US businessmen in March announced the third highest number of last month’s layoffs as Elon Musk’s Efficiency of the Government Efficiency Department (DOGE) He continued his efforts to reduce federal work force, new data were displayed.

Challenger’s monthly report, Gray & Christmas found that entrepreneurs announced 275,240 work cuts in March, an increase of 60% over the previous month when 172,017 cuts were announced.

The cuts last month increased by 205% compared to March 2024, which was the highest monthly monthly registered last year.

“”Workshography The ads were dominated last month by the Government Efficiency Department (DOGE) plans to eliminate the positions of the federal government. Otherwise it would have been a very quiet month for layoffs, “said Andrew Challenger, a senior vice president and expert instead of Challenger’s work, Gray & Christmas.

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DOGE leader Elon Musk has led a significant number of federal jobs. (Photo of Samuel Corum / Getty Images / Getty Images)

During the last two months, DOGE cuts have been attributed to 280,253 federal workers and contractors dismissals to 27 agencies, according to the Challenger Tracking. There was an additional reduction of 4,429 jobs attributed to the downstream purpose of the reduction of federal aid and the completion of contracts, mainly in health and non -profit organizations.

The number of work cuts announced in March is the third highest monthly period recorded in the data series, which only occurred the massive cuts announced at the beginning of the first moment Covid pandemic When 671,129 cuts were recorded in April 2020 and 397,016 in May 2020.

Challenger began reporting on job reduction plans in 1989.