(NewsNation) — U.S. employers have announced more than 1.1 million job cuts so far this year, the most since 2020, according to new data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

The outplacement firm said this year’s tally is up 54% from the first 11 months of last year and marks just the sixth time since 1993 that cuts have topped 1.1 million by the end of November.

Employers announced 71,321 job cuts last month, the report said — down more than 50% from October but the highest November total since 2022.

“Layoff plans fell last month, certainly a positive sign,” said Andy Challenger, chief revenue officer for Challenger, Gray & Christmas. But he noted that November job cuts rarely exceed 70,000, a threshold crossed only twice since 2008.

Verizon’s plan to cut more than 13,000 jobs helped push November’s total higher. Tech companies also continued to make cuts, announcing 12,377 last month and bringing the year’s total to more than 153,000.

Restructuring was the most common reason cited for November’s cuts, but AI has also been a notable factor, with nearly 55,000 job-cut announcements tied to the technology this year.

Challenger, Gray & Christmas’s monthly report has drawn more attention recently due to the gap in federal labor data resulting from the government shutdown.

The Labor Department isn’t releasing a full October jobs report, and November’s data is scheduled to arrive more than 10 days late.

A separate report this week from payroll processor ADP found that private employers shed 32,000 jobs in November, a larger drop than analysts expected. Even more concerning: small businesses led the decline, shedding 120,000 jobs.

Markets currently see an 87% chance the Federal Reserve cuts rates by a quarter-point at its upcoming meeting, according to the CME FedWatch Tool — reflecting expectations that policymakers will move to bolster a softening labor market.

The most recent official jobs data from September showed employers added a surprising 119,000 jobs. Still, the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.4%, the highest level since October 2021.