A growing number of U.S. companies are laying off workers in May, according to Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filings.
While WARN notices do not capture every layoff nationwide, they offer one of the clearest public indicators of large job cuts scheduled to take effect, particularly for plant closures and mass layoffs involving 50 or more employees.
Companies across industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, defense contracting and tech, have filed notices or confirmed plans that point to layoffs beginning or continuing in May.
Why It Matters
These layoffs show that workforce reductions are continuing well into the second quarter of the year, even as some economic indicators stabilize.
WARN notices often provide workers with advance notice, but they also underscore how widespread job cuts remain across sectors, and not just in tech, which has dominated headlines.
What To Know
These companies have announced layoffs to come in the month of May:
- Swedish Match Cigars Inc. (Philip Morris International subsidiary)
The company announced the closure of its Dothan, Alabama, facility, with 54 employees expected to be laid off effective May 31, according to a WARN notice filed with the state. - General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT)
The defense contractor filed a WARN notice indicating that 87 employees in Washington, D.C., could be laid off by mid‑summer, following earlier cuts in the region. - Meta
Meta has said it plans to begin a new round of layoffs starting May 20, affecting about 8,000 employees globally, as part of a broader restructuring tied to efficiency and artificial intelligence initiatives.
And based on publicly available WARN notices, the other companies include:
- KPR US
- Compass Group
- Nob Hill Foods
- Synopsys
- Experian
- Mattel
- Textron Systems
- JP Morgan Chase
- City National Bank
For workers, the timing matters: layoffs taking effect in May can affect health insurance coverage, severance eligibility, and access to retraining or unemployment benefits heading into summer.
And for local communities, plant closures and mass layoffs can ripple through regional economies, particularly when a major employer scales back or shuts down operations.
HR consultant Bryan Driscoll attributed many of the layoffs to a failing economy that is “causing rot in the job market.”
He added: “But what’s driving this isn’t some abstract downturn. It’s a system that prioritizes profits over people, squeezes labor for every last dollar and then some. This was all preventable. Corporate power chose otherwise.”
Meanwhile Kevin Thompson, the CEO of 9i Capital Group and the host of the 9innings podcast, attributed the reasons to cost-cutting and right-sizing after pandemic-era over-hiring.
“For workers, this likely means a labor market where supply exceeds demand,” Thompson told Newsweek. “That translates to less leverage on wages, more competition for roles, and longer job searches. While the job market remains loose, many companies continue to argue that qualified candidates are still hard to find.”
What Happens Next
More WARN notices are likely to surface in the coming weeks, as companies continue filing required disclosures for layoffs planned later in May or early summer.
Workers concerned about potential layoffs can monitor state labor department websites and national WARN databases for updates.
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