Layoffs used to come in big waves.
You’d hear about “Black Friday” at a company, or a single brutal round of cuts, and then it was over for a while.
Now, that’s changing.
Axios reporter Emily Peck says we’ve entered the era of the “forever layoff” – where companies slice jobs in small batches, all year long, instead of with one giant swing.
At the same time, Mary Cunningham at CBS News reports that WARN layoff notices surged in October, reaching one of the highest levels in nearly two decades of data.
Put together, their reporting paints a picture of a job market that looks calm on the surface, but feels permanently unstable underneath.
The Rise Of The “Forever Layoff”
Emily Peck explains that many businesses are now leaning on “silent” or “rolling” layoffs – constant, smaller cuts that don’t trigger headlines but still send people packing.
Instead of announcing that 5,000 workers are gone overnight, companies quietly trim 20 here, 30 there, over and over.
Peck notes that this pattern lets executives shift strategy without attracting scrutiny, but it also normalizes layoffs as just another routine part of work.
The result is a workplace where almost no one ever feels truly safe.
She cites Glassdoor research led by Chris Martin, who identified this trend in a new report using WARN Act data and employee reviews.
A decade ago, Peck writes, layoffs were more episodic – something that happened in obvious downturns or big restructurings.
Today, they’re just… always happening.
Small Cuts, Big Anxiety
One key detail Peck highlights is that small layoffs are now the most common type.
According to Glassdoor’s analysis of WARN data, layoffs involving fewer than 50 employees made up 38% of layoffs in 2015.
Now, they’re at 51%.
So most layoffs today are micro-firings – too small to grab national attention, but large enough to gut a team or wipe out a department.
Peck points out that these numbers likely understate what’s really going on, because smaller firms often don’t have to report layoffs, and not all states have strict WARN reporting rules.
What you see on paper may only be a fraction of the churn happening in reality.
Peck also notes that layoff talk is creeping into how workers describe their jobs.
Glassdoor reviews increasingly mention words like “layoff” and “job insecurity,” and the share of those reviews is now higher than in March 2020, when the pandemic first slammed the economy.
That’s incredible when you think about it.
We’re not in a sudden crisis right now, but people feel more anxious about losing their jobs than they did at the start of COVID.
Worker Well-Being Hits New Lows
Peck adds another worrying piece: an employee well-being study from the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School that found worker well-being hit a new low last year.
When you connect the dots, it lines up almost too perfectly.
You have a slowing labor market, the looming threat of AI replacing roles, and now this constant drip of rolling layoffs.
Even if you keep your job, you might watch three coworkers quietly disappear over six months, and then be told to “do more with less.”
Peck quotes the Glassdoor report warning that serial layoffs don’t fool employees.
People notice when colleagues vanish and their own workload explodes.
They may not say it out loud, but they wonder “Am I next?” every time a one-on-one appears on their calendar.
In my view, that’s the hidden cost of these micro-layoffs.
Companies might dodge bad press, but they pay for it in morale, trust, and long-term culture.
October’s Red Flags In The Layoff Data
While Emily Peck focuses on structure and strategy, Mary Cunningham at CBS News zooms in on the latest warning lights in the data.
She reports that in October, 39,006 Americans across 21 states received a WARN notice, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
That’s a formal written warning that a layoff is coming – not just rumors.
Cunningham notes that this is one of the highest numbers of WARN notices since 2006, when the Cleveland Fed started tracking the data.
It’s not as extreme as the spikes in March 2020 or the 2008 financial crisis, but it’s a big jump in a supposedly “stable” labor market.
She also points out that major companies like Target, Amazon, and UPS have all recently announced rounds of job cuts.
Economists she cites say the labor market now “appears to be weakening”, even though official government jobs data is delayed because of a record-long government shutdown.
So we’re flying partly blind – but the numbers we do have are flashing yellow.
The “Forever Layoff” Meets A Cooling Job Market
Cunningham notes that October layoffs, tracked by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, soared to their highest October level in 22 years.
On top of that, ADP data shows U.S. companies shed an average of 2,500 jobs per week in the four weeks ending November 1.
Put beside Peck’s reporting, it’s a pretty stark combination.
On one hand, Emily Peck describes a new normal of constant, small layoffs, quietly reshaping workplaces.
On the other hand, Mary Cunningham shows that formal layoff notices and big-company cuts are surging at the same time.
It’s not just vibes.
There’s real math behind the anxiety people are feeling.
Cunningham also shares that economists Samuel Tombs and Oliver Allen of Pantheon Macroeconomics expect layoffs to pick up next year, partly as AI adoption spreads more widely.
They still say AI has been a net positive so far, but even they see more job losses on the horizon.
So workers are stuck in an odd limbo: told that AI will “create new opportunities,” while also watching it be used as a reason to slim down staff.
Silent Layoffs, Loud Consequences
Peck reports that Verizon recently announced a massive cut of 15,000 jobs, its biggest reduction ever.
That’s the old-school, blunt-force layoff most people recognize.
But she emphasizes that the real story now is those continuous, smaller rounds, because they are becoming embedded into how businesses operate.
She quotes Glassdoor’s warning that “serial layoffs may fly under the radar, they don’t fool the employees” who are left behind.
Those people are the ones picking up extra duties, covering for missing teammates, and worrying about their own future.
Peck concludes that this “persistent drag from forever layoffs” is likely to damage worker morale and workplace culture in 2026 and beyond.
Honestly, it’s hard to disagree.
If you turn layoffs into background noise – just another calendar item – you eventually turn trust and loyalty into background noise too.
What It Feels Like On The Ground
Neither Peck nor Cunningham is writing from a purely emotional angle, but their data points line up with what many people are already sensing.
Job postings feel thinner. Hiring moves slower. Teams feel stretched.
Cunningham notes that economists expect the delayed September jobs report to show only about 50,000 payroll gains, based on FactSet surveys.
That’s not a disaster number, but it’s not exactly roaring growth either.
Meanwhile, Peck’s reporting shows workers increasingly talk about job insecurity and layoffs in their own reviews, which is about as personal as it gets.
It’s one thing for an economist to say the labor market is “cooling.”
It’s another for a worker to say, “I’m scared of being next.”
In my view, the most troubling part is how this new landscape normalizes constant instability.
If layoffs are always happening somewhere in your company, then no raise, no promotion, and no “great review” really feels secure.
How Workers And Employers Might Respond
Neither Emily Peck nor Mary Cunningham pretends to have a neat solution.
But their reporting suggests a few hard truths.
For workers, the era of the “forever layoff” probably means diversifying your skills, staying flexible, and not assuming any job is bulletproof – even in “good” industries.
For companies, this strategy might look smart on spreadsheets in the short term.
But Peck’s warning about damaged culture and long-term morale shouldn’t be ignored.
A business that treats people as permanently expendable will eventually struggle to keep its best talent, especially when the economy finally swings back in workers’ favor.
And for policymakers and researchers, Cunningham’s data on WARN surges and October layoff spikes is a reminder that headline unemployment rates don’t tell the whole story.
Beneath those numbers, there’s an entire workforce living in a constant low-level fear of being quietly cut.
In that sense, Peck’s “forever layoff” idea and Cunningham’s October warning signs describe the same reality from two different angles.
Layoffs aren’t just something that happen “once in a while” anymore.
For a lot of Americans, they’ve become part of the background – always there, always possible, and always one email away.
Gary’s love for adventure and preparedness stems from his background as a former Army medic. Having served in remote locations around the world, he knows the importance of being ready for any situation, whether in the wilderness or urban environments. Gary’s practical medical expertise blends with his passion for outdoor survival, making him an expert in both emergency medical care and rugged, off-the-grid living. He writes to equip readers with the skills needed to stay safe and resilient in any scenario.
