“Trump put billionaires in charge of everything,” said progressive Congressman Greg Casar. “It’s a disaster.”
The US labor market, which in recent months had ground nearly to a halt, now appears to be entering a downward spiral.
As reported by the Washington Post on Thursday, new data from corporate outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found that employers in October announced 153,000 job cuts, which marked the highest number of layoffs in that month since October 2003.
Total announced job cuts in 2025 have now reached 1.1 million, a number that the Post describes as a “recession-like” level comparable to the steep job cuts announced in the wake of the dotcom bust of the early 2000s, the global financial crisis of 2008, and the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
What was your business?
I was a UI/UX Designer and Frontend Developer working on a federal government contract for four years creating web apps to be used as internal facing tools. The contract got an extension and my company was a shoe in for the follow up contract for further development and maintenance.
Trump won and we were informed that the contract extension was revoked, the new contract terms were drastically changed, and the bid was denied without reason.
I’ve been skipping meals since May.
Can you sue for breach of contract? Or is the federal government just allowed to “revoke” a contract extension?
Oh let me clarify I wasn’t the owner. I was just a developer/designer. I have no idea what the legality is, I was just simply laid off.
Bummer.
Big 3 firm doge cuts to contracts, couldn’t justify acquiring us anymore mid-deal. Stood to have my first proper exit after 20 years, and finally almost put a down payment on a starter home at middle age. I have more ways this has fucked me in business, but you get the point. This isn’t even capitalism.
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I’m sorry to hear that.
Thanks! I’m blessed to have work when a lot of good people don’t.
Let me know if you can share the blessing.
Oof, I am also a UI/UX and middleware person. I am going on 13 months of unemployment. The job market is nonexistent right now. I’ve started looking at a career change, even though I still have 60K in student loans.
I picked up AWS certifications, Python for api development, and I’m working on my entry level program manager certification. It’s not working out all that well, but it does help when interviewing.
systems admin and operations type of guy. been unemployed for the same time and the disturbing thing compared to other periods of unemployment is how often I get a response that they pulled the position.
Ah man I’m really sorry to hear that. Hopefully Virginia and New York are the first signs of a well deserved backlash. A lot of the companies that went all in on AI to replace UX/UI and research are quietly hiring back now. All the best.