U.S. workers once had some expectations of job security during the holiday season, but that time appears to be over.
U.S. employers issued WARN notices for 39,006 Americans in October, according to research by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. The Fed has tracked WARN notices since 2008, and the number has only ever been higher in 2008, 2009, 2020, and May 2025.
U.S. layoff stats 2025:
- 1.6 million workers laid off each month
- On pace for 19.2 million annually
- 206,101 employees laid off from 221 tech companies
- Job cuts up 5.9% year over year
- 21% of companies expected to lay off employees Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
“Over the last decade, companies have shied away from announcing layoffs in the fourth quarter, so it’s surprising to see so many in October. With the onset of social media and the ability for workers to share their negative experiences with their employers, the trend of announcing layoffs before the holidays fell away, a practice that seemed particularly cruel,” Andy Challenger, chief revenue officer of Challenger, Gray, & Christmas, recently said.
Employees had more power than ever before during the pandemic.
Tech companies were hiring hundreds of thousands of people, and wages were rising as companies looked to dig themselves out of the hole Covid had placed them in.
But now companies across the spectrum are downsizing, leading to increased anxiety for workers.
“After a layoff spike in 2020 during the pandemic and historically low layoff levels in 2021-2022, the number of workers laid off each month has crept back up, stabilizing at a level similar to what we saw in the 2010s. The backdrop has worsened for the laid off workers, who need to search in a low-hire market,” job review service Glassdoor recently said.
FedEx is closing its Coppell facility.
Photo by Bloomberg on Getty Images
FedEx to close Texas facility, layoff nearly 900 employees
The holiday season is a busy time for shipping companies like FedEx and UPS.
Typically, these companies employ hundreds of thousands of temporary workers to handle the increased volume from consumers who want to ship their Christmas gifts.
Related: Bank of America shares troubling new jobs data
While that won’t change this holiday season, FedEx is planning to trim headcount after the holiday season is over.
FedEx announced plans to close one of its logistics facilities in Coppell, Texas, resulting in layoffs for the 856 employees who work at the facility.
“Team members at this facility were notified in advance, and some will be eligible for other roles within the company, including at other FedEx facilities in the area,” FedEx representative Adam Snyder said in a statement.
The layoffs will start in late January, and operations will permanently cease by the end of April.
Major employers have been announcing massive layoffs
Amazon, UPS, and Target, three of the largest employers in the country, have already announced plans to lay off tens of thousands of workers in the coming weeks.
General Motors is cutting hundreds of jobs at its Georgia IT center. And Molson Coors eliminated 400 salaried jobs across its Americas business, representing about 9% of its white-collar workforce.
Major layoffs announced in the past month
- Target revealed plans in late October to eliminate 1,800 corporate jobs, marking its second-largest corporate downsizing ever.
- Amazon announced another round of layoffs just before the holidays. The cuts affected 14,000 corporate employees across multiple departments, aiming to reduce bureaucracy by “removing layers and shifting resources” to better serve its investments and customers.
- UPS in a press release shared that it has cut about 48,000 jobs so far this year, including 34,000 positions through its Network Reconfiguration and Efficiency Reimagined program.
According to tech market intelligence firm UnearthInsight, as many as 500,000 white-collar software workers could be laid off over the next two to three years, with approximately 70% of those layoffs affecting workers with four to 12 years of experience.
However, while the big corporations grab the headlines, small layoffs have become the most common type, and Glassdoor says that the trend is expected to “stoke worker anxiety as it continues in 2026.”
Layoffs of fewer than 50 individuals accounted for just 38% of layoffs in 2015. By this year, the rate increased to 51%.
“Employers have started engaging in smaller but regular layoffs instead of infrequent but large cuts. We call these ongoing layoffs the ‘forever layoff’ as job cuts come in never-ending waves instead of a tsunami,” Glassdoor said.