When it comes to employment, 2025 has been a rocky year, to say the least.
Layoffs have surged in the first half of the year as companies grapple with everything from falling revenues and restructuring efforts to the threat of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
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May alone saw close to 100,000 job cuts, just shy of a 50% increase year over year, according to new data reported by Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
“Tariffs, funding cuts, consumer spending, and overall economic pessimism are putting intense pressure on companies’ workforces,” said senior vice president Andrew Challenger. “Companies are spending less, slowing hiring, and sending layoff notices.”
Related: Disney makes a devastating layoff announcement
Since the beginning of the year, nearly 700,000 jobs have been cut in total, leaving a massive amount of people on the job market and seeking out new employment.
A few of the biggest companies doing layoffs this year include Disney, which announced its fourth round of layoffs on June 2; Microsoft, which also announced in June that it would lay off 305 of its Washington employees; and Meta, which laid off 100 employees from its Reality Labs division in April.
Now another huge company has announced it will lay off 15% of its workforce, fanning a fire that continues to grow.
Procter & Gamble is making a big change to its workforce.
Image source: TheStreet
7,000 jobs will be terminated
Procter & Gamble (PG)  executives announced at a June 5 Deutsche Bank conference in Paris that the company aims to cut 7,000 jobs, or 15% of its total workforce, over the next two years.
The executives also said they would trim the company’s product portfolio and exit some categories, but did not specify which products might be affected by those cuts.
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“We see more opportunities to make growth broader and teams smaller, making work more fulfilling, faster and more efficient, leveraging digitization and automation opportunities,” CFO Andre Schulten said.
While many businesses have cited cost cutting as the reason for their layoffs, P&G specified that wasn’t the case here. Instead, it said they are part of the aforementioned reorganization effort to create a better overall work structure.
P&G reported mixed results in its quarterly call in April, missing its expectations on both net and organic sales growth for Q1.
Customer behavior signals a worrisome trend
As President Trump’s trade war continues to seesaw by the day, many businesses are unsure of how to predict the year ahead.
One thing many businesses have reported, however, is shifting customer behavior around purchasing.
“We are hearing more reports from businesses and others that consumers are starting to pare back some of that consumer spending,” New York Fed President John Williams said in an interview with Bloomberg.
This may be a result of key businesses that consumers rely on announcing their retail prices would increase as a result of tariffs. Walmart, Target, Mattel, Best Buy, Macy’s, and E.l.f. are a few of the companies that have publicly announced price increases.
Other businesses seem to be immune — for now. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in May that the retail giant hasn’t seen any pullback in consumer behavior just yet.
However, that may be due to Amazon’s early moves regarding tariffs. Jassy said in April that Amazon made some “strategic forward inventory buys” to stock up on goods before prices rise.
Related: Amazon’s CEO shares warning on prices, item shortages
