It’s the first week of February, and most Americans have recovered from the holiday hangover and stopped mistakenly writing the year 2025 in dates.
While we are ready to turn the page on a rollercoaster 2025 and move on to 2026, some of the negative economic trends from last year appear to be spilling over into the new year.
U.S.-based employers announced 71,321 job cuts in November, according to outplacement consultancy firm Challenger, Gray, & Christmas.
The number for November 2025 was 24% higher than last year’s and is the highest for the month since 2022, when employers cut 76,835 jobs. November was the eighth month last year in which Challenger’s numbers showed a year-over-year increase.
Announced December job cuts fell significantly, as they tend to do right before rising again in January.
But this January was even bloodier than analysts at Challenger, Gray, & Christmas had expected. The indication is very concerning for the U.S. economy in 2026.
“Generally, we see a high number of job cuts in the first quarter, but this is a high total for January. It means most of these plans were set at the end of 2025, signaling employers are less-than-optimistic about the outlook for 2026,” said Andy Challenger, workplace expert and chief revenue officer for Challenger, Gray, & Christmas.
Market watchers hoping to gain some early jobs momentum from the first month of the new year will have to look elsewhere, as U.S.-based employers more than doubled the number of January job cuts from last year.
Employers announced 108,435 job cuts last month, a 118% increase from the fewer than 50,000 announced a year ago, and a 205% increase from the 35,553 let go in December.
Related: Pinterest CEO fires back at workers fighting layoffs
While the cuts affected many industries, 70% of the layoffs came from just four.
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Transportation: The industry cut 31,243 jobs, with most of that total coming after UPS announced it would cut 30,000 jobs following its split with Amazon.
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Technology: Tech companies announced 22,291 job cuts in January, with most of those attributed to Amazon, which plans 16,000 layoffs. “CEO Andy Jassy, like many CEOs recently, has said AI will cost jobs in the coming years, but this cut appears to be due more to over-hiring and reducing layers than to the new technology,” said Challenger. Pinterest also announced it will lay off hundreds of employees later this month.
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Health care: The health care industry announced 17,107 job cuts in January, its worst month since April 2020, when it announced 19,453. “Healthcare providers and hospital systems are grappling with inflation and high labor costs. Lower reimbursements from Medicaid and Medicare are also hitting hospital systems. These pressures are leading to job cuts, as well as other cutting measures, such as some pay and benefits,” said Challenger.
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Chemical: Chemical manufacturers announced more than 4,700 job cuts in January, with Dow Inc.’s big layoff announcement accounting for most of that total. It was the industry’s highest monthly total since February 2016.
