U.S Companies That Recently Announced Worker Layoffs

The U.S. labor market is experiencing a series of layoffs in the government and the private sector.

The tech industry, logistics, consulting firms, the automotive industry, and consumer product companies’ employers cited restructuring, cost-cutting, and the adoption of automation and AI as the reasons for the layoffs.

The layoffs are an indication of the problems in the labor market in the U.S., as the total number of layoffs surpasses those experienced during the pandemic.

The largest source of job loss can be attributed to the federal government in the U.S., which is eliminating hundreds of thousands of positions due to overall downsizing initiatives in the country under the current administration.

Approximately 307,000 federal positions are set to be eliminated, mostly through reductions in force in multiple agencies and buyouts to reduce the civilian workforce.

There have also been legal challenges to these decisions, especially for emergency management roles.

In the private sector, job cuts are being felt among the big firms in online retail and manufacturing.

Technology and Corporate Giants Lead the Cuts

Layoffs in the technology industry are being led by Amazon, which is cutting 30,000 jobs in the office and support jobs.

Among them is a recent round of 16,000 layoffs that are part of an ongoing restructuring plan that involves unbundling bureaucracy and building out AI capabilities.

Microsoft has also reduced its workforce by approximately 15,000 jobs as part of restructuring.

Meta has reduced around 1,000 employees, mostly in non-core businesses, even as it expands its AI research teams.

Accenture, a technology consulting firm, has announced the cutting of 11,000 employees due to reduced enterprise IT demand and changes in the spending patterns of its clients.

Salesforce has reduced 4,000 employees, mostly to optimize customer support functions.

IBM has cut 2,700 employees as part of a restructuring to focus on cloud and automation.

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Logistics, Automotive and Consumer

In the logistics sector, UPS is expected to lay off 78,000 workers due to decreased shipping activities and the need to transition to leaner operations.

In the retail and automotive sector, companies like Ford and General Motors are reducing the overall employee count due to the need to transition to more electrified and cost-efficient operations.

Nissan and Bosch are other automotive companies in this list.

Nestle, the consumer sector leader in the list of companies planning layoffs in 2026, plans to lay off 16,000 workers globally in its efforts to reduce costs.

Another grocery retailer in this list is Kroger, which plans to lay off 1,000 workers.

In the semiconductor sector, which has one of the highest exposures to the Chinese market and export regulations, Applied Materials plans to lay off more than 1,400 workers due to market and export slowdowns.

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Telecom, Airlines and Media

Verizon is cutting more than 13,000 jobs as it restructures operations under new leadership and streamlines customer service and management functions.

American Airlines has announced about 2,700 job cuts as part of efficiency drives at its headquarters.

Media firm Paramount plans to reduce roughly 2,000 positions amid content consolidation and streaming business pressure.

Economic and Labor Market Context

This series of layoffs comes at a time when the pace of new job creation in the U.S. has slowed down, with the rate of hiring flat and the rate of unemployment on the rise.

The impact of automation and AI, which, although making the process of work easier, is changing the nature of work, with some jobs at risk, moreso those that are less skilled.

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Some of the Top U.S. Companies that are Conducting Mass Layoffs. PHOTO/ File