U.S. employers announce biggest January layoff plans since 2009, driven by Amazon and UPS

U.S. employers announced 108,435 planned layoffs for January 2026, the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported, marking the highest January total the firm has recorded and the largest start-of-year surge since 2009. The tally was up 118 percent from January 2025 and roughly 205 percent higher than December 2025, underscoring a sharp early-year shift in corporate staffing plans.

Two firms accounted for an outsized share of the increase. UPS disclosed plans affecting more than 30,000 roles as it reduces Amazon deliveries and closes some sites, and Amazon said it would cut about 16,000 positions, largely at the corporate level, while closing Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go stores with plans to convert some locations to Whole Foods. Together those announcements are linked to roughly 40 percent of January’s planned job cuts, making transportation and technology the month’s largest sector contributors. Other sectors with notable announcements included health care and health products, chemical, and financial services.

Planned hiring was weak alongside the surge in cuts. Challenger recorded 5,306 planned hires in January, the lowest January total since the firm began tracking hiring in 2009. That number fell 13 percent from January 2025 and about 49 percent from December 2025. Private payroll data from ADP showed modest private-sector job gains of roughly 22,000 in January, a far smaller flow of hiring than would be needed to absorb the announced cuts if they materialize.

“Generally, we see a high number of job cuts in the first quarter, but this is a high total for January,” said Andy Challenger, chief revenue officer at Challenger, Gray & Christmas. He added, “It means most of these plans were set at the end of 2025, signaling employers are less than optimistic about the outlook for 2026.”

WARN filings and commercial compilations show more than 100 employers filed notices in January, spanning national names and regional employers alike. Examples include General Motors, FedEx, Wells Fargo, Synopsys, Mattel, Providence Health, International Paper, Post Consumer Brands and numerous retail, manufacturing and hospitality firms. The breadth of filings highlights that the wave of planned cuts touches technology and logistics giants as well as smaller employers across the country.

Analysts caution that announcements do not always become immediate or total layoffs and that such data can be volatile. “These are announcements, not necessarily immediate layoffs, and past headline plans haven’t always shown up as sustained increases in weekly unemployment claims,” Finimize observed. The firm also noted that while technology such as AI appeared as a factor in about 7 percent of notices, it was rarely the principal reason cited; lost contracts and softer market conditions were more commonly listed.

Finimize framed the data as a warning sign tied to weak hiring: “Hiring plans are the real tell.” If layoff announcements remain elevated while hiring stays muted, wage growth and consumer spending could cool later in 2026, with implications for growth and inflation dynamics. Policymakers and markets will watch whether these company plans translate into measurable increases in jobless claims and slower payroll gains in coming months, which could alter the outlook for monetary policy and corporate investment decisions.