Biggest Layoffs of the 21st Century
July 19, 2017 by John HarringtonAs the U.S. economic expansion heads into its ninth year, the worst recession since the Great Depression is receding into memory. The layoffs that whipsawed the economy during the downturn and idled 8.8 million workers have become less frequent.
Yet the labor market is still occasionally disrupted by forces beyond its control. In addition to traditional threats from foreign competition, the newer challenges to jobs come from within through processes such as online commerce and automation.
While no industry has been spared these convulsive changes, some — such as retail, automotive, and finance — have been shaken more than others. Amazon has transformed the retail industry, while Uber has rattled the taxi and car service sector. Public-sector jobs were not protected either, as the ranks of teachers, postal workers, and those serving in the military were trimmed.
While the worst of the layoffs occurred during the recession of 2007 to 2009 or in the aftermath of the 9-11 terror attacks, many American workers have received pink slips since the recession ended in June 2009.
247 Wall St. used data provided by Chicago employment consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas to compile this list of the biggest individual layoff announcements of the 21st century — layoffs of 20,000 workers or more. Challenger, Gray & Christmas’ sources for layoff announcements included filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, WARN notices (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act), company press releases, and media reports.
Some companies, such as computer company Hewlett-Packard and automaker General Motors, appear more than once on the list, reflecting the ongoing tumult in their respective industries. The announced job figures are not cumulative totals, and the actual layoffs may have occurred over time after the announcement.
Click here to see the biggest announced layoffs of this century.
20,000 Layoffs
American Airlines
> Date of layoff: Sept, 19, 2001
> Industry: Airlines
The 9-11 terrorist attacks devastated the airline industry, forcing American Airlines to lay off 20,000 workers a week after the attacks. AMR Corp., owner of both American Airlines and Trans World Airlines, said the reduction was because of the 20% cut in its schedule for the foreseeable future. Two American Airline jets were hijacked and crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, resulting in a shutdown of the air transportation system for two days and a drop in new ticket purchases.
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Caterpillar
> Date of layoff: Jan. 26, 2009
> Industry: Manufacturing
One of the pillars of American manufacturing, Caterpillar was forced to lay off workers because of adverse market conditions as the bitter recession — intensified by the collapse of the housing market — dragged on in January 2009. The heavy-equipment manufacturer would predict that 2009 would be its weakest year since World War II.
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Electronic Data Systems
> Date of layoff: Sept.9, 2004
> Industry: Computer
The Plano, Texas-based Electronic Data Systems founded by Ross Perot in 1962 axed jobs in September 2005. Three years later, the computer company would be bought Hewlett-Packard Enterprises for $13.9 billion.
Lucent Technologies
> Date of layoff: July 24, 2001
> Industry: Telecommunications
The now-defunct New Jersey telecom lay low following an accounting scandal in 2000. Lucent laid off workers in several waves the following year, as revenue and share price tumbled. In July, Murray Hill-based Lucent let go of 20,000 workers.
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United Airlines
> Date of layoff: Sept. 19, 2001
> Industry: Airlines
United Airline’s workforce also was decimated by the 9-11 terrorist attacks, as the airline announced laying off 20,000 workers and slashing 20% of its schedule a week after the event. For United Chairman and CEO James Goodwin, the reality of the attacks could not have been grimer. “We must also focus on saving our company,” he said in announcing the job cuts. “We simply have no choice but to step up to the realities of this extraordinarily critical time and take drastic measures to preserve our viability and operations.”
22,000 Layoffs
Winn-Dixie Stores
> Date of layoff: June 21, 2005
> Industry: Retail
Supermarket chain Winn-Dixie filed for bankruptcy protection in February 2005 and announced the layoffs in June of that year, closing almost one-third of its 913 stores. The Jacksonville, Florida-based company used to dominate the supermarket business in the South, but it lost market share to regional rival Publix Super Markets and Wal-Mart.
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Ames Department Stores
> Date of layoff: Aug. 14, 2002
> Industry: Retail
Ames had been one of the biggest discount chains in the Northeast. But competition from Wal-Mart doomed the company, which sought bankruptcy protection in 2001. In a filing with the SEC at the beginning of 2002, Rocky Hill, Connecticut-based Ames said it was shuttering 151 stores. Unfortunately for Ames, time would run out on the discount retailer in August when it closed its remaining 327 stores.
Kmart
> Date of layoff: March 8, 2002
> Industry: Retail
2002 was a year to forget for Kmart, which cut 22,000 employees in March of that year. Kmart said in a press release that it was closing 284 stores as part of its initial Chapter 11 financial objectives review. “The decision to close these under-performing stores, which do not meet our financial requirements going forward, is an integral part of the Company’s reorganization effort,’’ said Charles Conaway, CEO of Kmart, in a statement.
23,200 Layoffs
Ford Motor Company
> Date of layoff: Jan. 23, 2006
> Industry: Automotive
Ford said in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2006 that it had to take a special charge of $2.4 billion on a pre-tax basis for costs associated with the expected layoff of workers. Ford closed plants in Minnesota and Virginia as part of what it called the Way Forward plan to restore North American automotive operations to profitability no later than 2008. Considering the company never declared bankruptcy in the recession, this restructuring might not have been in vain.
24,428 Layoffs
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Lucent Technologies
> Date of layoff: Aug. 15, 2001
> Industry: Telecommunications
Lucent was one of the telecommunications kingpins in New Jersey in the 1990s and had been the state’s biggest telecom employer. However, the company got caught in an accounting scandal in 2000. Revenue and share price plunged, and the Murray Hill-based telco, a spin-off of AT&T, had to whack jobs in August 2001. Lucent eventually merged with Alcatel SA of France in December 2006, forming Alcatel-Lucent, and that company was taken over by Nokia in 2016.
24,600 Layoffs
Hewlett-Packard
> Date of layoff: Sept. 16, 2008
> Industry: Computer
Hewlett-Packard said in September 2008 that it would lay off 24,600 employees following its purchase of Electronic Data Systems a month earlier. The computer company said in a statement that the layoffs were part of a three-year restructuring program.
25,000
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Merrill Lynch & Company
> Date of layoff: Dec, 11, 2008
> Industry: Finance
In December 2008, the financial crisis claimed Merrill Lynch, one of the most iconic Wall Street firms. As the subprime mortgage crisis deepened, Merrill’s losses widened. By September 2008 Merrill agreed to a takeover by Bank of America. Soon after, the layoffs were announced.
General Motors
> Date of layoff: June 7, 2005
> Industry: Automotive
The early part of the decade was not kind to General Motors, which announced in June 2005 it was cutting 25,000 jobs and closing plants over the next 3.5 years. Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner delivered the news to shareholders.
26,000 Layoffs
Daimler Chrysler
> Date of layoff: Jan. 9, 2001
> Industry: Automotive
Daimler Chrysler slashed 20% of its workforce in January 2001 as part of a restructuring plan just as the recession was beginning to take hold. The U.S. carmaker’s bad fortune would continue as Chrysler would lay off more workers in the years to come and be forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2009.
27,000 Layoffs
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Hewlett-Packard Company
> Date of layoff: May 23, 2012
> Industry: Computer
Another restructuring event for Hewlett-Packard in May 2012. In the computer company’s 2012 annual report, HP said “the restructuring plan includes both voluntary early retirement programs and non-voluntary workforce reductions.’’ HP, like other venerable computer companies such as Cisco and Dell, was struggling to adapt to an industry in which consumers and businesses were moving to mobile phones and cloud computing and away from personal computers.
30,000 Layoffs
Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company
> Date of layoff: Sept. 17, 2015
> Industry: Computers
Computer company Hewlett-Packard announced a restructuring in September 2015, and in November of that year split into two publicly traded companies: Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and HP. Most of the layoffs occurred in the Enterprise Company. Palo Alto, California-based HP, before the split, had undergone other layoffs since the turn of the century, as former CEOs Carly Fiorina and Mark Hurd tried to halt the revenue slide.
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Bank of America
> Date of layoff: Sept. 20, 2011
> Industry: Finance
Bank of America announced massive layoffs in September 2011 at the Barclays Capital 2011 Global Financial Services Conference. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank said it expected that “attrition and the elimination of appropriate unfilled roles will be a significant part of the anticipated decrease in jobs.’’
U.S. Postal Service
> Date of layoff: March 2, 2010
> Industry: Government
Competition from email and overnight delivery companies and rising costs have hurt the U.S. Postal Service. In March 2010, the government dropped the hammer on 30,000 workers. The woes persist at the U.S. Postal Service, which posted a loss of $562 million in its most recent quarter in 2017.
31,000 Layoffs
Boeing
> Date of layoff: Sept. 19, 2001
> Industry: Aerospace
In announcing the layoffs, Alan Mulally, president and chief executive officer of Boeing, said the company must quickly “resize the company” because of the economic slowdown and a drop in demand for airplanes. Boeing’s announcement came one week after the 9-11 attacks, and the company was concerned about the impact the 9-11 terror event would have on its customers.
34,000 Layoffs
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Ford Motor Company
> Date of layoff: Jan. 11, 2002
> Industry: Automotive
The nation’s second largest automaker, Ford announced closing five plants in North America and significant job cuts in January 2002. The Dearborn, Michigan-based carmaker also said it would take $4.1 billion in charges. Ford said at the time that the Ford Escort and Mercury Cougar compact cars, Mercury Villager minivan, and the Lincoln Continental would be phased out by the end of that year.
Circuit City
> Date of layoff: Jan. 21, 2009
> Industry: Retail
After years of price pressure and intense competition from Best Buy and Wal-Mart and as the lingering recession ravaged the retail sector, Circuit City folded in January 2009. At the time of its bankruptcy, Richmond, Virginia-based Circuit City with its 567 stores was the nation’s second largest consumer electronics retailer.
35,000 Layoffs
Kmart
> Date of layoff: Jan. 14, 2003
> Industry: Retail
Kmart shut 326 stores in 44 states and cut jobs in January 2003 as the Troy, Michigan.-based discount retailer struggled to emerge from bankruptcy. The round of job cuts in 2003 came less than a year after Kmart axed 22,000 jobs and shuttered 284 stores. Kmart would live on, though, and in November 2004, the company would buy Sears, Roebuck & Co. for $11.5 billion.
40,000 Layoffs
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United States Army
> Date of layoff: July 12, 2015
> Industry: Government
A second round of U.S. army layoffs due to budget constraints was announced in July 2015. Many of the jobs were held by civilians, but many jobs of those in uniform were also cut.
United States Air Force
> Date of layoff: Dec. 14, 2005
> Industry: Government
The Air Force didn’t escape the budget writers in 2005 as that part of the military had to pare jobs.
47,000 Layoffs
General Motors Company
> Date of layoff: Feb. 17, 2009
> Industry: Automotive
The last few years have been very lucrative for the auto industry, with annual unit sales topping 17 million. That’s a far cry from the end of 2008, when the automotive industry was reeling. As a result of massive losses, General Motors and Chrysler filed for bankruptcy protection and accepted the government bailout.
50,000 Layoffs
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United States Army
> Date of layoff: Sept. 20, 2011
> Industry: Government
The Army had to trim positions because of sequestration — the automatic 2013 budget cuts that Congress and the Obama administration agreed to in September 2011 that ended a budget impasse.
Citigroup
> Date of layoff: Nov, 19, 2008
> Industry: Finance
As the financial crisis worsened in November 2008, Citigroup Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit was forced to whack jobs, as losses from subprime mortgages sent the stock of the New York-based bank plunging. Citigroup also had to cut costs, resulting in thousands of job losses.
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