The fourth quarter is traditionally a calm time for the employees, but 2025 has been different in many ways. Employers used to refrain from cutting jobs during the holiday quarter, but October proved to be a bloodbath. Through October, employers announced 1.1 million job cuts, a 65% year-over-year increase from the 665,000 cuts made through October last year. Employers have already cut 44% more jobs through October than they did in all of 2024. According to Challenger, 2025 has been the worst year for job cuts since employers cut 2.3 million in 2020. Not only did individual companies announce large layoff totals, but a larger number of companies also cut jobs. Nearly 450 companies reported job cut plans in October, compared to 400 in September.