A 20-year record for job cuts
Marketplace
American Public Media
4.6 • 8K Ratings
🗓️ 6 November 2025
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas counted over 153,000 job cuts in this country last month — the most October layoffs since 2003. Are companies pivoting to save money in light of over hiring and AI, or we are we moving toward a more serious slowdown? Also in this episode: A training center in China narrows the gap between tech manufacturing labor supply and demand, the FAA orders flight cuts, and “green” data centers face expensive challenges.
Every story has an economic angle. Want some in your inbox? Subscribe to our daily or weekly newsletter.
Marketplace is more than a radio show. Check out our original reporting and financial literacy content at marketplace.org — and consider making an investment in our future.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | My place in tech changes every day, but I don't fear the future, because I'm with the leader, Pluralsight. |
| 0:08.7 | Their online learning platform has the hands-on expert-led courses I need to master new tech skills and create bigger impacts. |
| 0:17.3 | So I can learn quickly and stay ahead. |
| 0:21.0 | With Pluralsight, I don't fear what's next. |
| 0:24.0 | I embrace it. |
| 0:25.6 | Tap in at Pluralsight.com and see for yourself. |
| 0:31.2 | Tomorrow is going to make it two, count them two monthly jobs reports. |
| 0:36.0 | We ain't never going to get back. |
| 0:38.6 | From American Public Media, this is Marketplace. |
| 0:48.4 | I'm Kyle Rizdell. It is the 6th of November today, Thursday. It is always to have you along, everybody. |
| 0:57.3 | Today being Thursday, the way it works is tomorrow is Friday. It will be the first Friday of the month in point of fact when in ordinary times the October jobs report would be forthcoming from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. |
| 1:10.1 | Insert here, the now overdone observation |
| 1:12.1 | that these are not ordinary times. But the economy is going to economy, whatever the politicians |
| 1:19.0 | are saying and doing. So instead of comprehensive data from the federal government that we have |
| 1:23.4 | become used to, we're having to make do with private sources. And according to one of those |
| 1:28.4 | sources, American companies announced more layoffs in the month that just ended than in any |
| 1:33.7 | October since 2003. 2003 before the pandemic, before even the Great Recession. The outplacement |
| 1:42.2 | firm Challenger during Christmas counted more than 153,000 |
| 1:46.1 | publicly announced job cuts in this economy last month. Marketplaces |
| 1:50.0 | Henry Webb dug into the details and what they might mean. |
| 1:53.6 | There were the 14,000 cuts at Amazon, 48,000 at UPS, |
| 1:57.7 | 1800 at Target. A common thread in recent layoffs, says Andy Challenger, whose firm authored the report. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from American Public Media, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of American Public Media and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.