August 2026 layoffs
Boxes in hand, employees head out as the cuts reshaping corporate America stretch into a fresh wave this summer. Google Gemini generated image

More than 20 US employers have filed notice of job cuts due to take effect in August, with Walmart, Amazon, and FedEx among the names on public Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filings across several states.

The roster spans retail, logistics, manufacturing, media, and healthcare, a sign that the workforce reductions running through the US economy this year reach well beyond the technology firms that dominated earlier rounds. The filings are logged in public WARN records.

WARN notices are generally required when a company with 100 or more staff plans a mass layoff or site closure affecting at least 50 workers. Filed weeks ahead of the cuts, they offer an early read on reductions still to come.

Walmart accounts for several California filings dated 21 August. One notice in San Bruno covers 88 employees, while separate filings at Sunnyvale sites affect between 49 and 68 workers each.

FedEx appears through its long-running network overhaul. The delivery group is closing its Phoenix LUFA facility on 3 August, a move affecting about 101 courier staff under the Network 2.0 programme that merges its Express and Ground operations. FedEx has told investors the plan, alongside its DRIVE cost drive, has already delivered $4B (£3B) in structural savings since fiscal 2023. It aims to shut more than 475 stations by the end of 2027, with over 200 already closed.

Amazon lands on the list after the deepest workforce cut in its history. The company has removed more than 30,000 corporate roles since October 2025, including July reductions in its artificial general intelligence unit, the team behind its Nova models. Those cuts sit alongside roughly $200B (£150B) in planned spending on AI infrastructure this year.

Terms differ by employer. Amazon has said affected US staff keep pay and benefits for 90 days, with severance eligibility, outplacement help, and transitional health cover on top.

Full List of Companies Making August Layoffs

The employers with WARN-tracked cuts scheduled for August are:

  • Prairie Farms Dairy
  • Elite Comfort Solutions
  • NBCUniversal
  • ILPEA Industries
  • Red Lobster
  • 6th Street Center for Youth
  • Independence Premium Foods
  • SDH Education East
  • Expeditors International of Washington
  • Joymark
  • General Dynamics
  • Amazon
  • T&H Services
  • Laboure College of Healthcare
  • BrandFX
  • MV Transportation
  • FedEx
  • Levi Strauss & Co
  • Sunrise Transportation
  • Walmart

A WARN notice does not always signal a company-wide restructuring. Many cover a single site or business unit, and some are scaled back or withdrawn before the cuts ever take effect.

How July's Layoffs Set Up the August Cuts

August's filings follow a heavy July. Layoff tracker LayoffHedge logged more than 37,500 job cuts across 42 companies over the month. German carmakers led the way, with BMW confirming about 8,000 job losses by the end of 2027 and Porsche agreeing a further 5,000, both leaning on voluntary exits rather than plant closures.

The reason given increasingly circled back to AI. Microsoft added several thousand more cuts, most in its Xbox division. In finance, Visa shed around 2,600 roles and digital bank Chime a tenth of its staff, while software firm monday.com let go about a fifth of its workforce, roughly 620 people. Each named AI. Several other employers confirmed July cuts without attaching a figure, among them Intel, Uber, ServiceNow, and Boston Scientific.

The month capped a first half in which technology drove most of the losses. The sector announced 139,156 job cuts through June, up 83% on the same period in 2025, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. AI has been the most cited reason for reductions for four straight months.

Andy Challenger, the firm's chief revenue officer, said the sector was 'being reshaped in real time.' Overall US layoffs eased in June to 45,849, down 53% from May's 97,006, the highest total for that month since 2020.

Independent trackers put the running tally of tech job losses for 2026 above 170,000, though counts vary by how each defines a cut. A clearer read on whether hiring is keeping pace will come with the federal employment figures due later this month.

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