A U.S. autoworker mans the line at a Ford plant. (Photo: Ford Motor Co.)
More than 1.17 million U.S. workers have been laid off this year as the economy contracts under pressure from Trump tariffs, while corporations are mostly pocketing gains from the Trump tax breaks.
U.S. corporations have benefited significantly from the Trump tax cuts (TCJA), saving hundreds of billions of dollars in federal taxes.
Large, profitable companies avoided more than $275 billion in taxes from 2018-2022, driving their effective rates far below the statutory 21% by using breaks like accelerated depreciation.
So, what are corporations doing with the money?
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For the most part, they are buying back their own stock, a tactic used to raise stock prices and pad executive bonuses, without any real gains in profits or productivity.
Major U.S. corporations have bought back an estimated $1.2 trillion in stock as of October, the highest on record, driven heavily by tech and financial giants like Apple, Alphabet, Nvidia, and JPMorgan.
What’s more, corporations, especially large tech and financial firms, are sitting on massive, near-record amounts of cash reserves, exceeding $8 trillion globally. Billionaires are also part of the trend.
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Corporations are clearly choosing revenue impacts over investment in the economy, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy
The stock buybacks and cash hording have been coupled by growing layoffs reflecting a significant shift in the labor market, driven by a combination of Trump tariffs, cost-cutting measures, corporate restructuring, and technology.
Job losses have hit the highest annual total since the 2020 pandemic-related cuts and is considered by some to be at “recession-like levels.”
The total number of job cuts through November 2025 is 54% higher than the same period in 2024.
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The government sector had the most announced job losses (over 300,000), largely due to a federal efficiency initiative.
The technology sector was also heavily impacted, with over 153,000 U.S. tech workers laid off in 2025 as companies pivoted toward artificial intelligence (AI) and reduced complexity.
AI has been explicitly cited as the reason for around 54,700 job cuts in 2025, with many more reductions indirectly linked to efficiency gains from automation. Those jobs, likely, are never coming back.
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Other significantly affected sectors include warehousing, retail, and services.
Here are some of the corporations that have laid off a significant number of workers recently (primarily in 2024 and 2025), based on publicly available data:
- UPS has disclosed approximately 48,000 job cuts since the start of 2025 as part of a strategic shift towards automation and cost reduction.
- Intel has made significant reductions, with more than 15,000 employees laid off in 2024 and plans for thousands more cuts into 2025 as part of a major restructuring.
- Verizon announced plans to lay off 13,000 employees to make the telecommunications giant faster and more focused.
- Nestlé is cutting 16,000 jobs globally over two years as part of a cost-saving initiative.
- Amazon announced plans to cut 14,000 corporate jobs in late 2025, following numerous other job cuts across various divisions (including Twitch and AWS) since late 2022.
- Microsoft has had several rounds of layoffs, totaling over 15,000 roles across different divisions in 2024 and 2025 as it heavily invests in AI.
- Nissan plans to cut 20,000 jobs by 2027 by reducing the number of factories it operates due to financial struggles.
- Estée Lauder plans to cut between 5,800 and 7,000 jobs over two years as part of a restructuring plan.
- Meta (parent company of Facebook and Instagram) has had several rounds of layoffs targeting “low-performers” and adjusting to market conditions, with previous cuts of over 21,000 workers since 2022.
- Boeing is cutting around 17,000 jobs, with 2,199 in Washington alone, due to financial challenges and overstaffing.
- Tesla is laying off over 10% of its global workforce to cut costs and boost productivity amidst declining sales and increasing competition.
- Chevron plans to cull 15% to 20% of its global workforce by the end of 2026 to reduce costs.
- HP expects to lay off between 4,000 and 6,000 employees as part of a streamlining initiative.
- Procter & Gamble plans to cut up to 7,000 jobs over two years due to restructuring and tariff pressures.
- Google/Alphabet has had multiple rounds of layoffs, including hundreds of roles in engineering, hardware, and recruiting as part of strategic realignment toward AI.
- GEICO, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, has reduced its workforce by about 30,000 workers in recent years.
- Novo Nordisk announced plans to cut 9,000 jobs, or 11% of its workforce, as the obesity drug market becomes more competitive.
- Southwest Airlines is laying off about 1,750 corporate employees, the first significant layoff in its history, to cut costs and improve profitability.
- Salesforce has made job cuts to focus on AI-powered products, including over 1,000 jobs in February 2025 and 7,000 jobs in early 2023.
- HPE (Hewlett Packard Enterprise) is cutting 2,500 jobs, or 5% of its workforce, to align its cost structure with its long-term strategy.
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