If last year’s news cycle felt like a nonstop barrage of corporate layoff announcements, that’s because it was.

Employers announced over 1,200,000 job cuts in 2025, up 58% from 2024, when 761,000 layoffs were disclosed, according to an analysis from outplacement services firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas. That’s also the highest level seen since 2020, when some 2,300,000 cuts were announced.

March marked the highest month for layoff announcements last year, at around 250,000, followed by February with more than 172,000 cuts, HR Brew previously reported. December saw the fewest announcements, with just 35,553 cuts announced, while employers announced plans to hire more than 10,000 roles, an increase from past Decembers and a positive sign, according to the firm.

Zoom out. Challenger, Gray and Christmas’s monthly layoffs tracker is frequently cited in business news coverage about the state of the labor market. That said, experts have warned that Challenger’s data, which tracks layoff announcements, not job cuts themselves, is not a fully reliable source for measuring the current state of the labor market.

For more on what HR needs to know about the data, keep reading here.—PM

The Department of Labor (DOL) explained how federal labor laws apply to different workplace situations in a series of six opinion letters released on Jan. 5.

This recent announcement is part of a broader push by the DOL to guide employers on compliance matters through opinion letters. Such letters lay out how the DOL and its sub-agencies enforce federal law and regulations when considering specific questions regarding the workplace.

The most recent opinion letters address questions concerning the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Here’s a quick rundown of what you need to know.

For more on the new DOL opinion letters, keep reading here.—CV

When it comes to AI regulation, the Trump administration has decided that having one cook in the kitchen is better than 50.

In December, the Trump administration issued an executive order seemingly sidelining states’ AI laws in favor of a national policy framework. In the order, the administration argued that “excessive” state regulation “thwarts” innovation, and alleges that state laws are increasingly responsible for “requiring entities to embed ideological bias with [AI] models.”

For more on the implications for corporate America, keep reading on IT Brew.—CN

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