5/11/2025 – Business Insider

The list of companies laying off employees this year is growing.

Layoffs and other workforce reductions have continued in 2025, following two years of significant job cuts in the tech, media, finance, manufacturing, retail, and energy sectors.

While the reasons for slimming staff vary, the cost-cutting measures are coming amid technological change. A World Economic Forum survey found that some 41% of companies worldwide expect to reduce their workforces over the next five years because of the rise of artificial intelligence.

Companies such as Oracle, CNN, Dropbox, and Block have previously announced job cuts related to AI. In October, Amazon joined its tech peers in laying off staff, citing the rapid pace of technological change as it expands its use of generative AI and agents.

Meanwhile, tech jobs in big data, fintech, and AI are expected to double by 2030, according to the WEF.

Here are the companies with job cuts planned or already underway in 2025, listed in alphabetical order.

Adidas plans to cut up to 500 jobs in Germany

Adidas said in January that it would reduce the size of its workforce at its headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany, affecting up to 500 jobs, CNBC reported.

If fully executed, it amounts to a reduction of nearly 9% at the company headquarters, which employs about 5,800 employees, according to the Adidas website.

The news came shortly after the company announced it had outperformed its profit expectations at the end of 2024, touting “better-than-expected” results in the fourth quarter.

An Adidas spokesperson said the company had grown “too complex because of our current operating model.”

“To set adidas up for long-term success, we are now starting to look at how we align our operating model with the reality of how we work. This may have an impact on the organizational structure and number of roles based at our HQ in Herzogenaurach.”

The company said it is not a cost-cutting measure and could not confirm concrete numbers.

Ally is cutting less than 5% of workers

The digital-financial-services company Ally is laying off roughly 500 of its 11,000 employees, a spokesperson confirmed to BI.

“As we continue to right-size our company, we made the difficult decision to selectively reduce our workforce in some areas, while continuing to hire in our other areas of our business,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson also said the company was offering severance, outplacement support, and the opportunity to apply for openings at Ally.

Ally made a similar level of cuts in October 2023, the Charlotte Observer reported.

Amazon will cut 14,000 corporate jobs

Amazon said in late October it plans to eliminate 14,000 corporate roles, one of the biggest layoffs in its history.

The move is part of CEO Andy Jassy’s push to run the company “like the world’s largest startup,” according to a blog post from Beth Galetti, SVP of People Experience & Technology.

Galetti said rapid advances in AI are changing how Amazon works and enabling faster innovation, prompting the company to get leaner with fewer management layers.

The cuts follow years of belt-tightening since the pandemic.

American Airlines is cutting management and support staff

American Airlines said in November that it is cutting management and support roles to optimize performance and become more efficient.

“We’re making a small reduction to our management and support staff team to right-size for the work we do today,” American Airlines said in a statement shared with Business Insider.

The job cuts mainly affect positions at the airline’s headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. Bloomberg first reported the cuts.

“We remain focused on continuing to invest in areas that support American’s long-term business objectives, and these targeted investments will be made thoughtfully to position our airline for continued success,” the statement said.

Applied Materials says it will cut 4% of its workforce

Semiconductor company Applied Materials said in an exchange filing on October 23 that it would be cutting 4% of its global workforce.

Applied Materials has around 36,100 full-time employees, per its earnings release in August, meaning the cuts will affect about 1,444 employees.

The company said it expects to “incur charges of approximately $160 million to $180 million consisting primarily of severance and other one-time employment termination benefits to be paid in cash, and other non-cash related charges.”

It added that the cuts would help position it “for continued growth as a more competitive and productive organization.”

Automattic, Tumblr’s parent, cuts 16% of staff

Automattic, the parent company of Tumblr and WordPress, said in April it is cutting 16% of its staff globally. The company’s website said it has nearly 1,500 employees.

Automattic’s CEO, Matt Mullenweg, said in a note to employees posted online that the company has reached an “important crossroads.”

“While our revenue continues to grow, Automattic operates in a highly competitive market, and technology is evolving at unprecedented levels,” the note read.

The company is restructuring to improve its “productivity, profitability, and capacity to invest,” it added.

The company said it was offering severance and job placement resources to affected employees.

Best Buy is cutting more Geek Squad staff

Best Buy is cutting a small number of workers in the customer care and in-home field teams, with affected workers to receive severance, a spokesperson told Bloomberg in September.

The reductions follow a round of layoffs in the Geek Squad division last year as the company looks to improve efficiency and invest in newer areas of the business.

CNN plans to cut 200 jobs

Cable news giant CNN cut about 200 television-focused roles as part of a digital pivot. The cuts amounted to about 6% of the company’s workforce.

In a memo sent to staff on January 23, CNN’s CEO Mark Thompson said he aimed to “shift CNN’s gravity towards the platforms and products where the audience themselves are shifting and, by doing that, to secure CNN’s future as one of the world’s greatest news organizations.”

Disney says it’s laying off several hundred employees

Disney confirmed to BI on June 2 that it was laying off several hundred employees globally.

Most of the cuts were to roles in marketing for films and TV under the Disney Entertainment division. Other roles affected included employees in publicity, casting, and development, as well as corporate finance.

In March, the company also cut around 200 people from its ABC News Group and Disney Entertainment Networks. In 2024, the company also had several rounds of layoffs.

Shortly after Bob Iger returned to the company as CEO in 2022, he said 7,000 jobs at Disney would be cut as part of a reorganization.

Estée Lauder will cut as many as 7,000 jobs

Cosmetics giant Estée Lauder said in its second-quarter earnings release on February 4 that it will cut between 5,800 and 7,000 jobs as the company restructures over the next two years.

The cuts will focus on “rightsizing” certain teams, and it will look to outsource certain services. The company says it expects annual gross benefits of between $0.8 billion and $1.0 billion before tax.

Microsoft has made several rounds of cuts this year

Microsoft cut an unspecified number of jobs in January based on employees’ performance.

Workers were told that they wouldn’t receive severance and that their benefits, such as medical insurance, would stop immediately, BI reported.

The company also laid off some employees in January at divisions including gaming and sales. A Microsoft spokesperson declined to say how many jobs were cut on the affected teams.

In May, the company announced layoffs affecting about 6,000 workers.

Another round of layoffs in July will affect less than 4% of its total workforce, or roughly 9,000 employees, based on its head count of around 220,000.

Meta has had several rounds of layoffs

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told staff he “decided to raise the bar on performance management” and will act quickly to “move out low-performers,” according to an internal memo seen by BI in January.

Those cuts started in February, according to records obtained by BI. Teams overseeing Facebook, the Horizon virtual reality platform, as well as logistics, were among the hardest hit.

In April, Meta also laid off an undisclosed number of employees on the Reality Labs virtual reality division.

In October, the company said it was laying off more than 600 employees in its Meta Superintelligence Labs, its AI division.

“By reducing the size of our team, fewer conversations will be required to make a decision, and each person will be more load-bearing and have more scope and impact,” Meta’s chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang, wrote in a memo.

Previously, the company had laid off more than 21,000 workers since 2022.