With over 1.1 million layoffs in 2025, HR leaders now face what experts call a “Trust Recession.” The biggest casualty of this wave of mass job cuts in 2025 is employee trust. For many workers, the ground beneath feels permanently shaky. As for HR leaders, no metric is harder to rebuild than organizationa

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trust. Historically, layoffs were treated as a strategic business decision. Today, employees internalize them as personal signals. Am I valued? Am I next? Does my company care about my

future? Each round of company layoffs in 2025 chips away at the core pillars of employee trust until