US companies announced plans to cut a total of 529,914 jobs in the first eight months of 2026, the lowest level since 2022. Meanwhile, hiring plans reached their highest level since 2023, but actual hiring remains slow to recover. Data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas indicates that businesses are not keen on significant layoffs, even though the overall labor market still shows low levels of new hiring. Economists view the US labor market as being in a state of low hiring and low firing, with weekly jobless claims showing almost no signs of widespread layoffs. The unemployment rate for August is expected to hold steady at 4.1% in the government report due out Friday. Additionally, in August, AI was not the top reason cited for job cuts for the first time since February, with organizational restructuring becoming the primary cause. However, since the start of the year, AI remains the leading reason.
