Retail job cuts surge in 2025’s first half

Dive Brief:

U.S. retailers eliminated close to 76,000 jobs in the first five months of the year, an increase of 274% from the same period in 2024, according to a report released Thursday by Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
A total of 11,483 retail jobs were cut in May, compared to 7,235 in April. Job cuts across all U.S. employers in May – 93,816 – were down 12% from April but still 47% higher than May of 2024.
So far this year, retail job losses rank second behind government job cuts, most of which were attributed to eliminations by the Department of Government Efficiency. Technology ranked just behind retail with almost 75,000 job losses since the beginning of the year, per the report. 

Dive Insight:

Job cuts are surging in both retail and the broader market in the first half of the year. A total of 696,309 jobs were lost across all sectors through the end of May, an 80% jump over the same period in 2024.

“Tariffs, funding cuts, consumer spending, and overall economic pessimism are putting intense pressure on companies’ workforces,” Andrew Challenger, senior vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in a statement. “Companies are spending less, slowing hiring, and sending layoff notices.”

A number of prominent retail brands have recently announced layoffs, including Nike which cut a number of employees from its global tech team in May as it shifted around responsibilities for certain work. That came on the heels of the footwear giant cutting 2% of its workforce last year.

Also in May, Walmart slashed 1,500 jobs in its global tech and U.S. operations departments in an effort to streamline and be more efficient. And the Procter & Gamble Company said on Thursday that it would trim upwards of 7,000 jobs, or 15% of its nonmanufacturing workforce.

Despite the continuing flow of cuts, the hiring sector proved to be resilient. Employment increased by 139,000 in May and the unemployment rate remained steady at 4.2%, according to a report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retail itself showed little change in employment in May, per that report.

Challenger also found that employers were slightly more proactive in planned hires through May than in 2024, though plans are still “historically low” compared to prior years. “The current 2025 hiring pace is more aligned with [2012 and 2013] than with the rebound years of 2021–2022, suggesting that, while companies are adding workers, they are doing so cautiously,” Challenger said in the report.