Feb. 5 (UPI) — January marked the worst start to a year for layoffs since 2009, Challenger, Gray and Christmas’ job report said Thursday.
Employers announced layoffs for 108,435 people in January, a 118% increase over last year. No January has matched that count since 2009, when the United States was climbing out of the Great Recession.
January’s layoffs were 205% higher than December and the highest monthly total since October, when 153,074 layoffs were announced.
“Generally, we see a high number of job cuts in the first quarter but this is a high total for January,” Andy Challenger, workplace expert and chief revenue officer for the firm, said in a statement. “It means most of these plans were set at the end of 2025, signaling employers are less-than-optimistic about the outlook for 2026.”
Large employers, including Amazon, UPS and Dow Inc., are among those to announce mass layoffs. Hiring has also declined by 13% to start the year.
The loss or restructuring of contracts is a key factor in companies announcing layoffs this year. Contract loss was cited as the reason for 30,784 layoffs. Market and economic conditions are the second most cited reason, accounting for 28,382 layoffs.
The transportation industry contributed to the deepest cuts to employment, led by UPS reducing its jobs by 30,000. The UPS cut is due in part to reducing its delivery volume for Amazon as Amazon focuses on its own delivery service.
Amazon’s 16,000 layoffs contributed heavily to the tech industry losing 22,291 jobs in January.
“CEO Andy Jassy [Amazon], 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 new technology,” Challenger said.
AI was the cited reason for 54,836 layoffs in 2025.