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If you feel like youve seen nonstop headlines about job layoffs this year, youre not imagining things. A recent report from global outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas shows that through the end of July, U.S.-based employers have announced more than 800,000 job eliminations in 2025. Thats the highest number of jobs lost through the same period since 2020, when the global pandemic saw more than 1.8 million jobs lost through the end of July. Whats worse is that the total 806,383 jobs lost in the first seven months of 2025 far outstrips the number of jobs lost during the same period just a year earlier. In 2024, by the end of July, the United States had seen 460,530 job cuts. That means 2025 has seen 75% more job cuts this year than at the same point last year. Even more alarming, the data reveals, is that the United States by July of this year has already surpassed the total job cuts it experienced in all of 2024. Whats behind these cuts? There are three primary drivers, based on company announcements. DOGE The report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas spotlights the three main drivers behind the majority of the job cuts so far in 2025. And if youve been paying attention to the headlines over the past seven months, these drivers will likely not surprise you. The first driver is the DOGE Impact, according to the report. Federal government spending cuts spearheaded by the Department of Government Efficiency, formerly controlled by Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk, are responsible for the majority of job losses in 2025. The impacts of DOGEs cuts have been cited in 289,679 of the planned layoffs year-to-date so far. The report says these numbers include direct reductions to the Federal workforce and its contractors. Additionally, there has also been what is called a DOGE Downstream Impact on jobs. This downstream impact results from DOGE funding cuts, which impact the funding of private nonprofits and other affiliated organizations. Less funding means a reduced ability to retain workers. The DOGE Downstream Impact is said to have driven U.S.-based employers to cut another 13,056 jobs. Tariffs and market conditions The second driver behind the job cuts is market and economic conditions. While this uncertainty encompasses a range of factors, one of the most significant is the economic uncertainty caused by President Trumps tariffs. The tariffs are raising prices for U.S. companies that import goods and parts needed to run their business, which impacts their bottom line. Additionally, the ever-changing tariff landscape brings much uncertainty with itcompanies cant be sure if an announced tariff will remain the same, go up, or go down. This makes it hard for companies to plan and budget for the future. As the report notes, retailers have been hit particularly hard. In July alone, 80,487 retail jobs were lost. Retailers are being impacted by tariffs, inflation, and ongoing economic uncertainty causing layoffs and store closures, the report states. The report also says that market and economic conditions have led to 171,083 cuts through the end of July so far this year. Artificial Intelligence The final big driver of job cuts in 2025 so far involves AI. The report says that technological updates, including AI implementation and automation, are behind 20,219 lost jobs in 2025. Another 10,375 job losses were also explicitly attributed” to artificial intelligence, which the report says suggests a significant acceleration in AI-related restructuring. As far as the tech industry itself, the sector has seen 89,251 jobs lost through July in 2025a 36% increase from the same period in 2024. When it comes to AI, the report notes that the tech sector is being reshaped by the advancement of artificial intelligence. The top 5 industries hit hardest by job cuts Challenger, Gray & Christmas’s report says that so far in 2025, the top five industries being hit hardest by job cuts are: Government: 292,294 jobs lost Technology: 89,251 jobs lost Retail: 80,487 jobs lost Services: 53,438 jobs lost Warehousing: 38,943 jobs lost As Fast Company has previously reported, among individual tech companies, the most prominent ones with significant layoffs in 2025 so far include Intel, Microsoft, Panasonic, HP, Meta, and Amazon.
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E-Commerce
Walmart is expanding its 10% employee discount to nearly all of its grocery items, including dairy and meat, through the year, the company’s chief people officer told its staff in a letter on Wednesday. The discount, previously limited to fresh produce and general merchandise such as apparel, now extends to almost all food categories including milk, meat, dry grocery, and seafood in stores and online, effective immediately. Walmart, the largest private employer in the United States, had previously extended its grocery discount during the holidays, but the perk will now be available year-round, the company said. “We’ve heard your feedback that these savings make a real difference for you and your families,” Donna Morris, Walmarts chief people officer, wrote in the letter. Morris said the extension of the discount card program, first introduced more than 50 years ago, was among the companys most requested benefits. The company has also raised wages for U.S. hourly workers and launched a bonus program for about 700,000 front-line staff over the last couple of years to help retain workers. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the extension of the discount program. Juveria Tabassum, Reuters
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E-Commerce
When President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) signed the Social Security Act into law 90 years ago this week, he vowed it would provide economic stability to older people while giving the U.S. “an economic structure of vastly greater soundness.”Today, the program provides benefits to almost 69 million Americans monthly. It’s a major source of income for people over 65 and is popular across the country and political lines.It also looks more threatened than ever.Just as it has for decades, Social Security faces a looming shortfall in money to pay full benefits. Since President Donald Trump took office the program has faced more tumult. Agency staffing has been slashed. Unions and advocacy groups concerned about sharing sensitive information have sued. Trump administration officials, including the president, for months falsely claimed millions of dead people were receiving Social Security benefits. Former top adviser Elon Musk called the program a potential “Ponzi scheme.”Trump and other Republicans have said they will not cut Social Security benefits. Yet the program remains far from the sound economic system that FDR envisioned 90 years ago, due to changes madeand not madeunder both Democratic and Republican presidents.Here’s a look at past and current challenges to Social Security, the proposed solutions, and what it could take to shore up the program. The go-broke date has been moved up The so-called go-broke dateor the date at which Social Security will no longer have enough funds to pay full benefitshas been moved up to 2034, instead of last year’s estimate of 2035. After that point, Social Security would only be able to pay 81% of benefits, according to an annual report released in June. The earlier date came as new legislation affecting Social Security benefits have contributed to earlier projected depletion dates, the report concluded.The Social Security Fairness Act, signed into law by former President Joe Biden and enacted in January, had an impact. It repealed the Windfall Elimination and Government Pension Offset provisions, increasing Social Security benefit levels for former public workers.Republicans’ new tax legislation signed into law in July will accelerate the insolvency of Social Security, said Brendan Duke at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.“They haven’t laid out an idea to fix it yet,” he said. The privatization conversation has been revived The notion of privatizing Social Security surfaced most recently when Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent this month said new tax-deferred investment accounts dubbed “Trump accounts” may serve as a “backdoor to privatization,” though Treasury has walked back those comments.The public has been widely against the idea of privatizing Social Security since former President George W. Bush embarked on a campaign to pitch privatization of the program in 2005, through voluntary personal retirement accounts. The plan was not well-received by the public.Glenn Hubbard, a Columbia University professor and top economist in Bush’s White House, told the Associated Press that Social Security needs to be reduced in size in order to maintain benefits for generations to come. He supports limiting benefits for wealthy retirees.“We will have to make a choice,” Hubbard said. “If you want Social Security benefits to look like they are today, we’re going to have to raise everyone’s taxes a lot. And if that’s what people want, that’s a menu, and you pay the high price and you move on.”Another option would be to increase minimum benefits and slow down benefit growth for everyone else, which Hubbard said would right the ship without requiring big tax increases, if it’s done over time.“It’s really a political choice,” he said, adding, “Neither one of those is pain free.”Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, an advocacy group for the preservation of Social Security benefits, is more worried that the administration of benefits could be privatized under Trump, rather than a move toward privatized accounts. The agency cut more than 7,000 from its workforce this year as part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s effort to reduce the size of the government.Martin O’Malley, who was Social Security agency commissioner under Biden, said he thinks the problems go deeper.“There is no openness and there is no transparency” at the agency, he said. “And we hear about field offices teetering on the brink of collapse.”A Social Security Administration representative didn’t respond to a request for comment. Concerns persist An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in April found that an increasing share of older Americansparticularly Democratssupport the program but aren’t confident the benefit will be available to them when they retire.“So much of what we hear is that its running out of money,” said Becky Boober, 70, from Rockport, Maine, who recently retired after decades in public service. She relies on Social Security to keep her finances afloat, is grateful for the program, and thinks it should be expanded.“In my mind there are several easy fixes that are not a political stretch,” she said. They include raising the income tax cap on high-income earners and possibly raising the retirement age, which is currently 67 for people born after 1960, though she is less inclined to support that change. Some call for shrinking the program Rachel Greszler is a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, the group behind the Project 2025 blueprint for Trump’s second term. It called for an increase in the retirement age.Greszler says Social Security no longer serves its intended purpose of being a social safety net for low-income seniors and is far too large. She supports pursuing privatization, which includes allowing retirees to put their Social Security taxes into a personal investment account.She also argues for shrinking the program to a point where every retiree would receive the same Social Security benefit so long as they worked the same number of years, which she argues would increase benefits for the bottom one-third of earners. How this would impact middle-class earners is unclear.“When talking about needing to reform the system, we need to reform it so that we don’t have indiscriminate 23% across the board cuts for everybody,” Greszler said. “We need to reform the system in a more thoughtful way, so that we are protecting those who are most vulnerable and reliant on Social Security.” Fatima Hussein, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
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