‘DOGE Impact’: Federal Govt Layoffs Dominate Biggest March Job Losses In 36 Years

Over the last two months, DOGE actions have been attributed to 280,253 layoff plans of federal workers and contractors impacting 27 agencies, according to Challenger tracking. 

Another 4,429 job cuts have come from the downstream effect of cutting federal aid or ending contracts, impacting mostly Non-Profits and Health organizations.

The Government led all sectors in job cuts in March with 216,215, all of which occurred in the federal government. 

So far this year, the Government has cut 279,445, an increase of 672% from the 36,195 cuts announced in the first quarter of 2024.

March’s total is the third-highest monthly total ever recorded.

The highest monthly total occurred in April 2020 when 671,129 cuts were recorded, followed by May 2020 with 397,016. It is the highest total for the month of March on record, since Challenger began reporting on job cut plans in 1989.

“DOGE Impact” leads job cut reasons this year.

“Job cut announcements were dominated last month by Department of Government Efficiency [DOGE] plans to eliminate positions in the federal government. It would have otherwise been a fairly quiet month for layoffs,” Andrew Challenger, Senior Vice President and workplace expert for Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Companies’ hiring plans fell in March from 34,580 in February to 13,198. So far this year, companies plan to hire 53,867 workers, a 16% decrease from the 64,163 new hires announced in the first quarter of 2024. It is the lowest Q1 hiring total since 2012 when 52,540 new hiring plans were announced.

Meanwhile, according to the government’s official data, the labor market is awesome with only 219k Americans filing for jobless claims for the first time last week – a level that has been basically consistent for the last three years

Kentucky, Illinois, and Iowa saw the biggest rise in initial jobless claims last week while Texas and Massachusetts saw the biggest decline…

And despite the surge in layoffs across the Deep ‘Tri-State’, initial jobless claims have been falling…

But continuing jobless claims broke out of its recent range and above its Maginot Line of 1.9 million Americans…

That is the highest since November 2021.

Continuing Claims across The Deep ‘TriState’ continue to rise…

So who are you going to believe – WARN notices, Challenger Grey, or the BLS?

Will tomorrow’s payrolls print be the tie-breaker?