April Job Cuts Surge 38% On AI Downsizing

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published May 7, 8:46AM EDT

Quick Read

These Numbers Are More Pessimistic Than ADP
AI Job Cuts Are More Common
Layoffs Pick Up Speed

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April Job Cuts Surge 38% On AI Downsizing — © J.J. Gouin / Shutterstock.com

According to the job research firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, job cuts rose 38% in April compared to March. Much of this was blamed on AI-driven layoffs. The April number reached 83,387. The number was the third-highest figure since 2009, during the Great Recession.

Andy Challenger said, “Technology companies continue to announce large-scale cuts and are leading all industries in layoff announcements. They are also often citing AI spend and innovation.” This showed up specifically in the results. Technology announced 33,361 job cuts in April, bringing the total to 85,411 this year. AI was also the primary reason listed in March.

The future for jobs is also troubling. “Hiring plans” dropped 69% from 32,826 in March to 10,049 last month.

Two sectors plan to add a significant number of job additions–Automotive (year to date 12,258) and entertainment (8,261 year to date)

The Challenger, Gray & Christmas is usually not a good match with the traditionally used ADP and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. These two do not include hiring plans or “announced” job cuts. In other words, they are not based on announced plans.

Job activity across the economy remains strong. ADP reports private payroll numbers rose 109,000 in April. A number of analysts believe the BLS number will also show job strength. The BLS report for March was an addition of 178,000 jobs.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.