Layoffs 2026: Amazon, Meta, UPS and Dozens More Cut Jobs

UPS plans to eliminate 30,000 operational jobs in 2026 — the single largest cut in a year when dozens of major companies, from Amazon to Visa, are trimming staff, often with artificial intelligence named as the reason.

Amazon said in January it would cut roughly 16,000 corporate roles globally. Beth Galetti, senior vice president of people experience and technology, framed the move in a memo as part of efforts to cut bureaucracy. It followed 14,000 layoffs in October 2025, plus further cuts in Amazon's Selling Partner Services team in May.

The pattern spans industries. Economists describe the environment as low-fire, low-hire: unemployment has not spiked even as prominent brands cut. A World Economic Forum survey found about 41% of companies worldwide expect smaller workforces within five years because of AI — even as jobs in big data, fintech and AI are expected to double by 2030.

Which companies blame AI directly?

Several CEOs have put AI at the center of their decisions:

• Coinbase: CEO Brian Armstrong told staff on May 5 that 14% would go. "Over the past year, I've watched engineers use AI to ship in days what used to take a team weeks," he wrote.
• Atlassian: about 1,600 employees, or 10% of staff, with $225–236 million in restructuring charges. CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes said: "Our approach is not 'AI replaces people.'"
• Cloudflare: 20% of its workforce, more than 1,100 people, after internal AI use climbed over 600% in three months. Shares fell more than 14% in extended trading.
• Standard Chartered: 15% of corporate functions over four years. CEO Bill Winters said it is "not cost-cutting, but it is replacing, in some cases, lower-value human capital."
• Tailwind: the web tool cut three of its four engineers. CEO Adam Wathan wrote that 75% of the engineering team lost jobs "because of the brutal impact AI has had on our business."

WiseTech is cutting 2,000 jobs, or 30% of staff. CEO Zubin Appoo declared: "The era of manually writing code as the core act of engineering is over." Wix is cutting 20% of its roughly 5,300 workers; Intuit 17%; Pinterest under 15%; Crypto.com 12%; Etsy about 220 employees, roughly 12%.

Not every company cites AI. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said his 1,000-plus layoffs, about 20% of staff, "aren't related to AI" — engagement with Fortnite declined. Boeing is cutting 5% of its commercial airplanes division, about 2,500 of 50,000 jobs, after 737 deliveries came in below its 500-aircraft target. Volvo is cutting 2,500 jobs to save around $530 million amid Chinese pricing pressure and US tariffs.

How deep are the cuts?

British American Tobacco leads on absolute numbers outside logistics: 9,000 jobs, about one-fifth of its workforce, by year-end. Other large reductions include:

• Barclays: 5,000 roles, 60% in support functions "including fewer developers as AI makes our people more productive," per finance director Anna Cross.
• Citi: continuing a 20,000-person, 10% reduction plan that could save up to $2.5 billion.
• Oracle: headcount fell 21,000, or 13%, in a year; severance costs surged to $1.84 billion from $374 million.
• American Express: about 5% of its 77,000-strong workforce, taking a $336 million restructuring charge.
• Dell: a 10% decline for the third straight year, to 97,000 employees.
• Heineken: 5,000–6,000 roles over two years.
• Estée Lauder: up to 10,000 jobs, two-thirds in cashier and demonstration roles.

Retail is restructuring too. Walmart is cutting or relocating 1,000 corporate jobs after 1,500 cuts in May 2025. Nike is shedding roughly 1,400 roles, mostly in tech, on top of 775 distribution-center jobs. Papa Johns is laying off 7% of corporate staff and closing 300 North American stores through 2027. Saks Global, which filed for Chapter 11 in January, cut 16% of corporate staff in April.

What is left unsaid?

The severance math varies sharply. Sprout Social's laid-off staff get 12 weeks' pay plus a week per year of tenure; Intuit's US employees get 16 weeks plus two per year. Expedia and T-Mobile confirmed cuts without disclosing numbers — a gap worth noting when totals are tallied. Verizon is cutting about 3,000 jobs alongside franchising 274 stores, though it says roughly 70% of store employees typically accept jobs with new franchisees.

The WEF's projection that AI-related roles will double by 2030 suggests the cuts are a reshuffle, not simply a shrinkage. Whether displaced workers land in those new roles is the question none of these announcements answers.