The drop in layoffs is not unusual to start off the summer, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas Senior Vice President Andrew Challenger, who noted June is typically the slowest month for major reductions, though the drop in layoffs could also be the result of the Fed’s decision last month toBig Number
. That’s how many U.S. employees were laid off in major rounds of job cuts in the first six months of 2023, according to, led primarily by a wave of tech and manufacturing companies that slashed tens of thousands of jobs in January and February. The biggest so far this year: Google parent Alphabet, which let go of 12,000 employees, as well as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp parent Meta , Microsoft , Amazon and Salesforce .