US layoff statistics (2026)

We have recorded 3,635 layoff events so far in 2026, against 2,459 by the same point in 2025. A further 1,450 announced layoffs are still upcoming, covering 30,313 jobs in filings not yet in effect. Since Jan 1, 2020, LayoffTalk has recorded 11,190 layoff events across 3,611 companies, of which 8,095 are state WARN filings accounting for 618,675 jobs.

Why we do not publish one combined headcount. Job totals here count WARN filings only. Each filing is a separate legal notice for a named site, so adding them counts every job once and can be checked against the state’s own list. Figures from news coverage cannot be added the same way: one announcement is written up by many outlets, and a company-wide programme is reported alongside the individual rounds inside it, so a combined total would count the same jobs repeatedly. Those events are counted, but no figure is taken from them: the largest reported numbers are the least reliable ones we hold — a company’s total headcount read as a layoff, a figure from a previous year, a round number inferred from “hundreds of thousands” — so quoting one as a headline would put the weakest evidence on this page in its most prominent place.

Read year-over-year with care. These counts measure layoff events we recorded, not every layoff that happened. Our coverage of state WARN filings has expanded substantially over time, so a year with more recorded events partly reflects wider collection rather than a worse labour market. Totals are also conservative: events with no publicly stated headcount contribute zero employees.

Layoffs by month

The most recent months fill in as WARN filings and news reports are processed, so current-month totals always read low at first.

Largest layoffs of 2026