Amazon, UPS job cuts stoke US recession fears — impact on crypto markets

In January 2026, major US firms including Amazon, Pinterest and UPS announced large job cuts, with Amazon removing about 16,000 corporate roles on Wednesday. The moves come after a year in which US employers eliminated roughly 1.2 million positions, the highest level since the pandemic-era 2020 crisis.

Amazon said the cuts are part of an effort to "strengthen our organization by reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy," Senior VP Beth Galetti wrote in a blog post, and the company is continuing to increase investment in AI. Pinterest announced on January 27 it will cut less than 15% of staff and scale back office space, with the process expected to finish by September 30, according to a regulatory filing.

UPS said it plans to eliminate up to 30,000 operational roles this year, and other firms such as Nike have also announced layoffs. Global Markets Investor reported US layoffs rose sharply in 2025, up 58% from the previous year and pushing total job losses to their highest level since 2020; excluding that extraordinary year, 2025 was the most severe for cuts since 2008.

The average unemployed worker now takes about 11 weeks to find a new job, the longest since 2021, and the perceived probability of finding a job fell to 43.1% in December 2025, down 4.2% year-on-year. Analysts warned the labor signals raise recession risks.

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