U.S. job cuts surged 205% month-over-month in January, compared with a -50.15% drop in the previous month. The surge in job cuts announced by U.S. employers in January, driven by declining business contracts and economic uncertainty, marked the highest monthly figure in 17 years. Jobs firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported a 118% year-over-year increase in planned layoffs to 108,435 last month, the highest January figure since the end of the global recession in 2009. “Typically, the first quarter sees a higher number of layoffs, but the total number of layoffs in January this year is quite high,” said Andy Challenger, the company’s chief revenue officer. “This means that most of these layoff plans are for the end of 2025, indicating that employers are not optimistic about the outlook for 2026.” The increase in layoffs was primarily driven by the transportation industry, with 31,243 layoffs related to UPS. The tech industry announced 22,291 job cuts, mostly from Amazon, which announced plans to lay off 16,000 corporate employees. Additionally, the healthcare industry has seen significant planned layoffs, partly due to reduced reimbursements from federally funded Medicaid and Medicare programs. (Jinshi)