Automakers led April’s announced job reductions at more than 14,000 as U.S. companies across several industries continued trimming workforces in a bid to reduce costs and boost profits in the face of diminished customer demand, according to the latest monthly tracking by Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

The outplacement firm said the auto industry announced 14,373 cuts, primarily consisting of Tesla’s plans to slash 14,000 jobs, or about 10% of its global workforce. Auto industry layoffs totaled 20,189 for the first four months of 2024, more than doubling the figure for the same period of 2023.

U.S.-based firms announced a total of 64,789 reductions during April, down 28% from the prior month and declining 3.3% from April 2023, while year-to-date cuts reached 322,043, down 4.6% from the first four months 2023.

“The labor market remains tight. But as labor costs continue to rise, companies will be slower to hire, and we expect further cuts will be needed,” Senior Vice President Andrew Challenger said in a statement Thursday. “This low April figure may be the calm before the storm.”

For announced cuts during April, the auto industry was followed by education at 8,092, healthcare at 5,826, technology at 4,994 and retail at 4,084. Year-to-date numbers showed technology making by far the most job reductions at 113,944, with cuts by companies including Microsoft, Amazon, Apple and the parent firms of Google and Facebook. 

The state of Maryland is expected to receive a $350 million insurance payment related to the March collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore that killed six construction workers and continues to slow cargo and commuter traffic in one of the nation’s busiest ports.

Citing information from Henry Daar, head of property claims for policy broker WTW, the Wall Street Journal reported that insurer Chubb is preparing to pay the state based on a policy written on the bridge that collapsed when it was hit by a cargo ship that had lost power. The exact cause of the accident remains under investigation.

State and regional officials said 3,000 tons of wreckage and debris have been removed from the bridge site, with an estimated 50,000 tons still to be cleared out. Port authorities have cleared four temporary channels to let limited ship traffic resume after several ships were left stuck in the port for nearly a month.

The city of Baltimore has filed its own legal claim against Grace Ocean Private Ltd., the owner of the ship that struck the bridge, and Synergy Marine, which managed the vessel, seeking unspecified damages. Chubb could also file its own suit seeking reimbursement for the insurance payout, according to several media outlets.

The expected insurance payout to Maryland would be the upper limit of the state’s policy coverage on the bridge, and is expected to be made within weeks, the Journal reported. Regional authorities have said it could cost more than $1 billion and take several years to replace the bridge. 

Initial U.S. claims for unemployment insurance totaled 208,000 for the week ended April 27, unchanged from the prior week’s revised level in what remains a strong employment market, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

The four-week moving average for initial claims was 210,000, down 3,500 from the previous week’s revised average. Continuing claims in all programs, tracked on a more delayed basis, totaled about 1.8 million for the week ended April 13, declining 36,526 from the prior week but remaining higher than the 1.7 million total for the comparable week of 2023.

“One reason that new filings are low is that new laid-off workers are still finding new work fairly quickly, limiting the rise in the take-up rate for initial claims,” Ryan Sweet, chief U.S. economist for research firm Oxford Economics, said in a statement on the government numbers.

Also this week, the Department of Labor reported that U.S. job openings totaled about 8.5 million on the last business day of March, down slightly from 8.8 million a month earlier and below the 9.6 million openings at the end of March 2023.

March hirings declined slightly to 5.5 million compared with 5.8 million in February; with a similar trend for total separations including resignations and job cuts at 5.2 million, down from 5.5 million in February. Trends remained generally consistent with year-earlier numbers, as there were just under 6 million hirings and about 5.9 million separations during March 2023.