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WASHINGTON D.C. (WSAU) – An economic report released earlier this month is raising concerns among prospective voters as they continue to research who they’ll support come election day in November.
As per the most recent report by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, August saw a significant increase in layoffs, reaching a level not seen in the last 15 years with 75,891 job cuts made in August, a 193% increase from July. Year-to-date hiring so far this year is also down dramatically to only 80,000, which marks the lowest total in the survey’s history since 2005.
The August report marks highest the number of layoffs since August 2009 during the housing market crash, also known as the “Great Recession” by economists, when the economy lost a staggering 222,000 total jobs that month alone. When it comes to jobs added, the report notes that just 6,101 new workers were added to the workforce last month, which represents a 21% decrease from August 2023. The IT sector saw the largest increase in planned layoffs, with employers reporting 41,829 cuts—the highest number in 20 months.
Senior Vice President Andrew Challenger stated in the report that these numbers reflect the tough decisions businesses are being forced to make currently, saying, “August’s surge in job cuts reflects growing economic uncertainty and shifting market dynamics. Companies are facing a variety of pressures, from rising operational costs to concerns about a potential economic slowdown, leading them to make tough decisions about workforce management.”
The latest CNN poll that was conducted following this month’s presidential debate found that former president Trump leads Vice President Harris on the issue of the economy by twenty percentage points, and the latest CBS poll released on September 10th found that eight in ten respondents stated that the economy will play “a major factor in their choice at the polls.” That data came less than two months after a July Statista poll found that 25% of voters viewed the economy as their top issue, while another 10% listed job creation specifically as their top issue.
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