Feb. 5 (UPI) -- January marked the worst start to a year for layoffs since 2009, Challenger, Gray and Christmas' job report said Thursday.
Employers announced layoffs for 108,435 people in January, a 118% increase over last year. No January has matched that count since 2009, when the United States was climbing out of the Great Recession.
January's layoffs were 205% higher than December and the highest monthly total since October, when 153,074 layoffs were announced.
"Generally, we see a high number of job cuts in the first quarter but this is a high total for January," Andy Challenger, workplace expert and chief revenue officer for the firm, said in a statement. "It means most of these plans were set at the end of 2025, signaling employers are less-than-optimistic about the outlook for 2026."
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