It’s a tough time for the job market.
Amid wider economic uncertainty, some analysts have said that businesses are at a “no-hire, no-fire” standstill. That’s caused many to limit new work to only a few specific roles, if not pause openings entirely. At the same time, some sizeable layoffs have continued to pile up — raising worker anxieties across sectors.
Some companies have pointed to rising operational costs spanning from President Donald Trump’s barrage of new tariffs and shifts in consumer spending. Others cite corporate restructuring more broadly — or, as seen with big names like Amazon, are redirecting money to artificial intelligence.
Federal employees have encountered additional doses of uncertainty, impacting worker sentiment around the job market overall. Shortly after Trump returned to office at the start of the year, federal jobs were cut by the thousands. And many workers are now going without pay as the U.S. government shutdown nears its fourth week.
“A lot of people are looking around, scanning the job environment, scanning the opportunities available to them — whether in the public or private sector,” said Jason Schloetzer, professor of business administration at Georgetown University’s McDonough School. “And I think there’s a question mark around the long-term stability everywhere.”
Here are some companies that have recently moved to cut jobs.
General Motors
General Motors moved to lay off about 1,700 workers across manufacturing sites in Michigan and Ohio on Wednesday, as the auto giant adjusts to slowing demand for electric vehicles.
Hundreds of additional employees are reportedly slated for “temporary layoffs.” And GM has recently moved to downsize other parts of its workforce, too — including 200 layoffs mostly impacting engineers in Detroit, and other 300 job cuts at a Georgia IT Innovation Center, which it is also shuttering.
Paramount
In long-awaited cuts just months after completing its $8 billion merger with Skydance, Paramount is going to lay off about 2,000 employees — about 10% of its workforce.
Paramount initiated roughly 1,000 of those layoffs on Wednesday, according to a source familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The rest of the cuts will be made at a later date.
Amazon
Amazon will cut about 14,000 corporate jobs as the online retail giant ramps up spending on artificial intelligence.
Amazon said Tuesday that it will cut about 14,000 corporate jobs, close to 4% of its workforce, as the online retail giant ramps up spending on AI while trimming costs elsewhere. A letter to employees said most workers would be given 90 days to look for a new position internally.
CEO Andy Jassy previously said he anticipated generative AI would reduce Amazon’s corporate workforce in the coming years. And he has worked to aggressively cut costs overall since 2021.
UPS
United Parcel Service has disclosed about 48,000 job cuts this year as part of turnaround efforts, which arrive amid wider shifts in the company’s shipping operations.
In a Tuesday regulatory filing, UPS said it’s cut about 34,000 operational positions — and the company announced another 14,000 role reductions, mostly within management. Combined, that’s much higher than the roughly 20,000 cuts UPS forecast earlier this year.
Target
Last week, Target announced that it would eliminate about 1,800 corporate positions, or about 8% of its corporate workforce globally.
Target said the cuts were part of wider streamlining efforts — with Chief Operating Officer Michael Fiddelke noting that “too many layers and overlapping work have slowed decisions.” The retailer is also looking to rebuild its customer base. Target reported flat or declining comparable sales in nine of the past eleven quarters.
Nestlé
In mid-October, Nestlé said it would be cutting 16,000 jobs globally — as part of wider cost-cutting aimed at reviving its financial performance.
The Swiss food giant said the layoffs would take place over the next two years. The cuts arrive as Nestlé and others face headwinds like rising commodity costs and U.S.-imposed tariffs. The company announced price hikes over the summer to offset higher coffee and cocoa costs.
Lufthansa Group
In September, Lufthansa Group said it would shed 4,000 jobs by 2030 — pointing to the adoption of artificial intelligence, digitalization, and consolidating work among member airlines.
Most of the lost jobs would be in Germany, and the focus would be on administrative rather than operational roles, the company said. The layoff plans arrived even as the company reported strong demand for air travel and predicted stronger profits in the years ahead.
Novo Nordisk
Also in September, Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk said it would cut 9,000 jobs, about 11% of its workforce.
Novo Nordisk — which makes drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy — said the layoffs were part of wider restructuring as the company works to sell more obesity and diabetes medications amid rising competition.
ConocoPhillips
Oil giant ConocoPhillips has said it plans to lay off up to a quarter of its workforce, as part of broader efforts from the company to cut costs.
A spokesperson for ConocoPhillips confirmed the layoffs on Sept. 3, noting that 20% to 25% of the company’s employees and contractors would be impacted worldwide. At the time, ConocoPhillips had a total headcount of about 13,000, or between 2,600 and 3,250 workers. Most reductions were expected to take place before the end of 2025.
Intel
Intel has moved to shed thousands of jobs, with the struggling chipmaker working to revive its business as it lags behind rivals like Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices.
In a July memo to employees, CEO Lip-Bu Tan said Intel expected to end the year with 75,000 “core” workers, excluding subsidiaries, through layoffs and attrition. That’s down from 99,500 core employees reported the end of last year. The company previously announced a 15% workforce reduction.
Microsoft
In May, Microsoft began began laying off about 6,000 workers across its workforce. And just months later, the tech giant said it would be cutting 9,000 positions — marking its biggest round of layoffs seen in more than two years.
The latest job cuts hit Microsoft’s Xbox video game business and other divisions. The company has cited “organizational changes,” with many executives characterizing the layoffs as part of a push to trim management layers. But the labor reductions also arrive as the company spends heavily on AI.
Procter & Gamble
In June, Procter & Gamble said it would cut up to 7,000 jobs over the next two years, 6% of the company’s global workforce.
The maker of Tide detergent and Pampers diapers said the cuts were part of a wider restructuring — also arriving amid tariff pressures. In July, P&G said it would hike prices on about a quarter of its products due to the newly imposed import taxes, although it has since said it expects to take less of a hit than previously anticipated for the 2026 fiscal year.
Amazon's stock jumped 13% after hours on Thursday after the company reported third-quarter earnings that beat analyst expectations, gave solid Q4 guidance, and, perhaps most exciting to Wall Street, showed a reacceleration in cloud growth.
AWS sales grew 20.2% during the quarter to $33 billion, while analysts were expecting 18.1% growth. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said it was a pace "we haven't seen since 2022" and touted "strong demand in AI and core infrastructure."
The company has been facing growing pressure to prove it's not ceding ground to cloud rivals Google and Microsoft, which have been growing faster than AWS. Google Cloud sales increased 34% in Q3, while Microsoft Azure recorded growth of 40%.
To meet increased AI demand, Amazon boosted its spending forecast for the year, committing to spend $125 billion in 2025, up from its earlier estimate of $118 billion. CFO Brian Olsavsky said that number will likely increase in 2026.
While it continues to invest in AI and report hefty profits ($21.2 billion in Q3), Amazon has looked to cut costs in other areas. On Tuesday, Amazon said it will lay off 14,000 corporate employees, with job reductions hitting almost every area of the company.
Jassy addressed the layoffs during a conference call with investors, saying the announcement wasn't "financially driven" or due to AI, "right now at least."
He said the massive job cuts were about addressing problems with Amazon's "culture," overhiring, and too many "layers."
Apple reported earnings Thursday that beat analysts’ expectations. Revenue for the iPhone maker’s fourth quarter was $102.5 billion, slightly above the $102.2 billion analysts surveyed by FactSet expected and up 8% year over year.
Apple’s diluted EPS was $1.85, compared with the Street’s $1.78 forecast for the quarter ended in September, which includes a couple of weeks’ worth of new iPhone 17 sales.
The company’s fourth-quarter earnings give an indication of how the latest iPhone — which is responsible for most of Apple’s product revenue and nearly half its total revenue — might perform in the company’s all-important holiday quarter. The stock was recently propelled above a $4 trillion market cap, in part by leading indicators that suggested iPhone 17 sales were ahead of last year’s model.
During the company’s earnings call today, investors will be looking for more details on this quarter’s expected iPhone sales as well as for updates on Apple’s AI progress, which has lagged its peers. They will also be paying attention to how tariffs have affected the iPhone maker; on the company’s last earnings call, management said it expected tariffs could cost $1.1 billion in Q4.
For the quarter, the company’s iPhone sales were $49 billion, shy of the analyst consensus of $50.1 billion, while its services revenue was $28.8 billion, slightly above the Street’s $28.2 billion. Apple’s services revenue, while less visible, is increasingly important to the company’s top line. That segment includes everything from the revenue it makes from the App Store, iCloud storage, Apple TV, and the ~$20 billion a year Google pays it to be the default search engine on its products.
Major companies like Amazon, UPS, Target, and YouTube are transforming their workforces amid rapid AI adoption and shifting business priorities. While the methods differ, the impact is clear:
Amazon is using traditional layoffs, offering severance and support, but through involuntary exits.
YouTube and others are opting for voluntary separation models, providing buyouts for employees to leave on their own terms, helping reduce disruption and align with new AI-driven roles.
Ultimately, organizational culture and strategy shape which model companies adopt.
But the undeniable fact is: AI is disrupting jobs across industries, forcing workforce transformations that professionals must navigate with agility and continuous learning. The future belongs to those who adapt.