One in three business leaders say they plan to carry out layoffs during the holiday season, despite the brutal timing being avoidable, a new survey has found.
The November 2025 survey, carried out by Resume.org, polled 1,008 U.S. business leaders. Those who responded were permitted to provide multiple answers if they were uncertain, resulting in a total response rate of 148 percent.
Over half (57 percent) of those who expected to make cuts said they would most likely come between Thanksgiving and Christmas, while 43 percent expect the week between Christmas and the New Year, and 32 percent said before Thanksgiving.
A further 16 percent said that they had not finalized when their layoffs would occur, but that it would be before 2026.
In addition, over a third (34 percent) of respondents acknowledged that the layoffs âdefinitelyâ could have been delayed and 40 percent saying they âprobablyâ could have.
A number of reasons for the cuts to staffing were cited, with the main one being cost-cutting before the new financial quarter â 74 percent gave this as a reason. Others said it helps avoid paying bonuses (42 percent) or PTO (35 percent).
General underlying drivers for the cuts were the economy and company performance, followed by a rise in AI or automation at the company.
Kara Dennison, Resume.orgâs head of career advising, says that the timing, while especially poor in the current tough economic times, are not particularly surprising. The end of the year is a time for companies to finalize budgets, reassess employee headcount, and tie up other loose ends before January.
âLaying off employees at the end of the year can make transitions operationally easier for some teams,â Dennison said.
âFor the person losing their job, however, the timing is brutal. The holidays magnify stress, and lost income combined with the social expectations of the season, can make the experience feel lonelier.â
Dennison adds that holiday cuts can be doubly destabilizing for those workers laid off because hiring during the same period also slows down. Offering healthy or extended severance packages can help with the impact.
Despite this, according to Resume.orgâs survey, only 58 percent of companies said that all laid-off employees would receive severance, while 35 percent say only some would and 6 percent saying that none will.
Among the companies offering severance, 34 percent said they provide two weeksâ worth of pay and 30 percent said they provided three to four weeks.
At the same time, the vast majority of companies said they would still be rewarding higher-ups, with 82 percent of executives due to receive bonuses. Over half â 57 percent â say their company is still hosting a holiday party.
The surveyâs findings come as applications for unemployment benefits in the U.S., often viewed as a proxy for layoffs and close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market, fell to their lowest level in more than three years last week.
The number of Americans applying for jobless benefits for the week ending November 29 fell to 191,000 from the previous weekâs 218,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday â the lowest level since September 24, 2022, when claims came in at 189,000.
Still, wider concerns over the economy remain after a year of financial turbulence since Donald Trumpâs return to office in January.
The presidentâs global trade wars have caused the stock market to fluctuate wildly and his administrationâs mission to deport millions of undocumented immigrants has also squeezed the labor market. More significantly for everyday Americans, Trumpâs tariff policies have raised household costs by an estimated $1,100 in 2025 â adding an extra layer of anxiety for those soon to be jobless.
