Last month was the worst January for job cut announcements since 2009
The Spheres at Amazon headquarters in Seattle on January 29.
By Alicia Wallace, CNN
(CNN) — Mass layoffs outlined by the likes of Amazon and UPS meant last month was the worst January for job cut announcements since the Great Recession, new data showed Thursday.
US-based employers announced 108,435 job cuts in January, a threefold increase from layoff announcements in December and more than double what was tallied in January a year earlier, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas’ latest monthly report.
It’s the highest number of layoff announcements made in January since 2009, Challenger said.
About 40% of January’s layoff announcements can be tied to two firms: Amazon and UPS, which outlined plans for 16,000 and 30,000 job cuts, respectively. Last month’s layoff announcements were limited to five industries – transportation, technology, health care and health products, chemical and financial, according to the report.
“Generally, we see a high number of job cuts in the first quarter, but this is a high total for January,” Andy Challenger, chief revenue officer at the outplacement and executive coaching firm, said in a statement. “It means most of these plans were set at the end of 2025, signaling employers are less than optimistic about the outlook for 2026.”
Last year, the US labor market saw the weakest job growth outside of a recession since 2003, Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows.
And, based on Challenger’s tallies, there wasn’t a dramatic turnaround in the first month of 2026.
In January, US-based employers announced hiring plans for 5,306 workers. That’s the lowest total ever for the month of January, according to Challenger, which began tracking hiring announcements in 2009.
New data released Wednesday by payroll firm ADP showed that private-sector hiring increased by just 22,000 jobs in January.
The biggest reasons cited for the month’s planned cutbacks were contract loss (30,784), followed by market and economic conditions (28,392), restructuring (20,044) or closures (12,738), according to the report. Artificial intelligence was cited for 7,624 cuts last month and tariffs were cited for 294 cuts, Challenger noted.
“It’s difficult to say how big an impact AI is having on layoffs specifically,” he said. “We know leaders are talking about AI, many companies want to implement it in operations, and the market appears to be rewarding companies that mention it.”
The-CNN-Wire
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