October’s Layoff Shock: The Quiet Part Just Went Loud

November 2025
By Michael Steven Bridges, Sr.

October wasn’t “noise.” It was a flare.

U.S. employers announced 153,074 job cuts in October 2025—up 175% from October 2024 and 183% from September. It’s the highest October layoff total since 2003, and the biggest single-month wave of announced cuts since late 2008. Econofact+1

Year-to-date, companies have now announced over 1.09 million job cuts, already surpassing all of 2024 and running roughly 65% higher than the same point a year ago. Cost-cutting, AI adoption, and a post-pandemic “correction” are the top reasons cited. The Wall Street Journal

If you look only at official government data, you can miss the turn. The latest JOLTS release still shows layoffs and discharges at 1.7 million in August, with a layoff rate of 1.1%, little changed in recent months. Bureau of Labor Statistics+1

Translation:

• Announced cuts are spiking.

• Actual separations haven’t fully hit yet.

• You’re watching the front edge of the wave, not the crash.
  
  

For white-collar workers, this is the danger zone. The moment when leadership quietly sunsets projects, consolidates teams, and “rebalances” org charts long before the all-hands meeting makes it official.

If you’re anywhere near the blast radius—tech, finance, professional services, higher ed, state agencies—this is not the time to coast. This is countdown clock time:

• Get your documents tight (résumé, case stories, portfolio).

• Get your numbers tight (run the budget if your paycheck stops).

• Get your playbook tight (network, search strategy, backup income).
  
  

When the October data looks like 2003 and 2008, you don’t wait for the email with your name on it. You move first.

Frozen Market, Burned Nerves: White-Collar Workers in the Great Freeze

November 2025
By Michael Steven Bridges, Sr.

Everyone feels it: fewer postings, slower callbacks, offers dragging.

Indeed’s latest trends report calls the 2025 labor market “frozen, with the first signs of frostbite showing through.” Healthcare is carrying almost half of all job growth—47.5% of net job gains in 2025 despite being just 11.4% of employment—while postings in tech are now almost one-third below their pre-pandemic baseline. Retail and hospitality postings sit 7.4% below early 2020 Indeed Hiring Lab UK I Ireland.

Outside of healthcare and a few pockets like civil engineering and construction, demand has sagged across nearly every sector. Indeed notes that job postings have declined year-over-year in almost all categories, with 13 sectors down more than 10%.

For white-collar workers, the real damage isn’t just layoffs. It’s time.

In fields like financial activities, information, and professional and business services, unemployed workers are now spending much longer between jobs. In finance specifically, the average duration of unemployment is about 20 weeks longer in 2025 than in 2023—the steepest jump of any sector—even as quits in that sector fall to 1.2% vs. 1.9% nationally, a sign people are afraid to move.

Meanwhile, ZipRecruiter’s 2025 Employer Survey calls this phase “The Great Freeze.” Average turnover has crashed from 177% in 2023 to 49.5% in 2025, as companies cling to existing staff and avoid risky hiring or firing. ZipRecruiter Economic Research

So if you’re white-collar, here’s the uncomfortable truth:

• You may not get fired tomorrow.

• You may just sit—underutilized, underpaid, and slowly obsolete—until the next round of cuts arrives and the job market is even more selective.
  
  

This is why you don’t wait for a pink slip to “get serious.” You treat the freeze itself as your warning. Update your skills, sharpen your story, and map your exits before everyone else bolts for the same lifeboats.

When “Safe” Stops Being Safe: Government & Education Join the Chop List

November 2025
By Michael Steven Bridges, Sr.

For years, the fallback advice was simple: “If you want stability, go government. Go university. Go public sector.”

2025 is putting that old rule through the shredder.

Indeed’s 2026 hiring trends report shows that public sector employment actually shrank by 24,000 jobs between January and August 2025—a sharp reversal after adding about one million jobs in 2023–2024, mostly in local government and education. Local government is still slightly up this year (about +104,000 jobs), but that’s been more than offset by cuts of roughly 97,000 federal jobs and 31,000 state jobs.

Layer on top of that:

• Tens of thousands of federal workers who accepted deferred resignations earlier in the year, many effective after August and not fully reflected yet. Indeed Hiring Lab UK I Ireland.

• A prolonged federal shutdown that delayed official labor data and pushed employers into deeper caution. Barron's+1
  
  

Meanwhile, the “headline” numbers still look deceptively calm. The latest JOLTS figures show 7.2 million job openings, a job-openings rate of 4.3%, quits at 1.9%, and layoffs at 1.1% as of August—hardly a panic signal on paper.

But inside agencies, universities, and state systems, the pattern is familiar:

• Hiring freezes morph into “unposted” eliminations.

• Temporary roles quietly expire instead of renew.

• Non-renewal letters replace the old promise of “you’re family here.”
  
  

If you’re in a role that used to be considered safe—public higher ed, state agencies, federal programs—you are not exempt from the second wave. You’re just downstream.

That doesn’t mean panic. It means preparation:

• Don’t assume pension + tenure = immunity.

• Don’t assume “mission-driven” means “layoff-proof.”

• Don’t wait for your department’s “reorg” memo to start building your off-ramp.
  
  

The public sector was once the last life raft. In 2025, it’s just another boat on the same rough water.