged for the third consecutive month in September, at 3.8% — and a softening of labor market data.

Most MPC members are more concerned about the implications of cutting rates too quickly rather than too slowly, Oxford Economics noted in analysis, and the BOE will want to see evidence of sustained downside surprises in the data and pay growth slowing to a target-consistent pace before voting to cut again.
“If we are right and the BOE pauses [this] week, the question will then turn to when the next cut will come,” Allan Monks, chief U.K. economist at JP Morgan, said in a note.
“We have argued that further downside surprises in the inflation and labour market data will determine that. For example, a move up in the unemployment rate to 4.9% in September could be significant, as well as further soft sequential gains in core CPI services and private pay.”
Assuming the BOE does hold rates on Thursday, UBS’ Turner said that he expects the central bank to then “signal that a cut is coming no later than February — maybe as soon as December.”
“Policymakers will not be armed with fresh forecasts in December, but they will have the budget and the impact analysis in their pockets,” he said.

Autumn Budget

The fact the central bank’s meeting this month comes ahead of the upcoming Autumn Budget on Nov. 26 is another reason for the BOE’s policy makers to pause for thought.
It’s widely expected that Chancellor Rachel Reeves will announce tax rises as she looks to fill a fiscal black hole estimated to be anywhere between £20-50 billion ($20-$65.2 billion), based on assumed forecasts of lower productivity, servicing debt and the cost of U-turns on welfare spending cuts, among other things.
Earlier this week Reeves gave a clearer indication that tax rises are coming and is she is expected to consider increasing income tax as one way to raise revenues, but she has not given any further detail. Tax rises would likely act as another damper on inflation by reducing consumer demand.

“If the measures [in the budget] include a hike in income tax, they would add to the drag on households’ real incomes from high inflation and slowing pay growth. As these factors weigh on demand inflation will likely ease,” Andrew Wishart, economist at Berenberg, said in a note Friday.
“If so, this will allow the Bank of England to cut interest rates by 25 basis points at least twice next year to 3.50%. A front-loaded fiscal tightening would open the door to a third cut in 2026, to 3.25%,” he added. More

Client Challenge

JavaScript is disabled in your browser.
Please enable JavaScript to proceed.

A required part of this site couldn’t load. This may be due to a browser
extension, network issues, or browser settings. Please check your
connection, disable any ad blockers, or try using a different browser. More

Client Challenge

JavaScript is disabled in your browser.
Please enable JavaScript to proceed.

A required part of this site couldn’t load. This may be due to a browser
extension, network issues, or browser settings. Please check your
connection, disable any ad blockers, or try using a different browser. More

Client Challenge

JavaScript is disabled in your browser.
Please enable JavaScript to proceed.

A required part of this site couldn’t load. This may be due to a browser
extension, network issues, or browser settings. Please check your
connection, disable any ad blockers, or try using a different browser. More

Client Challenge

JavaScript is disabled in your browser.
Please enable JavaScript to proceed.

A required part of this site couldn’t load. This may be due to a browser
extension, network issues, or browser settings. Please check your
connection, disable any ad blockers, or try using a different browser. More

Client Challenge

JavaScript is disabled in your browser.
Please enable JavaScript to proceed.

A required part of this site couldn’t load. This may be due to a browser
extension, network issues, or browser settings. Please check your
connection, disable any ad blockers, or try using a different browser. More

Client Challenge

JavaScript is disabled in your browser.
Please enable JavaScript to proceed.

A required part of this site couldn’t load. This may be due to a browser
extension, network issues, or browser settings. Please check your
connection, disable any ad blockers, or try using a different browser. More