Thousands of workers have seen their jobs eliminated this year at large companies including Amazon (AMZN), UPS (UPS), Nestlé (NSRGY), Microsoft (MSFT), and Verizon (VZ), in an economy defined through 2025 by uncertainty, AI, and global tensions.
The final published jobs report of the year showed unemployment crept up to 4.6% in November, hitting a four-year high. Absent the 2020 pandemic and subsequent recovery period in 2021, the unemployment rate hadn’t hit that level since 2017. Ultimately, the Labor Department said 7.8 million people were counted as unemployed in November, up from 7.1 million last November.
Those impacted will have a difficult time landing a new position, with the hiring rate hovering near levels seen in 2020 and 2013.
Verizon started notifying workers of the company’s largest-ever layoff campaign — with plans to cut more than 13,000 workers — the week before the Thanksgiving holiday, the Wall Street Journal reported. UPS, meanwhile, said in its third quarter earnings results that it had cut its “operational workforce by approximately 34,000 positions” in the first nine months of the year as it looked to be more efficient, while about 14,000 positions, primarily in management, had also been eliminated.
Target (TGT) announced plans to axe 1,800 corporate roles earlier this year, while Paramount Skydance (PSKY) began laying off more than 2,000 employees at the end of October, according to the New York Times. Even perceived winners in the AI-fueled economy, like Meta (META), announced layoffs — in its AI unit, no less. Rivian (RIVN) is also reportedly implementing workforce reductions.
In a Dec. 4 report, the global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said layoffs plans through November totaled 1,170,821 jobs — a 54% rise from layoff announcements through the same period in 2024.
Amazon said in a message to employees in October that it would reduce its “corporate workforce” by approximately 14,000 roles. The announcement raised the question: Was it a signal that workers were being replaced by emerging technology that has threatened to make them obsolete?
Andy Jassy, Amazon’s CEO, said the workforce reduction “was not really financially driven, and it’s not even really AI driven — not right now, at least.”
“It’s culture,” Jassy said. “If you grow as fast as we did for several years — the size of businesses, the number of people, the number of locations, the types of businesses you’re in — you end up with a lot more people than what you had before, and you end up with a lot more layers.”