On Tuesday, January 27, 2026, the United Parcel Service (UPS) announced its plan to lay off 30,000 employees in 2026. This decision comes as another cost-cutting measure taken by the company following last year’s significant layoffs due to the reduction in delivery services to Amazon.
During a conference call with analysts, UPS Chief Financial Officer Brian Dykes stated that the company aims to cut up to 30,000 operational positions in 2026. The conference call took place after the company released its quarterly financial report.
As UPS experiences a decline in business volume with its largest customer, Amazon, Dykes mentioned that the company plans to reduce total operational hours by approximately 25 million.
“In terms of variable costs, we expect to cut up to 30,000 operational positions,” Dykes said. “This will be achieved through natural attrition, and we anticipate offering another voluntary separation program for full-time drivers.”
The global package delivery company has been implementing a transformation strategy announced in June last year, focusing on optimizing its U.S. business network and increasing productivity. UPS has described this as its largest business network restructuring plan in history.
Last year, UPS laid off 48,000 employees, with 34,000 being operational staff and 14,000 being management personnel. The company also initiated a driver buyout program and closed 93 operational facilities as part of its efforts to consolidate operations and workforce.
These initiatives are all part of UPS’s integration of operational facilities and workforce planning.
In January last year, the company stated that it would accelerate a plan to reduce low-profit delivery services provided to its largest customer, Amazon, acknowledging that these services had a significant dilutive effect on UPS’s profits. Amazon has increasingly become a formidable competitor in the growing delivery service sector.
UPS CEO Carol Tome stated during the Tuesday conference call, “We are in the final six months of accelerating the reduction plan with Amazon (business cooperation) and intend to further reduce 1 million packages per day in 2026 while continuing to restructure our network.”
The company estimates that terminating cooperation with Amazon will save UPS a total of $3 billion in costs.
In its financial report on Tuesday, UPS mentioned that as part of the “Transformation 2.0” completed in 2025, the company has also identified opportunities to streamline its management structure.