Amazon Go Store in New York, USA Tuesday, January 27, 2026
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Layoff plans hit their highest level since the global financial crisis in January, while hiring intentions hit their lowest level since that period, outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said on Thursday.
US employers announced 108,435 layoffs in the month, up 118% from a year ago and up 205% from December 2025. The total was the highest for any January since 2009, and the economy was in the final months of its steepest recession since the Great Depression.
Meanwhile, companies announced 5,306 new hires, the lowest January since 2009, when Challenger began tracking such data. The recession officially ended in March 2009.
With recent talk of a non-hiring, fire-fueled labor market, Challenger’s data suggests that the layoff part of the equation may be intensifying.
“Overall, we see a large number of job cuts in the first quarter, but this is a high for January,” said Andy Challenger, a workplace analyst and the firm’s chief revenue officer. “This means most plans are set for late 2025, which means employers are not optimistic about the outlook for 2026.”
Of course, if employers ramp up plans to lay off workers, it won’t show up much in official government data.
However, the initial number of jobless claims for the week ended Jan. 31 was a seasonally adjusted 231,000, the highest since early December, although the uptick could be attributed to a brutal winter storm that battered much of the country. The long-term trend was at its lowest level since October 2024.
Some high-profile layoff announcements fueled fears of a major labor market hit. Amazon, UPS and Dow Inc. have recently announced significant job cuts. Indeed, shipping hit a sectoral all-time high in January, largely due to UPS’ plans to cut more than 30,000 jobs. At the back, technology was second Amazon announcement shedding 16,000 jobs, mostly at the corporate level.
Planned hiring has fallen 13% since January 2025 and is down 49% since December.
Challenger data may also fluctuate and may not correspond to official statistics. However, in January, filings with the Department of Labor on Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notifications show that more than 100 companies have announced significant layoffs.
In a separate report released Thursday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said job openings fell sharply in December to 6.54 million, down 386,000. The decline in available jobs dropped the ratio of available jobs to the unemployed from 0.87 to 1, down from 2 to 1, peaking in mid-2022.
On Wednesday, ADP reported private employers only 22,000 jobs were added in January.
