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As layoffs pile up, workers are feeling increasingly anxious about the job market.
In the U.S., economists have said that businesses are largely at a “no-hire, no-fire” standstill, leading many to limit new work, if not pause openings entirely, amid economic uncertainty. Hiring has stagnated overall — with the country adding a meager 50,000 jobs last month, down from a revised figure of 56,000 in November.
But a growing list of companies is also cutting jobs. Employers have initiated layoffs across sectors, with many pointing to rising operational costs that span from President Donald Trump’s barrage of new tariffs, stubborn inflation and shifts in spending from consumers, whose outlook on the U.S. economy recently plummeted to its lowest level since 2014. At the same time, some businesses are reducing their workforces as they redirect money to artificial intelligence, often baked into wider corporate restructuring.
Beyond the private sector, thousands of federal government employees lost their jobs in cuts taken by the Trump administration last year — forcing many to look for new work. That’s further strained workers’ overall sentiment about finding stable employment today.
Here are a few companies that have announced some of the largest job cuts recently.
E-commerce giant Amazon slashed about 16,000 corporate roles on Wednesday — just three months after laying off another 14,000 workers. In its latest round of layoffs, Amazon cited restructuring aimed at “removing bureaucracy” in its operations, but the cuts also arrive as the company continues to ramp up spending on AI. CEO Andy Jassy previously said that he anticipated generative AI to reduce Amazon’s corporate workforce.
UPS
On Tuesday, United Parcel Service said it plans to cut up to 30,000 operational jobs this year — notably as the package company continues to reduce the number of Amazon shipments it handles amid wider turnaround efforts. UPS said these cuts will be made through a voluntary buyout offer for full-time drivers and attrition. The reductions come on top of a combined 48,000 job cuts that the company disclosed in 2025.
Tyson Foods
Late last year, Tyson Foods said it would be closing a plant that employed 3,200 people in Lexington, Nebraska — bringing job losses for nearly a third of the small town’s population of 11,000. The layoffs began on Jan. 20, but the company notified state officials that it was temporarily retaining under 300 workers to help complete the closure. Tyson in November also announced plans to cut one of two shifts at an Amarillo, Texas, plant, eliminating an additional 1,700 jobs.
HP
Also in November, HP said it expected to lay off between 4,000 and 6,000 employees. The cuts are part of a wider initiative from the computer maker to streamline operations, which includes adopting AI to increase productivity. The company aims to complete these actions by the end of the 2028 fiscal year.
Verizon
Verizon began laying off more than 13,000 employees in November. In a staff memo announcing the cuts, CEO Dan Schulman said that the telecommunications giant needed to simplify operations and “reorient” the entire company.
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 amid headwinds like rising commodity costs and U.S. imposed tariffs. The Swiss food giant said the layoffs would take place over the next two years.
Novo Nordisk
In September, Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk said it would cut 9,000 jobs, about 11% of its workforce. The company — which makes drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy — said the layoffs were part of wider restructuring, as it works to sell more obesity and diabetes medications amid rising competition.
Intel
Intel has moved to shed thousands of jobs as the struggling chipmaker works to revive its business. Last year, CEO Lip-Bu Tan said Intel expected to end 2025 with 75,000 “core” workers, excluding subsidiaries, through layoffs and attrition. That’s down from 99,500 core employees reported at the end of 2024. The company previously announced a 15% workforce reduction.
Procter & Gamble
Last summer, 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.
Microsoft
Microsoft initiated two rounds of mass layoffs last year, first impacting 6,000 and then another 9,000 positions. The tech giant cited “organizational changes,” but the cuts also arrived as the company spends heavily on AI.
Other companies that have taken job cuts recently
- General Motors cut about 1,700 jobs across manufacturing sites in Michigan and Ohio last fall, in addition to hundreds of temporary layoffs for other employees.
- Skydance-owned Paramount initiated roughly 1,000 layoffs in October, and later announced plans to cut another 1,600 jobs as part of divestitures in Argentina and Chile.
- Target in October moved to eliminate about 1,800 corporate positions.
- ConocoPhillips announced plans to lay off up to a quarter of its workforce, or between 2,600 and 3,250 workers, taking most of the cuts before the end of 2025.
- Lufthansa Group says it will shed 4,000 jobs by 2030.
The Cost of "Bloat": American Workers Face a New Era of Corporate Downsizing
The winds of change are blowing through corporate America, and for many workers, they feel like a chilling gust. After years of unprecedented expansion during the pandemic, a new era of cost-cutting is taking hold, leading to significant layoffs across major companies. The narrative, for now, isn't primarily about the rise of AI, but rather a more fundamental concern: "bloat."
Companies like Amazon and UPS, once symbols of explosive growth, are now aggressively shrinking their workforces. Amazon recently announced an additional 16,000 corporate layoffs, following 14,000 cuts in the fall, amounting to roughly 10% of its corporate staff. UPS expects to slash 30,000 jobs this year, building on 48,000 cuts from last year, in an effort to "right-size" its operations. Pinterest is also trimming its workforce by up to 15%.
"A lot of these companies found that they are too big," states Guy Berger, a senior fellow at the Burning Glass Institute. This sentiment echoes through executive boardrooms, where the focus has shifted from rapid expansion to efficiency and expense management. The sectors that boomed in 2020 and 2021—tech and logistics—are now experiencing the most significant contractions. In 2025, U.S.-based employers announced 1.2 million job cuts, the highest annual figure since 2020, with tech leading the charge with over 154,000 cuts.
Laura Ullrich, director of economic research at Indeed, notes that "This is still about the overhiring or hiring boom that happened in that immediate post-pandemic era." Executives are actively streamlining operations, reducing management layers, and cutting bureaucracy. Beth Galetti, a senior vice president at Amazon, assured staff that these cuts are not a "new rhythm" of constant reductions, but rather an effort to become more agile.
Even Starbucks, under CEO Brian Niccol, is examining how technology can improve staffing efficiency, anticipating fewer corporate-support center hires and more growth in its cafes. The company has already undergone two rounds of layoffs since Niccol's arrival in September 2024.
While the overall U.S. job market remains relatively healthy by historical standards, with layoffs concentrated among a smaller number of large companies, the impact on affected individuals is profound. Hiring has slowed, and those who lose their jobs are finding it increasingly difficult to secure new employment, with the average length of unemployment rising to 24.4 weeks in December, up from 19.4 weeks in December 2022.
High interest rates and tariff uncertainties are contributing to companies hitting the pause button on hiring. Furthermore, a new factor is beginning to exert its influence: artificial intelligence. Firms are investing billions in AI, shifting expenses from labor to technology. Pinterest, for instance, is cutting 700 jobs to prioritize "AI-powered products and capabilities."
Some economists and CEOs believe this is just the beginning of an AI-driven wave of job cuts. Goldman Sachs economists estimate that AI was responsible for 5,000 to 10,000 monthly net job losses in 2025 in exposed industries, a figure they expect to double to 20,000 a month in 2026. Over time, AI could displace 6% to 7% of all current jobs, though it is also expected to create new ones through economic growth.
Verizon Communications CEO Dan Schulman, speaking at the World Economic Forum, acknowledged the rapid shifts in the job market, stating, "If you say to your employees there’s not going to be any job disruption, I think you lose all credibility." Verizon itself plans to cut over 13,000 jobs. Schulman added, ominously, "Machines can do most anything we do better than we can do it."
For now, however, the immediate focus remains on rectifying the "overhiring" of the pandemic years. Logistics firms, which expanded rapidly due to increased online spending, are now facing the dual challenges of trade tensions and increased automation. Nike, for example, is cutting 775 people, primarily in its distribution centers, as it implements more advanced automation.
This period of corporate streamlining is likely to continue, requiring workers to adapt. Andy Decker, CEO of recruiting firm Goodwin Recruiting, advises job seekers to be prepared for career evolution. "In this current market, people need to realize what they’ve done might not be what they’re going to be doing forward," he said. "They’ve got to constantly be evolving.”
Elon Musk made a big announcement about Tesla on Wednesday, saying in an earnings call that the company would be ending production of its Model S and Model X, and converting the Fremont factory to production of the Optimus robot.
After contributing to his own brand's toxicity over the last year through his association with the Trump administration, and amid steepening competition from other luxury EV makers, Elon Musk announced Wednesday that Tesla would be scaling back its car production and pivoting, at least in part, to being a producer of humanoid robots — the market for which seems far from clear.
"It’s time to basically bring the Model S and X programs to an end with an honorable discharge,” Musk said during Tesla's Q4 earnings call. “So if you’re interested in buying a Model S and X, now would be the time to order it."
As CNBC notes, the Model S, which began production in 2012, and the Model X are Tesla's second- and third-oldest models, after the original Roadster. The models apparently only account for around 3% of production these days, with the other 97% of Tesla's production devoted to the more popular, and less expensive, Model Y and Model 3. And Musk said Wednesday that the final versions of both models X and S would be produced in the upcoming quarter.
Musk spoke about the "completely new supply chain" for Optimus robots, and said he expected to increase both headcount and production at the Fremont facility once the production lines convert.
Tesla had a fairly terrible year in 2025, showing its smallest annual profit since the pandemic, and the company has seen two years of declining sales. As the Associated Press reports, Musk told investors not to focus on car sales, but instead to focus on the future of artificial intelligence, both with Tesla's Robotaxis and the Optimus robots.
And while competition in the EV market is partly to blame, one can't discount the damage Musk did to the Tesla brand generally — and to his own reputation, with the scandals around his AI chatbot Grok compounding the situation.
"They’ve got aging product that is less and less competitive as other manufacturers come out with new models, then there is the general brand destruction," says Telemetry analyst Sam Abuelsamid, speaking to the AP. "Musk‘s involvement in politics has turned off customers."