Massive job cuts continued last month across several industries, including health care. According to the Challenger Report for May from global outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, U.S.-based employers announced 97,006 job cuts in May — up 16% from the 83,387 job cuts recorded in April, and up 3% from May 2025.
The total for May 2026 is the highest for that month since 2020 — at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — when 397,016 job cuts were recorded. It also marks the third straight month that cuts have risen, climbing from 48,307 in February to 97,006 in May.
Artificial intelligence led all reasons for job cuts for the third month in a row, with 38,579 announced cuts. It is the highest monthly total ever recorded for the reason since Challenger began tracking it in 2023, and it accounted for 40% of all cuts announced in May. That's up from just 7% in January, 25% in March, and 26% in April. For the year, AI has been cited in 87,714 cuts, or 22% of all 2026 layoffs. That already far surpasses the 54,836 attributed to the reason in all of 2025.
"On top of the headline AI story, we're seeing a sharp rise in cuts tied to acquisitions and mergers and a jump in bankruptcy-related losses, which tells me companies are restructuring aggressively as they reposition for an AI-driven economy," Andy Challenger, labor and workplace expert and chief revenue officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in a statement.
So far this year, employers have announced 397,755 cuts, down 43% from the 696,309 announced through the first five months of 2025, when reductions to the federal workforce drove totals to historic highs. Stripping out that distortion, however, 2026 is running roughly even with 2024, when 385,859 cuts were announced through May, according to the firm.
Health care among hardest-hit industries
While the technology sector announced 38,242 job cuts in May, the highest monthly total for that sector since August 2024, the health care/products sector (including hospitals) also ranked high on the list. That sector has announced 30,414 cuts so far this year, up 17% from the 26,008 cuts announced in the same period in 2025. Pharmaceutical companies, meanwhile, announced 5,045 cuts in May for a total of 12,485 through the first five months of 2026, up 753% from the 1,463 cuts announced through May 2025.
Other sectors with large cuts include transportation, fintech, local government, and the media industry.
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.