U.S. employers are laying off workers by the tens of thousands while workers’ confidence in finding new jobs has plummeted to its lowest level since 2014. Amazon just slashed 16,000 corporate jobs on Wednesday—three months after cutting another 14,000. UPS announced plans to eliminate up to 30,000 operational positions. And that’s just this week.
WHAT’S GOING ON: The job market is stuck in what economists call a “no-hire, no-fire” standstill—except companies keep breaking the “no-fire” part. The country added a pathetic 50,000 jobs last month, down from an already weak 56,000 in November, according to the Associated Press. Meanwhile, layoff announcements keep piling up across virtually every sector.
The excuses vary: Trump’s tariff chaos, stubborn inflation, “restructuring,” and everyone’s favorite corporate buzzword—artificial intelligence. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy previously said he anticipated AI would reduce the company’s corporate workforce. Surprise: it did.
THE DETAILS: The carnage spans industries. Tyson Foods is closing a Nebraska plant, eliminating 3,200 jobs—nearly a third of the small town’s population. HP expects to cut 4,000 to 6,000 workers by 2028. Verizon axed more than 13,000 employees in November. Nestlé is slashing 16,000 jobs globally over the next two years. Intel is shrinking from 99,500 core employees to 75,000 through layoffs and attrition.
Procter & Gamble—maker of Tide and Pampers—announced plans to cut 7,000 positions. Microsoft eliminated 15,000 jobs across two rounds of layoffs last year while simultaneously spending billions on AI. Novo Nordisk, the company making bank off Ozempic and Wegovy, is cutting 9,000 workers despite its blockbuster drug sales.
And let’s not forget the federal government: thousands of workers lost their jobs thanks to the Trump administration’s cuts, flooding the job market with even more people scrambling for increasingly scarce positions.
WHY IT MATTERS: Consumer confidence just hit its lowest point in over a decade. Workers see the writing on the wall: companies are hoarding cash, slashing headcount, and redirecting money to AI—all while executives rake in record compensation packages.
The math isn’t complicated. When hiring freezes and layoffs pile up simultaneously, workers lose leverage. Job security becomes a myth. The anxiety spreading through the workforce isn’t irrational—it’s a logical response to watching thousands of people lose their livelihoods each week while corporations post record profits.
BOTTOM LINE: The labor market is giving workers whiplash. Companies claim economic uncertainty while their balance sheets tell a different story. Whether it’s tariff pressures, AI investment, or simple cost-cutting dressed up as “restructuring,” the burden falls on workers who suddenly find themselves competing for fewer jobs in a market where employers hold all the cards.