More workers are unemployed and job cuts are spiking, according to a few reports released last week, indicating ongoing pessimism and caution by employers in 2026.
U.S. employers announced 108,435 job cuts in January — the highest total for the month in 17 years, according to global outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. It is also the highest monthly total recorded since October 2025.
“Generally, we see a high number of job cuts in the first quarter, but this is a high total for January,” Andy Challenger, chief revenue officer for the firm, said in a statement. “It means most of these plans were set at the end of 2025, signaling employers are less-than-optimistic about the outlook for 2026.”
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics also released its December Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary, commonly referred to as JOLTS, in which it revealed that the economy was down nearly 1 million jobs from the start of 2025 compared to December 2025. That gap is the widest recorded outside of the pandemic since 2017, Indeed said in its analysis.
Additionally, job openings in healthcare — which largely led in job growth in 2025 — saw job openings fall by more than 10% in the final months of the year, Indeed noted. Layoffs may also be beginning to spread outside of the tech sector.
“Public layoff announcements don’t always translate into immediate changes in the layoff rate, but a widening range of companies making these announcements is never encouraging, and could signal that any coming breaking point may be uncomfortably close,” Cory Stahle, an economist with Indeed Hiring Lab, wrote in the report.
These reports may also put numbers to the sensation that the market is difficult to navigate, ZipRecruiter economist Nicole Bachaud said in a statement.
“In the near term, businesses are staying away from aggressive expansion in light of continued policy changes and challenges around tariffs and geopolitical relations,” Bachaud said. “Retention and internal stabilization remain the most advantageous strategies for employers and workers alike in navigating this period of continued economic uncertainty.”