US Layoffs — February 2026, Week 3

In-Depth Analysis

The Valentine's Day reprieve in WARN filings continued into week three, with just 9 notices affecting 1,865 workers nationwide — an 85% plunge from the same period last year when 136 notices displaced over 12,000 Americans. But beneath the surface calm, Verizon's $VZ decision to cut 1,319 positions at its Basking Ridge headquarters signals mounting pressure on telecom giants navigating the costly 5G transition while consumer spending on wireless services plateaus.

Garden State Corporate Consolidation

New Jersey dominated this week's filings, accounting for 81% of affected workers across three major layoffs. Verizon's massive reduction at its corporate nerve center — the largest single filing of the week — reflects the carrier's struggle to justify capital expenditures on 5G infrastructure that has yet to generate meaningful revenue differentiation. With enterprise customers delaying network upgrades amid tightening IT budgets and consumers increasingly indifferent to speed improvements beyond 4G, telecom operators face a classic infrastructure trap: billions invested, returns still pending.

The timing coincides with Verizon's broader cost reduction program announced in recent earnings calls, as management targets $3 billion in annual savings by 2027. Wall Street has rewarded similar moves across the telecom sector, with AT&T $T and T-Mobile $TMUS shares outperforming the broader market when announcing workforce reductions tied to network automation and AI-driven customer service platforms.

Wonder Group's 121-worker reduction in Englewood adds to the mounting evidence that venture-backed food delivery and ghost kitchen concepts continue bleeding cash as post-pandemic dining patterns normalize. The company's ambitious plans to revolutionize food delivery through automated kitchens have collided with the harsh reality of unit economics that rarely pencil out beyond major metropolitan areas.

Utah's Service Sector Squeeze

Utah's six filings, while smaller in scale, reveal stress fractures across service industries. Sheraton's three identical 100-worker notices in Salt Lake City — likely representing different hotel properties or operational divisions — highlight hospitality's ongoing recalibration as business travel remains 20% below pre-pandemic levels. The redundancy in filings suggests a coordinated downsizing across Marriott's $MAR regional operations, as the hotel giant rightsizes capacity to match persistent weakness in corporate bookings.

More intriguing are the three separate Nordstrom $JWN card services filings, each affecting just 15 workers but spanning statewide operations. This granular approach to workforce reduction suggests the retailer is surgically removing positions across its credit operations infrastructure, possibly consolidating functions ahead of broader digital transformation initiatives. With department stores under relentless pressure from e-commerce competitors, Nordstrom's decision to trim its financial services workforce hints at deeper strategic questions about which ancillary business lines justify continued investment.

Barclays Services Corporation's 80-worker reduction in Whippany reflects the British bank's ongoing retreat from U.S. consumer operations, a trend accelerated by regulatory scrutiny and margin compression in retail banking.

The Quiet Before Earnings Season

This week's muted filing volume — down 64% from the previous week — creates an artificial calm that market participants shouldn't mistake for underlying labor market strength. Many companies delay layoff announcements until after earnings releases, suggesting March could deliver a more substantial wave of workforce reductions as Q4 results disappoint and management teams provide updated guidance for 2026.

The concentration of filings in just two states, with no manufacturing or technology layoffs, suggests companies in cyclical sectors are either delaying difficult decisions or have already completed major workforce adjustments. As Federal Reserve policy continues constraining credit conditions and consumer spending shows early signs of fatigue, this week's quiet may prove more anomalous than indicative.