Why is UPS cutting 30,000 jobs?

UPS is cutting jobs as it reduces reliance on Amazon deliveries and restructures its network to focus on higher-margin customers.

Is UPS ending its partnership with Amazon?

UPS is not ending its partnership but is significantly reducing Amazon shipment volumes as part of a long-term strategy.

BUSINESS

UPS to Cut 30,000 Jobs as Company Reduces Reliance on Amazon

UPS plans to eliminate up to 30,000 jobs in 2026 as it cuts Amazon shipments, restructures its network, and shifts focus to higher-margin customers.

BY RILEY CARTER

JANUARY 28, 2026

UPS to Cut 30,000 Jobs as Company Reduces Reliance on Amazon

As it continues to curtail shipments for its largest client, Amazon, parcel delivery behemoth UPS says it will eliminate up to 30,000 jobs this year.

Due to what it claims are "extraordinarily dilutive" to its profit margins, the largest package delivery firm in the world has been reducing deliveries for the massive online retailer.

According to UPS, the layoffs will be implemented by offering full-time drivers buyouts and by failing to replace employees who voluntarily leave the company.

For the fourth three months of the previous year, it posted earnings of $24.5 billion (£17.7 billion). Additionally, it predicted an unexpected boost in revenue to $89.7 billion for the upcoming year.

As part of a rescue strategy that would see the business concentrate on more lucrative clients like healthcare organisations, UPS announced last year that it would begin to lessen its reliance on Amazon.

As it decreased its Amazon deliveries in 2025, it closed 93 sites and eliminated 48,000 jobs. According to UPS, 24 more locations would be shut down in the first half of this year.Chief executive Carol Tome stated, "We are in the last six months of our Amazon accelerated glide down plan, and for the entire year 2026, we intend to glide down another million pieces per day while continuing to reconfigure our network."

In its 2024 annual report, United Parcel Service (UPS) stated that company employed over 490,000 people, of which 78,000 were in management. The company's employees are unionised.

Following a fatal crash in November in Louisville, Kentucky, UPS also announced that it was formally retiring its fleet of MD-11 cargo planes. Since the accident, the aircraft, which account for around 9% of the company's fleet, had been grounded.

In Tuesday's New York trade, UPS shares ended the day marginally higher.

In recent years, UPS, FedEx, and the US Postal Service (USPS) have lost ground to Amazon, which has expanded its own delivery services dramatically.

Amazon outperformed FedEx and UPS in 2024, handling 6.3 billion deliveries in the United States. According to Pitney Bowes' parcel shipping index report, Amazon is expected to surpass USPS in terms of US delivery volumes by 2028.

About Author

RILEY CARTER

Riley Carter writes about business, finance, and the economy, bringing readers insights into market movements, industry shifts, and corporate leadership.