A new round of layoffs is hitting American workers, with major companies across the retail, technology and pharmaceutical sectors preparing to reduce their workforces.
Kroger revealed plans this week to eliminate approximately 3,000 corporate positions over the next three years, while Pfizer confirmed about 150 layoffs at a Michigan manufacturing facility. Amazon has also announced another round of corporate cuts, and Netflix is reportedly preparing a restructuring that could affect about 5 percent of its workforce.
Airtable is another company making substantial reductions this week. Its new owner, Bending Spoons, confirmed that a "large portion" of the software company's pre-acquisition workforce will leave.
“When business is booming, executives take the credit. When things get shaky or investors want bigger returns, workers are shown the door. Not every company cuts jobs for the same reason every time. But the result is the same,” HR consultant Bryan Driscoll told Newsweek.
“Workers pay the price for decisions they didn't make, economic conditions they can't control, and profit expectations they didn't set.”
Why It Matters
The latest cuts show that the recent layoffs are not confined to one corner of the economy.
Kroger's planned reductions will affect more than a third of its corporate workforce and come as the grocer expands its use of AI. Meanwhile, Amazon's newest reductions are centered primarily on the company's core Stores operation, and Pfizer attributed its Michigan cuts to lower demand for some products.
Some layoffs are immediate cuts tied to individual facilities, while others are part of multiyear restructuring plans.
Kroger
Kroger plans to eliminate roughly 3,000 corporate positions over the next three years, according to a memo from CEO Greg Foran. The reductions would amount to about 37 percent of Kroger's roughly 8,200 corporate employees.
The plan is one of the biggest workforce reductions in the supermarket company's history and will bring significant restructuring to its corporate operations.
“Now there's AI, which is a great scapegoat for companies, in an effort to get more work out of fewer people while raking in higher profits. Some jobs will genuinely change because of AI. But not every layoff is because of innovation,” Driscoll said. “It's just cost-cutting.”
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Foran told employees the company needed to reduce duplicative work and adapt to new technology. The grocer has increasingly incorporated artificial intelligence into its operations, and this may be a key factor in the coming layoffs.
"Technology is reshaping what's possible," Foran said in the memo, according to the Associated Press. "The way work gets done is changing across every industry; we must adapt and take advantage of technology. We need to adopt capabilities, reduce duplicative work and look closely at where work is best fit to be done."
Pfizer
Pfizer confirmed Tuesday that roughly 150 workers at its Portage, Michigan, manufacturing facility are losing their jobs. The pharmaceutical company said the job cuts were prompted by lower production volumes due to weaker demand for some products manufactured at the facility.
"Pfizer does not take these changes lightly," Pfizer Media Relations Director Steven Danehy said previously in a statement. "Our colleagues are our top priority, and we are committed to keeping them informed throughout the process and providing them with support services."
Pfizer said the decision was not a reflection of the affected employees' performance. Instead, the company said the reduction aligns the plant's capacity with business needs.
“The broader labor market worries me more than any single layoff announcement. Unemployment is still relatively low, but hiring has slowed considerably,” Michael Ryan, a finance expert and the founder of MichaelRyanMoney.com, told Newsweek.
“Losing your job is painful enough. Losing it when nobody else is hiring can turn a temporary setback into a personal financial crisis.”
Netflix
Netflix is also considering one of its largest workforce reductions in several years. Puck reported that Netflix was preparing to reduce its workforce by approximately 5 percent as part of a restructuring.
Netflix reported it had about 16,000 full-time employees at the end of 2025, so a 5 percent reduction could mean roughly 800 positions.
Netflix is also scheduled to publish its third-quarter financial results on October 20.
“White collar, middle managers, and admin employees are particularly exposed,” Driscoll said. “These are people who were told to get degrees, build careers, work hard, and they'll be fine. Turns out job security was another corporate benefit that's gone away, if it ever really existed at all.”
Amazon
Amazon has said a new round of layoffs is primarily affecting its Stores division, which oversees its main e-commerce business.
The company cut fewer than 1,000 white-collar jobs, according to Reuters, affecting workers in the United States, India and the United Kingdom.
"We've adjusted parts of our Stores business because we believe this structure will better enable us to deliver on our priorities," an Amazon spokesperson said previously.
The cuts follow much larger reductions at the company. Amazon eliminated roughly 30,000 corporate positions in a series of cuts that began in 2025 and continued into January of this year.
Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos previously pointed to the company's rapid pandemic-era expansion while discussing those earlier cuts.
"People were staying home and they were ordering, and it was an incredible, stressful period for us, by the way," Bezos said. "The whole team worked extremely hard and did so much, but we really grew our head count."
Airtable
Airtable is also making a major workforce reduction after Italian technology company Bending Spoons acquired it.
Airtable product lead Alessandro Savarese said on Monday that the company is "parting ways with a large portion of the pre-acquisition team." The company has not disclosed exactly how many employees are affected.
Employees affected by the cuts are expected to leave by the end of the week and receive what Airtable described as "substantial separation packages."
"Today we're laying off a large part of the Airtable team. This is not a reflection of their work but a reflection of our deep belief that small teams ship more and better," Bending Spoons product leader Federico Simionato wrote on X earlier in the week.
The restructuring follows Bending Spoons' $1.28 billion acquisition of Airtable. Airtable has said its strategy under the new ownership will emphasize improvements to its core platform, AI tools and greater administrative controls for business customers.
What Happens Next
Kroger's restructuring will play out over a much longer period than the other cuts, with the company planning to eliminate approximately 3,000 corporate roles over three years.
Netflix will also be one of the companies to watch most closely as its restructuring involving roughly 5 percent of its workforce could be officially announced shortly.
“The underlying theme in all of these is uncertainty about the coming months in terms of consumer demand,” Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor for the University of Tennessee at Martin, told Newsweek. “This weakening demand could lead to fewer jobs by some and hiring freezes by others.”
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Kate Nalepinski and Sam Wilson.