There were 108,435 workers laid off in January, an increase of 205% from December. This is the highest job layoff in a January since the “Great Depression” of 2009. This information was released this month by The Labor Trend Report. In January, layoffs were higher than the 49,795 job cuts in January 2025, according to the Global Outplacement Firm.
There were 670, 000 layoffs in April 2020 caused by the COVID-19 shutdowns, which were related to the epidemic, and not the regular business cycle.
In the first quarter, there is usually a high number of job cuts , but this January’s job cuts were excessively high. Transportation alone accounted for 31,243 job cuts. Technology alone accounted for 22,291 job cuts. The health care sector and hospitals accounted for 17,107 job cuts.
The western part of the country accounted for 33,196 job cuts. The Midwest accounted for 25,490 job cuts. The North accounted for 12,256 job cuts, and the South accounted for 37,493 job cuts, according to The Labor Trend Report.
These are some of the companies that have participated in job cuts, according to various online sources:
• Amazon, around 16,000 job cuts in addition to 14,000 job cuts in October 2025.
•Angie’s List, 350 job cuts.
• Citi, job cuts of 10%, or about 20,000 job cuts.
• Dow, 4,500 job cuts.
• ConocoPhillips, job cuts up to 20% to 25%.
• General Motors, 3,300 job cuts.
• Paramount, 2,600 job cuts.
• Target, 1,800 job cuts.
• UPS, 48,000 job cuts.
• Verizon, 13,000 job cuts.
“There were 7.4 million job openings in October 2025 and now job openings are down to 6.5 million in December 2025,” according to FWD Bonds LLC. “This is exactly what happens in a recession where the demand for labor evaporates overnight.”
As it stands the United States economy will be in line for a recession.
Lois Eisenberg
Valencia
