Artificial intelligence led all employer-cited reasons for U.S. job cuts in March, accounting for 15,341 of the month's 60,620 announced layoffs, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. This is a significant increase since Challenger began tracking AI as a reason in 2023, with 99,470 layoff announcements from that period accounting for 3.5% of all job cuts. Total U.K. job losses rose 25% from February to March, but were down 78% from March 2025. For the first quarter overall, employers announced 217,362 job cuts, the lowest Q1 total since 2022. Technology companies announced 18,720 cuts, bringing the 2026 total to 52,050, up 40% from the 37,097 tech cuts announced in the same period last year. The news industry, tracked as a subset of media, announced 639 cuts through Q1 2026, up 12% from 573 the previous year.