Dive Brief:
- As retailers continue to announce layoffs, the number of job cuts in the industry spiked more than 2,800% in December, from 110 positions in 2023 to 3,283 in 2024, according to a Challenger, Gray & Christmas report released Thursday. Those numbers also grew nearly 45% from November, which saw 2,267 cuts.
- For the full year, though, retail job cuts were down meaningfully, declining by 47% year over year. Retail downsizing totaled 78,840 positions in 2023, compared to 41,686 in 2024.
- Though job cuts are on the rise in retail, so are hirings. The number of workers retailers sought to hire rose from 440,893 in 2023 to 536,600 last year. In December specifically, retailers planned to hire 640 workers.
Dive Insight:
With a new administration entering the White House this month, many U.S. companies are bracing for the uncertainty by adjusting their hiring practices, Challenger said in its report.
“Companies underwent extraordinary change in 2024 due to rapid technological advancement and shifting economic conditions,” Andrew Challenger, senior vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in a statement. “Most employers are anticipating additional uncertainty with the upcoming administration, which is leading to slower hiring and more layoffs in the short term from various sectors.”
Across industries, U.S. job cuts rose 5.5% year over year in 2024 and netted the highest total since 2020, the year the pandemic upended many industries. Excluding 2020, it was the highest number of job cuts since 2009, Challenger said. Companies cited market or economic conditions as the top reason behind the job cuts, followed by cost-cutting, closings or restructuring their businesses, according to the report.
In the retail sector, Challenger previously noted that a softening economy and labor market might mean retailers would hire fewer workers ahead of the 2024 holiday season. And indeed, retail hiring slowed in October and November, Challenger said. Rather than onboard more workers, 71% of respondents to a UKG survey in October said they were encouraging staffers to take additional, hard-to-fill shifts, and 81% said they were cross-training their workforce to handle more tasks.
The rise in job cuts came amid higher holiday sales. From Nov. 1 to Dec. 24, U.S. retail sales, excluding automotive, saw a 3.8% bump year over year, per Mastercard’s SpendingPulse report.
