Job cuts so far this year have already surpassed the total for 2024, as government cost-cutting, economic uncertainty and AI have prompted employers to reduce staff.

California and the tech industry have been particularly hard hit, according to a Thursday report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a company that helps people pivot to new careers and monitors job cut announcements by U.S. companies.

In the eight months through August, companies announced about 892,000 cuts. That’s 66 percent more than a year earlier and already above the total for 2024. The last time the cut tally was higher was in the middle of COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020.

The Trump administration’s initiative to slash government spending — through what it calls the Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE

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