This year only has just over two-and-a-half months in the books so far, but multiple companies have already announced layoffs
Headcount reductions in early 2025 are taking place at companies in a broad range of sectors, impacting thousands of employees.
Some of the companies that have announced layoffs include:
Blue Origin
Blue Origin announced layoffs late last week. Almost 14,000 people work at the space company founded by Jeff Bezos, according to Reuters.
About 10% of Blue Origin’s workforce will lose their jobs in the cuts, including some in engineering, research and development and “program/project management” roles, according to a company-wide email obtained by FOX Business. The company said it was also “thinning out our layers of management.”
CEO Dave Limp said the company “must change” its makeup as it seeks to “scale our manufacturing output and launch cadence,” according to the CEO. Blue Origin “”grew and hired incredibly fast in the last few years,” something that he said led to “more bureaucracy and less focus than we needed.”
Blue Origin will “continue to invest, invent and hire hundreds of positions in areas that will help us achieve our goals and best serve our customers,” he also said.
Chevron
Chevron Corp. Vice Chair Mark Nelson said it will lay off 15-20% of its workers in a bid to “simplify our organizational structure, [execute] faster and more efficiently, and position the company for stronger long-term competitiveness.”
The company will finish “most” of the layoffs before 2026’s year-end, he said.
Chevron had previously said in November that it aimed to shrink its structure costs through various measures by $2-3 billion before 2027. The layoffs are “in line” with that, according to Nelson.
He also said the company was “optimizing the portfolio, leveraging technology to enhance productivity, and changing how and where work is performed, including the expanded use of global centers.”
Estee Lauder
Estee Lauder’s job cuts will impact a net of 5,800 to 7,000 roles.
They came as part of an updated “profit recovery and growth plan” and restructuring program that the cosmetics company detailed Feb. 4 along with other measures meant to “further transform the Company’s operating model to fund a return to sales growth and restore a solid double-digit adjusted operating margin over the next few years.”
ESTEE LAUDER TO CUT UP TO 7,000 JOBS
The company increased by number of affected positions from the up to 3,000 positions it had previously detailed within its turnaround plan last year.
JPMorgan Chase
JPMorgan Chase has several rounds of layoffs coming this year, with layoffs at the bank this month expected to affect less than 1,000 workers, Barron’s reported.
Further layoffs are on the horizon, with the company looking at other rounds in March, May, June, August and September, per the outlet.
JPMorgan Chase said it “regularly review[s] our business needs and adjust[s] our staff accordingly – creating new roles where we see the need or reducing positions when appropriate.”
“Our strategy has not changed, and we run the company to invest through the cycle. We continue to hire in many areas and work hard to redeploy impacted employees,” the company added. “This is part of our regular management of the business and impacts a very small number of employees.”
Kohl’s
Kohl’s embarked on layoffs to slash its corporate workforce by 10% last month, with closures of open positions accounting for “more than half” of that, the retailer told FOX Business at the time.
Laid off Kohl’s corporate employees were given “competitive” severance packages, according to Kohl’s.
The company said it decided to do the layoffs to “support Kohl’s ongoing actions to increase efficiencies and improve profitability” for retailer long-term.
Kohl’s operates over 1,100 stores across the country, according to its website.
Meta Platforms
In mid-January, Meta moved to lay off some employees that it considered among its lowest performers.
Meta said at the time it was “aiming to exit approximately another 5% of our current employees who have been with the company long enough to receive a performance rating.”
META CUTTING 5% OF WORKFORCE BASED ON PERFORMANCE
The company plans to hire new employees for the roles vacated through performance-oriented attrition, FOX Business reported.
“We typically manage out people who aren’t meeting expectations over the course of a year, but now we’re going to do more extensive performance-based cuts during this cycle,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said.
Meta is the corporate parent of Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp and Threads. Zuckerberg co-founded Facebook in the early 2000s.
Southwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines said earlier this week it would trim about 1,750 people from its corporate workforce.
With the layoffs, the carrier is looking to “create a leaner and more agile organization as part of the airline’s transformation plan,” according to a press release.
The cuts will be “substantially complete” before the third quarter begins, Southwest said.
Corporate overhead positions and leadership roles faced the brunt of the layoffs, per the company.
SOUTHWEST TO LAY OFF 15% OF CORPORATE STAFF IN COST-CUTTING EFFORT
“This decision is unprecedented in our 53-year history, and change requires that we make difficult decisions,” CEO Bob Jordan said.
Workday
Workday said it will be paring its headcount back by about 1,750 people.
CEO Carl Eschenbach announced the move Feb. 5, saying the company “need[s] to make some changes to better align our resources with our customers’ evolving needs.”
He said Workday will be “prioritizing innovation investments like AI and platform development,” speeding up its processes and “investing in strategic locations with strong talent to better serve our customers worldwide.” The company will also bring on board new employees “in key strategic areas and locations,” according to Eschenbach.
The company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that the restructuring plan will also involve parting ways with “certain owned office space.”
The restructuring, including the layoffs and office space changes, will bring Workday charges of roughly $230 million to $270 million, according to the filing.
Nearly 49,800 jobs cuts by U.S. companies last month
Nearly 49,800 jobs received the axe from U.S. companies in January, according to a Feb. 6 report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
The outplacement firm said that marked the “lowest January job cut total” in three years. At the same time, it represented a 28% jump from December.
“January was relatively quiet in terms of job cut announcements. However, we’ve already seen major announcements in the early days of February, so it seems this quiet is unlikely to last,” Challenger, Gray and Christmas Senior Vice President Andrew Challenger said in the report.
Eric Revell and Daniella Genovese contributed to this report.
