Employers seemingly disregard etiquette, laying off employees right before the holidays

It appears another Y2K trend is making a comeback: laying off workers right before the holidays.

US-based employers announced 71,321 layoffs in November, an analysis from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray, and Christmas found, marking a 24% increase year over year.

Last month marked the third time since 2008 that layoffs in November exceeded 70,000, with the other two times being in 2008 and 2022. According to the firm, layoffs between 1993 and 2000 remained below 70,000 in November, before spiking between 2001 and 2008. The practice of laying off right before the holidays fell out of fashion during the Great Recession, according to Andy Challenger, the firm's chief revenue officer.

“It was the trend to announce layoff plans toward the end of the year, to align with most companies’ fiscal year-ends. It became unpopular after the Great Recession especially, and best practice dictated layoff plans would occur at times other than the holidays,” Challenger wrote.

Employers’ renewed holiday ritual hasn’t gone unnoticed, and it’s generated mixed responses online.

“This is a concept dreamed up in the fiery pits of HR and consulting hell. Anyone who has been through the experience would never do that to another human,” Kelly Smith, a partner and lead consultant at brand strategy and creative agency Thinkhaus Idea Factory, wrote on LinkedIn.

Meanwhile, Jeff Garretson, a direct sales representative with Xylem Inc., wrote that, if he had the choice between getting laid off before or after the holidays, he’d choose the former: “I think I’d feel worse finding out in January that I wasted a holiday, ignoring family for a job that didn’t give me the same commitment, while I’m also staring at a stack of credit card bills for gifts.”

Zoom out. US employers have announced more than 1,170,800 layoffs as of November, up 54% from the same period in 2024, when 761,358 cuts were announced. It’s the highest level since 2020, when 2,227,700 cuts were announced through November, and also the sixth time since 1993 that job cuts have surpassed 1.1 million during that period.

Restructuring was the most common reason given for layoffs in November, accounting for 20,217 job cuts that month and 128,255 so far in 2025. That was followed by closures of stores, units, or departments, which made up 17,140 cuts last month, and then market and economic conditions, which accounted for 15,755 layoffs. Artificial intelligence was cited as the reason for 6,280 job cuts in November, and has accounted for 54,694 cuts so far in 2025.

And it seems reductions will continue throughout the end of the year: A November survey of some 1,000 business leaders from Resume.org found that 31% of respondents plan to conduct layoffs before the end of the year. Around 57% of those respondents said they were planning to cut jobs between Thanksgiving and Christmas, while 43% were planning to do so between Christmas and New Year’s.

Kara Dennison, Resume.org’s head career advisor, called out the pressure that such holiday job cuts create for workers: “For the person losing their job, however, the timing is brutal. The holidays magnify stress, and lost income combined with the social expectations of the season, can make the experience feel lonelier,” she wrote.

It seems that workers’ stress is no longer a concern for employers, though: Of those planning to conduct layoffs during the festive season, 34% say they “definitely” could have waited until after, and 40% said they “probably” could have.