Layoff announcements from U.S. employers shot up in August on the back of trucking company Yellow Corp's filing for bankruptcy and adding to recent evidence that the labor market is cooling.

U.S.-based employers announced 75,151 job cuts in August, according to a report released on Thursday by employment firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a 217% surge from July's levels, which were the lowest in nearly a year.

A significant portion of the announced layoffs arose from the approximately 30,000 workers reported to have lost their jobs after Yellow, one of the country's largest trucking companies, filed for bankruptcy earlier this month. At the same time, economists have noted the anticipated layoffs at Yellow have not yet had any measurable impact on new claims for unemployment benefits.

For over a year, the labor market remained resilient in the face of the Federal Reserve's 525 basis points of interest rate hikes since March 2022, and in July the number of layoffs decreased annually for the first time in over a year. But other data released this week revealed long-expected signs of softening, as private payrolls growth slowed and job openings slipped in July.

“Job openings are falling, and American workers are more reluctant to leave their positions right now. The job market is resetting after the pandemic and post-pandemic hiring frenzy,” said Andrew Challenger, senior vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas. (Reporting by Safiyah Riddle; Editing by Andrea Ricci)