Job Cuts Up Nearly 10% in June, Midyear Total Highest Since 2010

Chicago, IL, July 2, 2015—Job cuts increased by about 10% in June, as employers announced plans to reduce payrolls by 44,842 workers during the month, according to global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Meanwhile, heavier-than-expected downsizing throughout the first half of 2015 pushed the midyear total to its highest level since 2010.

June job cuts were 9.3% higher than the 41,032 planned layoffs announced in May. They were 43% higher than June 2014, when job cuts totaled just 31,434. This marks the fifth year-over-year increase in job cuts in the first six months of 2015.

Overall, employers announced 287,682 job cuts during the first half of the year. That was up 17% from 2014, when the six-month total was 246,034. The midyear total is the highest since 297,677 job cuts were recorded in the first half of 2010.

The pace of job cutting was virtually unchanged between the first and second quarter of year. The 147,458 job cuts announced between April and the end of June was just 5.0% more than the 140,214 planned layoffs in the first three months of 2015. The second-quarter total was up 18% from a year earlier (124,693).