Job cuts surge in February

(CNN)– The job market experienced a major spike in layoffs last month.

U.S. employers planned to eliminate more than 172,000 positions in February, according to the latest report from ‘Challenger, Gray and Christmas’.

Researchers there say this was the 12th largest monthly total in the firm’s 32-year history of tracking the data.

The other 11-times happened while the U.S. was in the middle of a recession.

Most of the job cuts came in the government sector, led by layoffs by the Trump Administration.