A shaky job market is shrinking job safety within the nook workplace – notably in California.
My trusty spreadsheet discovered exits of chief government officers had been on the rise in a report by office consultants at Challenger, Grey & Christmas. Nationwide, 1,650 CEOs misplaced their jobs within the first 9 months of 2025, Challenger stories. It’s a part of a two-year upswing in companies altering their high executives.
In the identical interval in 2024, 1,652 CEOs departed. But within the earlier 9 years, a median of 1,004 chief executives left their posts in the identical time-frame. This interprets to 64% extra adjustments for the large boss.
California is the highest state for CEO exits in 2025, with 194 CEOs leaving their positions in 9 months. Subsequent got here Texas at 132, North Carolina at 102, Florida at 98, and Pennsylvania at 75.
It’s value noting that California is the nation’s largest financial system. It’s bought 18 million employees, greater than some other state and 11% of the nation’s 159 million. Golden State companies comprise 11% of the five hundred firms that make up the high-profile S&P 500 inventory index. And 13% of the INC. 5000 rating of America’s fastest-growing firms hail from California.
So the state topping the CEO departure rankings isn’t a serious shock. Its 12% share of U.S. CEO exits is on par with its enterprise clout.
Nonetheless, California’s CEO turnover elevated by 5 in a 12 months, rating because the twelfth largest enhance nationally.
The largest leap was in Texas at 28, then Georgia at 24, and Indiana at 18. The most important declines had been in Massachusetts, down 26, Washington state, down 18, and North Carolina, down 17.
California’s slice of introduced staffing cuts at main employers, additionally tracked by Challenger, is barely bigger.
That’s the second-largest employment minimize nationwide, accounting for 14% of the 1.1 million U.S. layoffs.
The nationwide layoff hotspot was Washington, D.C., with 303,800. After California got here New York, with 81,701, adopted by Georgia with 78,049, and Washington state with 77,700. As for California’s financial rivals, Texas ranked seventh with 46,400 deliberate cuts, and Florida ranked ninth with 22,800 deliberate cuts.
California’s deliberate layoffs for 2025 elevated 16% over the previous 12 months. Nationally, deliberate layoffs are up 4% in the identical interval.
