US Employers Announced More Than 100,000 Job Cuts in January

Reade Pickert, Bloomberg News

Signage outside an Amazon Go store at the company headquarters campus in the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, U.S., on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023. Amazon.com Inc. has started its biggest-ever round of jobs cuts a culling that will ultimately affect 18,000 workers around the globe. Photographer: David Ryder/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- US employers in January announced the most job cuts since 2020, according to data compiled by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.

Businesses reported 102,943 cuts in the month, more than twice those announced in December and up 440% from January 2022. The technology sector made up 41% of the planned reductions, Thursday’s report showed. Announced layoffs at retailers and financial companies also climbed from a year ago.

“We’re now on the other side of the hiring frenzy of the pandemic years,” Andrew Challenger, senior vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., said in a statement. “Companies are preparing for an economic slowdown, cutting workers and slowing hiring.”

While economy-wide layoffs remain generally low, more and more companies have announced job cuts in recent months. The layoffs have been particularly acute in the tech sector, where companies like PayPal Holdings Inc., Alphabet Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. have all announced plans to dismiss thousands of workers.

Since November, technology firms have announced 110,793 job cuts, the report showed.

--With assistance from Alex Tanzi.