The Dow Jones (DJIA) is set to open Thursday’s trading session in negative territory after January job cuts reached their highest level since the Great Recession in 2009.
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Trade QQQ with leverageU.S. employers announced 108,435 job cuts in January, up by 118% from a year ago, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. In addition, companies announced just 5,306 new hires during the month, also the lowest since 2009.
“Generally, we see a high number of job cuts in the first quarter, but this is a high total for January,” said Andy Challenger, Challenger’s Chief Revenue Officer. “It means most of these plans were set at the end of 2025, signaling employers are less-than-optimistic about the outlook for 2026.”
UPS and Amazon Bolster Job Cuts
The transportation industry was the hardest hit with 31,243 planned job cuts, although this was primarily attributed to UPS (UPS) announcing 30,000 cuts as it winds down its partnership with Amazon (AMZN). Amazon itself announced 16,000 cuts, bringing the total in the technology industry to 22,291.
Challenger noted that contract losses were the biggest contributor to layoffs, followed by market and economic conditions and restructuring. AI was responsible for 7% of job cuts during the month.