Forever Layoffs: The New Corporate Strategy Reshaping American Employment

Something fundamental has changed in how American companies manage their workforces. While headlines focus on mass layoffs at tech giants and Fortune 500 companies, a quieter but more profound transformation is reshaping employment across every sector: the rise of what we're calling "forever layoffs."

The data tells a striking story. In 2015, just 38% of layoff events affected fewer than 50 employees. By 2025, that figure has surged to 51%, meaning the majority of workforce reductions now happen in small, continuous waves rather than dramatic one-time cuts. This isn't a temporary trend responding to economic uncertainty. It's a permanent strategic shift in corporate workforce management, enabled by technology and driven by a fundamental reconception of what employment means in the modern economy.

The Death of "Right-Sizing": From Episodic to Continuous

For decades, corporate layoffs followed a predictable pattern: companies would overh ire during boom periods, then conduct painful but infrequent "right-sizing" exercises during downturns or strategic pivots. These events were traumatic but episodic. Employees understood the risk, but also believed that surviving a major restructuring meant relative security until the next crisis.

That model is dead.

Today's forever layoffs operate on entirely different logic. Rather than periodic purges, companies now continuously optimize their workforces in small increments, 10 positions here, 25 there, another 40 next quarter. The cumulative impact rivals traditional mass layoffs, but the execution is fundamentally different.

Consider the numbers from our layoff tracker: In 2025, we've documented over 2,400 distinct layoff events. Of these, 1,224 affected fewer than 50 workers, but collectively, these "small" cuts eliminated over 35,000 positions. That's equivalent to laying off the entire workforce of a major corporation, except it happened gradually across hundreds of companies and flew largely under the media radar.

Why Companies Are Embracing Forever Layoffs

The shift to continuous, small-scale workforce reductions isn't arbitrary. It reflects several converging factors that make this approach strategically advantageous for employers:

1. AI and Automation Enable Granular Optimization

Modern workforce analytics tools allow companies to identify productivity gaps, redundancies, and automation opportunities at unprecedented granularity. Rather than waiting for annual reviews to assess department-wide efficiency, managers can now continuously monitor individual and team performance metrics, flagging positions for elimination as soon as AI tools or process improvements can absorb their responsibilities.

Salesforce's recent reduction of its customer support team from 9,000 to 5,000 employees, a 44% cut, didn't happen overnight. It unfolded over multiple quarters as AI-powered support tools proved capable of handling routine inquiries. Each wave eliminated 50-150 positions as specific support categories were automated, making the overall transformation feel less dramatic than a single 4,000-person layoff would have been.

2. Regulatory and PR Advantages

Large-scale layoffs trigger WARN Act requirements, extensive media coverage, potential shareholder lawsuits, and regulatory scrutiny. Cutting 1,000 positions generates headlines; cutting 25 positions monthly for 40 months accomplishes the same headcount reduction with minimal public attention.

This isn't just about avoiding bad press. Smaller layoffs often fall below thresholds that trigger enhanced severance requirements, union notifications, or government reporting obligations. The cumulative cost savings, both financial and reputational, are substantial.

3. Flexibility in an Uncertain Economy

Traditional mass layoffs were binary decisions: either you're confident enough in future demand to maintain headcount, or you're worried enough to make deep cuts. Forever layoffs eliminate this all-or-nothing calculus.

Companies can now continuously adjust workforce size in response to real-time business conditions. If a product line underperforms, eliminate its 15-person support team. If a division's revenue projections decline, cut 30 positions over two quarters rather than waiting for annual planning cycles. This agility is particularly valuable in 2025's volatile economic environment, where inflation concerns, interest rate uncertainty, and rapid technological change make long-term workforce planning nearly impossible.

4. Reduced Survivor Trauma and Productivity Loss

Counterintuitively, continuous small layoffs may actually reduce the psychological impact on remaining employees compared to massive one-time cuts. When 30% of a department disappears overnight, survivors experience profound insecurity and productivity collapse. When 2-3% of positions are eliminated quarterly, it becomes normalized, unfortunate but expected, like routine performance management rather than existential crisis.

Several HR consultants we spoke with noted that companies explicitly cite "reduced disruption" as a benefit of smaller, more frequent workforce adjustments. Whether this actually improves morale or simply makes employees perpetually anxious is debatable, but from a pure productivity standpoint, avoiding the multi-month recovery period after mass layoffs has clear appeal.

The Forever Layoffs Playbook: How It Actually Works

Through analysis of hundreds of layoff events and conversations with affected workers, a clear pattern emerges in how companies execute forever layoffs:

Phase 1: Identify "Low Performers"
Companies use performance review systems, often AI-augmented, to continuously rank employees. Those in the bottom 5-10% become targets for elimination. Crucially, this isn't about absolute performance, even high-performing teams will have a bottom tier that can be cut.

Phase 2: Automate or Redistribute
Before eliminating positions, companies ensure their responsibilities can be absorbed. Sometimes this means implementing AI tools (customer service chatbots, automated data analysis, AI-generated marketing content). Other times it means redistributing work to remaining team members, often with the justification that "productivity tools" make this feasible.

Phase 3: Execute Quietly
Rather than company-wide announcements, forever layoffs happen at the team or department level. Affected employees are told their position is being "eliminated due to restructuring" or that their role is "no longer aligned with strategic priorities." Colleagues often don't even know someone was laid off until they notice their absence.

Phase 4: Repeat Continuously
This isn't a one-time optimization. The process repeats quarterly or even monthly, creating a perpetual state of workforce refinement. Each iteration is small enough to avoid triggering formal restructuring processes, but the cumulative effect fundamentally transforms the organization.

Real-World Examples: Forever Layoffs in Action

While most forever layoffs fly under the radar, examining specific cases reveals the strategy's breadth:

IBM has become a master of continuous workforce optimization. Rather than announcing a single 5,400-person layoff, the company has been steadily reducing headcount over multiple quarters through what it calls "workforce rebalancing." Each wave affects 200-400 employees, small enough to avoid major headlines but large enough to meaningfully reduce costs. The company frames this as "having the right people with the right skills" for an AI-first approach, but the practical effect is permanent employment instability for IBM workers.

Oracle has similarly embraced gradual workforce reduction. While the company announced plans to cut 10,000 positions as part of restructuring, the actual execution has been spread across multiple quarters and divisions. Cloud infrastructure teams see 50 positions eliminated one month, sales operations loses 75 the next, legacy product support sheds another 100. The cumulative impact is massive, but no single event triggers the scrutiny a 10,000-person layoff would generate.

PwC's approach to its 5,600 global layoffs exemplifies forever layoffs strategy. Rather than a single announcement, the consulting giant is implementing cuts over 18-24 months, targeting specific service lines and geographies in waves. Each reduction is presented as a discrete optimization of a particular business unit, obscuring the broader pattern of systematic workforce reduction.

Even companies not traditionally associated with layoffs are adopting this approach. Eastman Chemical cut 980 positions through a series of smaller reductions across multiple facilities rather than closing a single plant. Hormel Foods has been steadily trimming corporate and plant positions in increments of 20-50 workers per location, avoiding the community impact and political attention that closing a major facility would generate.

What Forever Layoffs Mean for Workers

If you're an employee in corporate America today, forever layoffs fundamentally change your relationship with your employer and your approach to career management:

Job Security Is Now Perpetually Provisional

The old model offered a psychological contract: survive the occasional restructuring, and you'll have relative stability between events. Forever layoffs eliminate that stability. Every quarter brings new optimization opportunities. Every performance review could be your last. Even high performers aren't safe, if AI can do 80% of your job, your role becomes a target regardless of your individual excellence.

This creates a state of permanent employment anxiety. Workers can't relax after surviving a layoff because another wave is always 3-6 months away. The psychological toll of this perpetual insecurity is only beginning to be understood, but early research suggests it may be more damaging than traditional episodic layoffs.

Performance Management Becomes Existential

When companies continuously eliminate their "bottom performers," performance reviews shift from developmental tools to survival mechanisms. Being ranked in the bottom quartile of your team, even if you're objectively doing good work, can mean termination.

This creates perverse incentives: employees focus on metrics that affect rankings rather than actual value creation, political maneuvering intensifies as workers try to avoid the bottom tier, and collaboration suffers as helping colleagues could mean relative performance decline.

Career Planning Requires New Strategies

In a forever layoffs environment, traditional career advice becomes obsolete. Staying at one company for years to build expertise and advance through ranks is increasingly risky, you're just giving the company more opportunities to optimize you out. The new calculus favors:

• Frequent job changes to stay ahead of optimization cycles
• Continuous skill development to remain in the "safe" performance tier
• Building external networks rather than internal political capital
• Maintaining emergency funds for inevitable periods of unemployment
• Diversifying income sources to reduce dependence on any single employer

Severance and Benefits Erosion

Forever layoffs typically come with minimal severance compared to traditional mass restructurings. When Verizon announces 15,000 layoffs, public pressure and legal requirements often result in enhanced severance packages. When a company eliminates 25 positions quarterly, affected workers usually receive only statutory minimums, often just two weeks of pay.

The cumulative financial impact on affected workers is substantial. A software engineer laid off in a mass restructuring might receive 6 months of severance plus extended healthcare; the same engineer eliminated in a forever layoffs wave might get 2 weeks. Multiply this across thousands of workers, and the wealth transfer from employees to employers is enormous.

The Broader Economic Implications

Forever layoffs don't just affect individual workers, they're reshaping the entire employment landscape:

Unemployment Statistics Become Less Meaningful

Traditional unemployment metrics assume layoffs are episodic events that temporarily elevate joblessness before workers find new positions. Forever layoffs create a steady stream of newly unemployed workers, making it harder to distinguish between cyclical unemployment (temporary, recession-driven) and structural unemployment (permanent, technology-driven).

This matters for policy. If unemployment remains elevated not because of economic weakness but because companies are permanently optimizing workforces, traditional stimulus measures won't help. We may need entirely new frameworks for understanding and responding to labor market dynamics.

The Middle Class Squeeze Intensifies

Forever layoffs disproportionately target mid-level white-collar workers, the traditional core of the American middle class. Entry-level positions are cheap enough to retain, senior executives are protected by contracts and political power, but middle managers, experienced professionals, and specialized knowledge workers are prime targets for AI-enabled elimination.

As these positions disappear in small increments across thousands of companies, the pathway from entry-level to senior roles narrows dramatically. This isn't just about individual career frustration, it's about the erosion of the economic foundation that sustained American prosperity for decades.

Regional Economic Impacts Become Harder to Address

When a major employer closes a plant or conducts mass layoffs, communities can mobilize responses: retraining programs, economic development initiatives, political pressure for intervention. Forever layoffs make this impossible.

When Intel eliminates 669 positions in Oregon through a series of small cuts rather than a single plant closure, there's no triggering event that galvanizes community response. The cumulative impact on local economies can be just as severe, but the diffuse nature of forever layoffs makes coordinated responses nearly impossible.

Can Forever Layoffs Be Stopped?

The uncomfortable truth is that forever layoffs are probably here to stay. The economic logic is too compelling for companies to abandon voluntarily, and the regulatory framework wasn't designed to address continuous, small-scale workforce optimization.

Some potential policy responses could include:

• Expanding WARN Act coverage to include cumulative layoffs over rolling 12-month periods
• Requiring severance minimums based on tenure regardless of layoff size
• Mandating transparency in workforce reduction patterns
• Adjusting unemployment insurance to better support workers facing repeated short-term layoffs
• Creating tax incentives for employment stability rather than workforce optimization

But realistically, none of these reforms appear imminent. The political will doesn't exist, and companies would fiercely resist any regulation that limits their workforce flexibility.

Adapting to the Forever Layoffs Reality

For workers navigating this new landscape, adaptation requires both mindset shifts and practical strategies:

1. Embrace Perpetual Job Search Mode
Even when employed, maintain an active network, keep your resume updated, and regularly interview at other companies. Loyalty to employers who practice forever layoffs is misplaced, they've already signaled that your employment is perpetually provisional.

2. Build Portable Skills and Credentials
Invest in skills and certifications that transfer across employers and industries. Company-specific expertise is increasingly risky when your tenure is uncertain. Focus on broadly applicable capabilities: AI tool proficiency, data analysis, project management, cross-functional collaboration.

3. Create Multiple Income Streams
Relying solely on employment income is increasingly precarious. Whether through consulting, freelancing, investment income, or side businesses, diversifying your income sources provides crucial resilience when forever layoffs strike.

4. Maintain Financial Resilience
The traditional advice of 3-6 months of emergency savings is insufficient in a forever layoffs environment. Aim for 12 months of expenses, assume minimal severance, and plan for extended job searches as more workers compete for fewer stable positions.

5. Watch for Warning Signs
Companies practicing forever layoffs often show predictable patterns: increased emphasis on performance metrics, new AI tool implementations, management rhetoric about "efficiency" and "optimization," hiring freezes in certain departments while others continue recruiting. When you see these signals, accelerate your exit planning.

The Future of Work in a Forever Layoffs World

As we look toward 2026 and beyond, forever layoffs will likely intensify rather than moderate. AI capabilities are expanding, economic uncertainty persists, and companies have discovered that continuous workforce optimization is both profitable and politically feasible.

This doesn't mean mass unemployment is inevitable. New jobs will be created, new industries will emerge, and human labor will remain valuable in ways AI can't replicate. But the nature of employment is fundamentally changing.

The social contract that defined post-war American prosperity, stable employment in exchange for loyalty and hard work, is dissolving. In its place, we're seeing the emergence of a more transactional, precarious relationship between workers and employers. Forever layoffs are both symptom and accelerant of this transformation.

For the 51% of layoff events now affecting fewer than 50 workers, the individual impact may seem small. But collectively, these continuous, quiet eliminations are reshaping American employment more profoundly than any single mass layoff ever could.

Understanding this shift isn't about pessimism, it's about realism. The workers who thrive in the coming years will be those who recognize that job security is dead, adapt their career strategies accordingly, and build the skills, networks, and financial resilience to navigate perpetual workforce optimization.

At theNumbers.io, we'll continue tracking every layoff event, large and small, providing the data and analysis you need to understand these trends and make informed career decisions. The numbers don't lie: forever layoffs are here, and they're reshaping American employment in ways we're only beginning to understand.