US layoff announcements by industry, monthly (Challenger)
Agent-curated industry breakdown of the Challenger, Gray & Christmas monthly Job Cuts Reports, January–August 2026 (read 2026-09-30): 61 month×industry rows with month cuts, YTD cuts, YoY change, share of the month's cuts, and the report's industry rank. Technology drove 29% of all 2026 cuts through August (155,126, +52% YoY); Transportation YTD 42,279 (+271%) on the UPS-Amazon split; AI-linked cuts visible via the reason mix in the companion monthly dataset. B2B sales teams join on period + industry slug to time outreach (rising cuts = budget freezes; falling cuts + rising hiring = green light). Rows whose report stated only a YTD figure carry cuts_month/share/rank as NULL. A few May/June Technology values are cross-outlet-verified (see source_basis). Provenance: agent-curated (intel-1 run 2026-09-30).
- Rows
- 61
- Columns
- 14
- Source cadence
- Monthly
- Last refreshed
- Sep 30, 2026
- Theme
- economy
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| period | string | ISO calendar month 'YYYY-MM'. Join key for the monthly and industry datasets. |
| country_code | string | ISO alpha-3 country (always USA — national panel). |
| industry | string | Normalized industry slug. Join key with period. |
| industry_label | string | Human-readable industry name as Challenger reports it. |
| cuts_month | integer | Announced cuts in the industry that month. NULL where the report stated only a YTD figure. (unit: jobs) |
| cuts_ytd | integer | Year-to-date announced cuts in the industry. May Technology (123,653) derived from the April YTD + the cross-verified May month figure. (unit: jobs) |
| cuts_yoy_pct | float | Year-over-year change in the industry's YTD cuts, as stated in the report. (unit: percent) |
| share_of_month_pct | float | Industry's share of the month's total announced cuts, computed in code (round 1). NULL where cuts_month is NULL. (unit: percent) |
| rank_month | integer | Industry rank by month cuts, following the report's presentation order. NULL where cuts_month is NULL. |
| report_url | string | Canonical Challenger blog URL of the month's report. |
| source_basis | string | challenger_report: read from the month's own report; challenger_report;cross_outlet_verified: key figure(s) confirmed across >=2 independent outlets quoting the Challenger release. |
| source_domain | string | Always challengergray.com. |
| collected_at | string | Date the figures were collected (ISO). |
| row_hash | string | SHA-256 (16 hex chars) of the row payload; changes when any field changes. |
First 10 sample rows — a preview, not the complete dataset.
| period | country_code | industry | industry_label | cuts_month | cuts_ytd | cuts_yoy_pct | share_of_month_pct | rank_month | report_url | source_basis | source_domain | collected_at | row_hash |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-01 | USA | transportation | Transportation | 31,243 | 31,243 | — | 28.8 | 1 | https://www.challengergray.com/blog/challenger-report-january-job-cuts-surge-lowest-january-hiring-on-record/ | challenger_report | challengergray.com | 2026-09-30 | d384420f9324004e |
| 2026-01 | USA | technology | Technology | 22,291 | 22,291 | — | 20.6 | 2 | https://www.challengergray.com/blog/challenger-report-january-job-cuts-surge-lowest-january-hiring-on-record/ | challenger_report | challengergray.com | 2026-09-30 | d14fd9794d88bc53 |
| 2026-01 | USA | health_care | Health Care/Products | 17,107 | 17,107 | — | 15.8 | 3 | https://www.challengergray.com/blog/challenger-report-january-job-cuts-surge-lowest-january-hiring-on-record/ | challenger_report | challengergray.com | 2026-09-30 | e528db94790e982f |
| 2026-02 | USA | technology | Technology | 11,039 | 33,330 | 51 | 22.9 | 1 | https://www.challengergray.com/blog/challenger-report-february-cuts-plunge-hiring-falls-56-percent/ | challenger_report | challengergray.com | 2026-09-30 | 65fa7e7bb90a683c |
| 2026-02 | USA | education | Education | 5,417 | 6,209 | 96 | 11.2 | 2 | https://www.challengergray.com/blog/challenger-report-february-cuts-plunge-hiring-falls-56-percent/ | challenger_report | challengergray.com | 2026-09-30 | 23ddd70766602d10 |
| 2026-02 | USA | industrial_goods | Industrial Goods | 4,109 | 5,685 | 143 | 8.5 | 3 | https://www.challengergray.com/blog/challenger-report-february-cuts-plunge-hiring-falls-56-percent/ | challenger_report | challengergray.com | 2026-09-30 | fcbbde61b30321e5 |
| 2026-02 | USA | transportation | Transportation | — | 31,702 | 872 | — | — | https://www.challengergray.com/blog/challenger-report-february-cuts-plunge-hiring-falls-56-percent/ | challenger_report | challengergray.com | 2026-09-30 | 2ef6eaa0822b196a |
| 2026-02 | USA | health_care | Health Care/Products | — | 19,228 | — | — | — | https://www.challengergray.com/blog/challenger-report-february-cuts-plunge-hiring-falls-56-percent/ | challenger_report | challengergray.com | 2026-09-30 | 600decf632489dbc |
| 2026-02 | USA | media | Media | 630 | 1,140 | 22 | 1.3 | — | https://www.challengergray.com/blog/challenger-report-february-cuts-plunge-hiring-falls-56-percent/ | challenger_report | challengergray.com | 2026-09-30 | cd56173048c7691e |
| 2026-02 | USA | news | News | 324 | 389 | 20 | 0.7 | — | https://www.challengergray.com/blog/challenger-report-february-cuts-plunge-hiring-falls-56-percent/ | challenger_report | challengergray.com | 2026-09-30 | 87697adfc4f57c51 |
Profiled Oct 1, 2026 from snapshot 20260930T191911Z-81568fba29b2
Measured- Completeness
- 90%
- Rows
- 61
- Columns
- 14
- Columns with gaps
- 5
| Column | Missing | Distinct | Range | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| periodvarchar | 0% | 9 | — |
|
| country_codevarchar | 0% | 1 | — |
|
| industryvarchar | 0% | 18 | — |
|
| industry_labelvarchar | 0% | 17 | — |
|
| cuts_monthbigint | 34.4% | 44 | 200 → 38,242median 4,398 | 2 outside 1st–99th percentile |
| cuts_ytdbigint | 1.6% | 58 | 389 → 155,126median 18,608 | 2 outside 1st–99th percentile |
| cuts_yoy_pctdouble | 14.8% | 49 | -96 → 872median 18.5 | 2 outside 1st–99th percentile |
| share_of_month_pctdouble | 34.4% | 36 | 0.2 → 40median 7.95 | 2 outside 1st–99th percentile |
| rank_monthbigint | 54.1% | 5 | 1 → 5median 2 | 1 outside 1st–99th percentile |
| report_urlvarchar | 0% | 7 | — |
|
| source_basisvarchar | 0% | 2 | — |
|
| source_domainvarchar | 0% | 1 | — |
|
| collected_atvarchar | 0% | 1 | — |
|
| row_hashvarchar | 0% | 65 | — |
|
- Current
20260930T191911Z-81568fba29b2 · sha256 81568fba29b2…
61 rows · first snapshot
Point any LLM at the metadata endpoint — the documentation above is machine-readable too (JSON-LD + Croissant).
curl "https://datazimuts.com/v1/datasets/challenger_layoff_intel/us_layoff_industry_monthly" | jq '{title, rows, columns_count, license}'import requests
ds = requests.get("https://datazimuts.com/v1/datasets/challenger_layoff_intel/us_layoff_industry_monthly").json()
print(ds["title"], ds["rows"], "rows")
# Sample rows for an LLM context window
for row in ds.get("sample_rows", [])[:5]:
print(row)API endpoint: https://datazimuts.com/v1/datasets/challenger_layoff_intel/us_layoff_industry_monthly
Tip: fetch /llms.txt for the full machine-readable catalog.
Where this data comes from and what was made from it. Other people's work shows as counts; only shared projects are named.
Cite this snapshot
Pinned to snapshot 20260930T191911Z-81568fba29b2 and its content hash, so readers get exactly the data you used.
Challenger monthly layoff announcements (agent-curated). (2026). US layoff announcements by industry, monthly (Challenger) [Data set, snapshot 20260930T191911Z-81568fba29b2, sha256 81568fba29b2]. Datazimuts. Retrieved 2026-10-01, from https://datazimuts.com/en/datasets/challenger_layoff_intel/us_layoff_industry_monthly?snapshot=20260930T191911Z-81568fba29b2
@misc{dz_challenger_layoff_intel_us_layoff_indust_81568fba,
title = {{US layoff announcements by industry, monthly (Challenger)}},
author = {{Challenger monthly layoff announcements (agent-curated)}},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Datazimuts},
howpublished = {\url{https://datazimuts.com/en/datasets/challenger_layoff_intel/us_layoff_industry_monthly?snapshot=20260930T191911Z-81568fba29b2}},
note = {Snapshot 20260930T191911Z-81568fba29b2, sha256 81568fba29b2ff0d9dd9466a0e282893aa082459c566258d1f1fc5fcc229e676; accessed 2026-10-01}
}Embed a table or a chart
Paste this into any page. The embed is pinned to the same snapshot, follows the reader's light or dark setting, and always shows the source, license and a link back.
<iframe src="https://datazimuts.com/embed/chart?dataset=challenger_layoff_intel%2Fus_layoff_industry_monthly&lang=en&theme=auto&snapshot=20260930T191911Z-81568fba29b2&x=period&y=cuts_month&agg=avg" title="US layoff announcements by industry, monthly (Challenger)" width="100%" height="380" style="border:0" loading="lazy"></iframe>
Ask about this dataset. Answers come only from its catalog record, measured profile and change history, and list the facts they used.