Big companies, from Amazon to UPS, are slashing jobs, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Companies generously expanded their headcounts during the pandemic and “doled out hefty raises, worried that moving too slowly might leave them with a shortage of skilled workers,” WSJ wrote. “Now, some companies say their hiring sprees went too far.”

The tech and logistics sectors had some of the biggest hiring surges in 2020 and 2021, and are now seeing the most layoffs. U.S.-based employers announced 1.2 million job cuts in 2025, the highest annual figure since 2020, WSJ reported, citing data from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

This past week, Amazon announced it would lay off 16,000 workers, following its layoff of 14,000 workers last fall. Additionally, UPS said it expected to cut 30,000 jobs this year—after cutting 48,000 roles last year. Meanwhile, social media company Pinterest also announced it would cut its workforce by up to 15%, WSJ said.

Beth Galetti, senior vice president of people experience and technology at Amazon, said the layoffs were being made to “strengthen our organization by reducing layers, increasing ownership and removing bureaucracy.”

“This is still about the over hiring or hiring boom that happened in that immediate post-pandemic era,” Laura Ullrich, director of economic research at jobs-platform Indeed, told WSJ.

Despite the layoffs, WSJ stated that the U.S. economy still has a relatively healthy job market—noting that the layoffs are concentrated to a small number of big companies.

While unemployment reached record lows in December at 4.4%, hiring has remained sluggish. U.S. filings for jobless aid for the week ending January 17 rose to 200,000, up from 199,000 the previous week—but fewer than the 207,000 new applications that analysts were expecting, according to AP.

At the same time, employers added just 50,000 jobs last month. In contrast, during the 2021-2023 hiring boom that followed COVID-19 lockdowns, they were creating 400,000 jobs a month. With the low unemployment rate, it suggests a “no-hire, no-fire labor market with companies hesitant to bring on new employees but reluctant to let go of the ones they have,” AP wrote.