- UPS cut 48,000 jobs in first nine months of 2025, far exceeding its earlier 20,000-job plan.
- About 70% of layoffs hit frontline workers; 93 facilities closed as the company pursues efficiency.
- Restructuring boosts near-term savings and stock, while UPS pivots away from Amazon toward higher-margin businesses.
In a stark revelation tucked into its third-quarter earnings report, United Parcel Service (UPS) disclosed that it has already eliminated 48,000 positions across its workforce in the first nine months of 2025 alone.
The cuts, which include about 14,000 management roles and roughly 34,000 jobs in operational areas like driving and warehousing, mark a dramatic escalation from the company’s earlier projections.
Back in April, UPS had outlined plans to trim 20,000 jobs and close 73 facilities, but the reality has outpaced those estimates, with 93 buildings now shuttered as part of a sweeping efficiency drive.
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The news, released on Tuesday, comes as UPS navigates a turbulent landscape of softening demand, trade uncertainties, and a deliberate pivot away from low-margin business.
CEO Carol Tomé framed the moves in a prepared statement as a necessary evolution: “I want to extend my gratitude to all UPSers for their dedication and steadfast commitment to our customers.
We are executing the most significant strategic shift in our company’s history, and the changes we are implementing are designed to deliver long-term value for all stakeholders.
With the holiday shipping season nearly upon us, we are positioned to run the most efficient peak in our history while providing industry-leading service to our customers for the eighth consecutive year.”
Tomé’s words underscore the company’s focus on streamlining, but they also highlight the human toll: around 70 percent of the layoffs hit frontline workers, including drivers and warehouse staff, who form the backbone of UPS’s vast delivery network.
Why Did UPS Have So Many Layoffs?
Financially, the overhaul is paying off—at least on paper. UPS reported third-quarter revenue of $21.4 billion and adjusted earnings per share of $1.74, figures that dipped slightly from last year’s $22.2 billion and $1.76 but still topped analyst expectations.
Shares surged more than 7 percent in response, closing out a rough year where the stock has tumbled over 20 percent amid broader market pressures.
The cost savings are real too: $2.2 billion banked through September, with UPS on track for $3.5 billion by year’s end, thanks to reduced overhead and a reconfiguration of its air-and-ground network.
Looking ahead, the company anticipates fourth-quarter revenue around $24 billion, down from last year’s $25.3 billion but buoyed by pricing hikes to offset weaker business-to-business volumes.
At the heart of UPS’s strategy is a bold retreat from its heavy reliance on Amazon, the e-commerce behemoth that once fueled pandemic-era booms but now represents a drag on profitability.
UPS aims to halve its Amazon-related volumes by the second half of 2026, a “glide down” that saw a 21.2 percent drop in the third quarter alone—steeper than the 13 percent decline in the first half.
This isn’t just about one customer; it’s a broader recalibration toward higher-margin segments like small-and-medium businesses and healthcare logistics, even as global trade headwinds—like potential tariffs and fluctuating fuel costs—loom large.
UPS isn’t alone in this grim chapter for the logistics sector.
The industry, still reeling from the post-pandemic volume crash, has seen a cascade of job reductions throughout 2025, driven by automation, inflation, and a freight recession that’s left carriers and warehouses overstaffed for a demand that never fully rebounded.
Other Giant Retailers Cutting Roles This Year
Take Amazon itself: the retail giant announced plans to axe 14,000 white-collar positions earlier this year, citing a need to “reduce bureaucracy and shift resources” in a memo to staff, moves that echo UPS’s own white-collar trims.
Over in the freight forwarding space, companies like Flexport and C.H. Robinson have trimmed hundreds of roles since the start of the year, with experts warning that shrinking demand could spark even wider culls.
The numbers paint a broader picture of distress. Since mid-July, more than 3,000 freight-related jobs have vanished across 12 states, hitting carriers, third-party logistics providers, and even manufacturers tied to supply chains.
Firms like GXO Logistics shuttered a California facility, laying off 343 workers after losing a key client, while CJ Logistics America idled three Georgia warehouses, affecting 275 employees for similar reasons.
DHL Supply Chain cut 163 jobs in Tracy, California, and names like PepsiCo, Kuehne+Nagel, and Americold Logistics have joined the list, contributing to over 2,400 reductions in recent weeks alone.
By some counts, the sector has shed nearly 9,000 positions in trucking, warehousing, and related fields this year, spanning at least 20 states from Arizona to Texas.
How Macroeconomics Play a Role
Tariffs are amplifying the pain. New U.S. policies, including a 10 percent baseline on imports and steeper hits on China, have slashed shipping volumes by up to 50 percent year-over-year, forcing closures at outfits like Universal Logistics and Swissport.
The end of duty-free perks for low-value e-commerce from platforms like Temu and Shein, effective May 2, has only deepened the wound.
“The world hasn’t been faced with such enormous potential impacts to trade in more than 100 years,” Tomé noted earlier this year, capturing the unprecedented strain.
For unionized workers—many at UPS covered by the Teamsters—the cuts carry extra weight. The union warned in April that it would challenge any reductions violating labor contracts, a tension that could flare as more facilities close.
On the flip side, the upheaval has flooded the job market with seasoned talent, from engineers to dispatchers, giving resilient players a chance to rebuild stronger.
UPS, for its part, insists the restructuring wraps by 2027, with AI and automation filling gaps left by human roles.
As Black Friday looms, UPS’s bet on a leaner, meaner operation feels like a high-stakes gamble.
Investors are buying in for now, but for the thousands of families upended by these cuts, the “long-term value” rings hollow.
In an industry that’s powered America’s shopping habits for decades, this feels less like a pivot and more like a reckoning—one that could reshape how we move goods in the years ahead.
Also Read: Experts Now Issue a Stark Recession Warning Amid Ongoing Shutdown
