A growing list of companies has announced plans to cut hundreds—or even thousands—of jobs in January, fueling concerns about where the U.S. labor market is headed after a shaky finish to 2025.
Why It Matters
Over the past few months, some of the country’s biggest employers across multiple industries have said they will reduce headcount, citing technological shifts and wider economic pressures. For workers, that adds to an already uneasy picture: hiring has remained sluggish, and the unemployment rate rose to its highest level since 2021 in the Department of Labor’s November jobs report.
New figures from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas show U.S.-based employers announced 71,321 job cuts last month. That pushed total announced cuts for 2025 to about 1.2 million—the highest year-to-date level since 2020.
Which Companies Are Cutting Jobs Next Month?
Tyson Foods
In November, the multinational meat producer—one of the largest meat suppliers in the U.S. by sales—said it would shut down a beef processing plant in Lexington, Nebraska, ending more than two decades of operations. The closure is expected to be completed next month and would eliminate roughly 3,200 jobs.
Tyson also said it would scale back activity at its Amarillo, Texas, beef facility, affecting an additional 1,700 employees.
FedEx
The shipping and logistics company said in November that it will close a facility in Coppell, Texas, triggering phased layoffs affecting 856 employees. The reductions are expected to begin in late January, while operations at the site are scheduled to end in April.
The move comes as part of its broader Network 2.0 restructuring, but FedEx said this closure specifically followed a third-party logistics client relocating its business and switching providers.
General Motors
WARN Act filings submitted in November indicate 1,140 employees at General Motors’ Factory Zero site in Detroit, Michigan, will be laid off on January 5.
In a filing with the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, GM described the cuts as permanent, spanning multiple roles, and tied to operational adjustments amid slower-than-anticipated adoption of electric vehicles.
What People Are Saying
MIT economist Daron Acemoglu, speaking in October about the possible impact of AI on employment in 2026, said: “I don’t think we are at the cusp of mass unemployment. AI models have many limitations, and while there will be companies such as Amazon that will attempt to organize work to get more out of AI and reduce their headcount, at the macroeconomic level things will go more slowly.”
Desmond Lachman, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said there are two key reasons to be uneasy about the labor market heading into next year’s midterms: the broader economic outlook and the accelerating use of artificial intelligence to replace certain white-collar roles.
“It seems that Artificial Intelligence is already contributing to a freezing of entry level hiring and is causing white collar layoffs especially in clerical, customer service, data and IT support, and general back-office legal and financial service jobs,” he added. “My expectation is that these trends will pick up pace next year as advances in AI continue and become more integrated in the economy.”
What Happens Next
Some companies are already committed to longer-term cost-cutting efforts that will extend into the new year, including Amazon and HP. A September Resume.org survey of U.S. business leaders found 58 percent said layoffs were very or somewhat likely in 2026, pointing to trade policy pressures and broader economic uncertainty as key drivers.
