January layoffs hit a 17-year high as employers slash jobs at fastest pace since the Great Recession, report

January opened with a jolt for the U.S. labor market.

Employers announced more than 108,000 job cuts in the first month of the year, the highest January total in 17 years and the steepest start to a year since the Great Recession. At the same time, hiring plans nearly vanished, falling to their lowest January level on record, CNBC reported, citing new data released Thursday by Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

The timing adds weight to the January figures. The report landed just weeks after Challenger disclosed that U.S. corporations eliminated 1.17 million jobs in 2025, marking the highest annual total since the shock of 2020. That wave of cuts was driven by a mix of automation tied to AI adoption, trade pressures linked to tariffs, and broad corporate restructuring efforts that continued to ripple into the new year.

The figures run counter to the recent narrative of a frozen job market marked by caution and inertia. Layoffs jumped 118% from January last year and surged more than 200% from December. The scale puts this January in the same territory as early 2009, when the economy was still sinking under the weight of the global financial collapse.

“U.S. employers announced 108,435 layoffs for the month, up 118% from the same period a year ago and 205% from December 2025. The total marked the highest for any January since 2009, while the economy was in the final months of its steepest downturn since the Great Depression,” CNBC reported.

A Warning Sign for 2026: U.S. Layoffs Hit 2009 High as Hiring Dries Up

Hiring plans tell an equally stark story. Companies announced just 5,306 new positions for the month, the lowest January figure since Challenger began tracking hiring intentions in 2009. The imbalance suggests employers are pulling back on both fronts at once.

“Generally, we see a high number of job cuts in the first quarter, but this is a high total for January,” Andy Challenger, workplace expert and chief revenue officer for the firm, told CNBC. “It means most of these plans were set at the end of 2025, signaling employers are less-than-optimistic about the outlook for 2026.”

Official government data has yet to reflect a broad breakdown. Initial jobless claims rose to 231,000 for the week ending January 31, the highest level since early December. Seasonal factors, including severe winter weather across large parts of the country, likely played a role. Longer-term claims trends remain near their lowest levels since late 2024.

Public layoff announcements, though, have sharpened anxiety. Transportation led all sectors in job cuts in January, driven largely by UPS’s plans to eliminate more than 30,000 roles. Technology followed close behind after Amazon disclosed plans to cut roughly 16,000 mostly corporate jobs. Chemical giant Dow Inc. joined the list with its own reductions.

Hiring intentions moved in the opposite direction. Planned additions fell 13% from January 2025 and dropped nearly 50% from December, reinforcing the sense that caution has taken hold heading into the new year.

Challenger’s data often moves ahead of official labor statistics and does not always line up cleanly with government reports. Early signals from state filings point in the same direction. Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification notices filed with the Labor Department show more than 100 companies signaling significant layoffs in January.

For now, the job market remains resilient on paper. Beneath the surface, employer behavior suggests something has shifted. Decisions made at the end of 2025 are now playing out, and they reflect a growing unease about what lies ahead for 2026.