{"id":19079,"date":"2026-02-05T16:29:35","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T16:29:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=19079"},"modified":"2026-02-05T16:29:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T16:29:35","slug":"us-companies-announced-most-job-cuts-for-any-january-since-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=19079","title":{"rendered":"US companies announced most job cuts for any January since 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"textFreeArticle\">\n<p>US companies announced the largest number of job cuts for any January since the depths of the Great Recession in 2009, according to data from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray &amp; Christmas.<\/p>\n<p>Companies last month announced 108 435 job cuts, a 118% increase from a year earlier. The report on Thursday also showed hiring intentions slid 13% from a year earlier to 5 306 \u2014 marking the weakest total for any January in the firm\u2019s records back to 2009.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1796744 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/449116612-555x371.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"555\" height=\"371\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/449116612-555x371.jpg 555w, https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/449116612-1024x685.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/449116612-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/449116612-1536x1027.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/449116612-169x113.jpg 169w, https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/449116612-230x154.jpg 230w, https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/449116612-744x497.jpg 744w, https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/449116612.jpg 2010w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 555px) 100vw, 555px\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"visible-sm-block visible-xs-block m1010\">\n<div class=\"ad-container-wrapper\">\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cGenerally, we see a high number of job cuts in the first quarter, but this is a high total for January,\u201d said Andy Challenger, the company\u2019s chief revenue officer. \u201cIt means most of these plans were set at the end of 2025, signaling employers are less-than-optimistic about the outlook for 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Contract loss, economic conditions and restructuring were the top three reasons for announced job cuts last month, according to the report.<\/p>\n<p>Almost half of the job cuts announced in January were tied to three companies \u2014 Amazon.com, United Parcel Service\u00a0and Dow Inc. Amazon announced plans to cut 16 000 corporate positions in a restructuring move, while UPS said it would shed as many as 30 000.<\/p>\n<div class=\"visible-sm-block visible-xs-block m1010\">\n<div class=\"ad-container-wrapper\">\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT:<\/p>\n<p>CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Chemical maker Dow intends to eliminate about 4 500 positions, while Peloton Interactive\u00a0and Nike\u00a0also announced workforce reductions.<\/p>\n<p>The figures add to signs of a fragile labour market \u2014 charactersed by limited numbers of overall dismissals and lackluster hiring \u2014 that has unnerved consumers. At the same time, Federal Reserve policymakers contend the unemployment rate is showing \u201csome signs of stabilisation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 2026 Bloomberg<\/p>\n<p><em>Follow Moneyweb\u2019s in-depth finance and business news on WhatsApp here.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script data-cfasync=\"false\">\n            !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n            {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n                n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n                if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n                n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n                t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n                s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',\n                'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n            fbq('init', '779812924991616');\n            fbq('track', 'PageView');\n        <\/script>#companies #announced #job #cuts #January<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US companies announced the lar&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19080,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[11898,648,550,3965,635],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19079"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}