Overview
- Employers announced 108,435 job cuts in January, the highest January total since 2009, and outlined just 5,306 planned hires, the lowest January tally in records back to 2009, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
- Job openings fell to 6.5 million in December, the fewest since September 2020, even as the BLS reported the layoffs rate unchanged at a low 1.1% in the JOLTS survey.
- Initial unemployment claims rose by 22,000 to about 231,000 in the final week of January, a jump some economists link partly to weather and seasonal distortions.
- Two firms accounted for a large share of January announcements—UPS at roughly 30,000 and Amazon at about 16,000—while transportation, technology and healthcare saw notable cuts driven by contract losses, restructuring and market conditions; AI was cited in 7,624 cuts.
- The Labor Department postponed the January payrolls release to Feb. 11 after a brief shutdown, leaving a mixed picture that many economists describe as a “low-hire, low-fire” labor market.