US employers cut more jobs last month than in any period since 2009. More than 100,000 workers were fired at Amazon, UPS, and Dow, and hiring was the slowest for any January on record, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The low-fire, low-hire dynamic that has kept the US labor market in an anxious balance appears to have tipped.
Amazon alone was directly or indirectly responsible for more than 40% of the losses, including 16,000 cuts at UPS after the carrier ended its Amazon delivery contract. (The 300 jobs eliminated at Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post will show up in February’s numbers.)
AI was blamed for only around 7% of the losses and, as White House tech czar David Sacks noted, that self-reported number is likely high. Tech investor Orlando Bravo said in a recent interview that CEOs are using AI as a “cover” for margin-padding layoffs; the real AI job losses are all still ahead.