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Dive Brief:
U.S. retailers eliminated over 64,000 jobs during the first four months of 2025, the second most of any industry, according to a new report released Thursday by consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The four-month total represented a 296% increase from the year-ago period.
A total of 7,235 retail jobs were lost in April, up 77% from April 2024, according to the report.
Close to 603,000 jobs were lost across all industries in the first four months of this year, the most since 2020 when just over 1 million job cuts were recorded. Almost half of the cuts this year were attributed to job eliminations by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, per the report.
Dive Insight:
Several factors contributed to the uncertainty surrounding job security, including government-induced layoffs and widespread changes in tariff policies that have affected various industries, including retail.
“Though the Government cuts are front and center, we saw job cuts across sectors last month,” Andrew Challenger, senior vice president for Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in a statement. “Generally, companies are citing the economy and new technology. Employers are slow to hire and limiting hiring plans as they wait and see what will happen with trade, supply chain, and consumer spending.”
Several retailers have trimmed workforces already this year, including The Container Store, J.C. Penney operator Catalyst Brands and Saks Global. And VF Corp. confirmed last week it had laid off about 400 employees globally over the past few months.
Along with job cuts, the retail industry has also seen leadership changes at the top level. Across all industries, there was “record” CEO turnover, according to a separate report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Within retail, eight CEOs left in March, a 700% year-over-year increase.
“After a record-breaking start to the year, companies have slowed a bit on changing their top leader, though historically, it remains a high number,” Challenger said. “We certainly continue to face economic uncertainty as tariffs, federal job and funding cuts, new regulation, and falling consumer confidence hit companies nationally.”