A report released on the 4th by global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas revealed that the number of planned job cuts by U.S. companies in January reached the highest level for that month since the global financial crisis, while hiring intentions fell to their lowest level for January on record.

U.S. employers announced 108,435 layoffs during the month, a sharp increase of 118% compared to the same period last year and a surge of 205% from December 2025. This figure marks the highest number of January layoffs since 2009, when the U.S. economy was in the final months of the most severe recession since the Great Depression.

Simultaneously, companies announced only 5,306 new hiring positions, also the lowest number for January since 2009. Challenger began tracking this hiring data in 2009, the same year the crisis-induced recession officially ended in March.

Prevailing market sentiment had suggested the U.S. labor market was in a stable state of "no hiring, no firing." However, the data from Challenger indicates that the layoff side of the labor market may be heating up.

Andy Challenger, the company's workplace expert and Chief Revenue Officer, stated, "Layoff figures are typically elevated in the first quarter, but the scale of cuts this January is still exceptionally high. This suggests that most of these layoff plans were formulated by the end of 2025, indicating that employers are not optimistic about the economic outlook for 2026."

It is important to note that despite employers accelerating their layoff planning, this trend has not yet been reflected in the U.S. government's official data.

For the week ending January 24th, the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the first time was only 209,000, with its long-term trend also hovering near two-year lows.

However, large-scale layoff announcements from several major companies contradict this official data trend. Amazon, United Parcel Service Inc (UPS), and Dow Chemical recently announced significant workforce reductions. By industry, the transportation sector led layoffs in January, primarily due to UPS's plan to cut over 30,000 jobs. The technology sector followed, driven by Amazon's announcement of 16,000 layoffs, which primarily targeted corporate headquarters staff.

The number of planned hires by U.S. companies in January fell by 13% compared to January 2025 and plummeted by 49% from December 2025.

While Challenger's data can be volatile and does not perfectly correlate with official statistics, filings submitted by U.S. companies to the Labor Department under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act in January showed that over 100 companies had issued mass layoff notices.