Overview
- U.S. employers announced 108,435 job cuts in January, the most for any January since 2009, while planned hiring fell to 5,306, the lowest January total on record, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
- About 40% of the announced cuts came from two companies, with UPS outlining roughly 30,000 reductions tied to contract changes and Amazon planning about 16,000 mostly corporate layoffs.
- Transportation led January’s planned cuts with 31,243, followed by technology at 22,291 and health care at 17,107, Challenger’s sector breakdown shows.
- Contract losses, market and economic conditions, and restructuring were the top stated reasons for layoffs; about 7,624 jobs, or 7%, were attributed to artificial intelligence, which Challenger cautioned is difficult to quantify.
- Other gauges suggest cooling rather than collapse, as ADP estimated a 22,000 gain in private payrolls and job openings fell to about 6.5 million in December, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ January report rescheduled for Feb. 11.