US Layoffs — April 2026, Week 2

In-Depth Analysis

The labor market is playing tricks on economists again. After a brutal week in early April 2025 that saw 6,529 workers hit with WARN notices, this year's corresponding period delivered just 790 affected employees across six filings — an 88% year-over-year plunge that looks almost too good to be true. Yet the week-over-week surge of 172% suggests the calm may be deceiving.

When Luxury Retail Meets Reality

Saks Fifth Avenue dominated the week's carnage, accounting for nearly half the displaced workers across three Pennsylvania locations. The luxury retailer's 360-worker reduction spans from Bala Cynwyd's affluent Main Line suburbs to Wilkes Barre's struggling former coal country — a geographic spread that tells its own story about where discretionary spending is cracking first.

This isn't just about one retailer's missteps. Luxury retail has been living on borrowed time since the Federal Reserve's aggressive rate cycle began cooling asset prices and crimping the wealth effect that drives high-end consumption. When your customer base depends on portfolio gains to justify $300 handbags, rising mortgage rates and volatile equity markets become existential threats. Saks' Pennsylvania pullback signals that even supposedly recession-proof luxury spending has limits.

The timing feels ominous for broader retail employment heading into the traditionally weak spring hiring season. If luxury brands are cutting this deep now, what happens when middle-market retailers face their own margin pressure later in the year?

The Northeast Corridor Squeeze

Geography tells a story here that national unemployment figures miss. New Jersey and Pennsylvania split this week's 790 affected workers evenly, but the underlying dynamics differ sharply. SFC Global Supply Chain's 170-worker reduction in Robbinsville hits a logistics hub that should theoretically benefit from continued e-commerce growth. When supply chain companies are cutting rather than expanding, it suggests demand softening that hasn't yet shown up in consumer spending data.

Ermc's 205-worker reduction at Newark International Airport adds another wrinkle. Airport services employment typically correlates with travel demand, and any weakness there could foreshadow broader discretionary spending pullbacks. The fact that this represents the week's largest single layoff suggests business travel — the most profitable segment for airport vendors — may be facing deeper structural headwinds than airline earnings reports indicate.

The Quiet Before What Storm?

The Fresh Market's 55-worker cut in Montvale rounds out New Jersey's troubles, but specialty grocery rarely makes dramatic moves without seeing clear demand destruction ahead. Upscale food retailers like Fresh Market occupy a unique position as economic canaries — premium enough to feel discretionary spending pressure early, but essential enough that cuts signal genuine household budget tightening rather than mere preference shifts.

The 88% year-over-year decline in WARN activity could reflect genuinely improved economic conditions, but the concentration in consumer-facing industries suggests something more nuanced. Companies may be getting better at managing workforce reductions through attrition and selective hiring freezes rather than dramatic WARN-triggering cuts. That would explain why jobless claims remain subdued even as anecdotal evidence of hiring slowdowns proliferates.

This week's modest uptick in activity, concentrated in the Northeast's high-cost markets, may preview a broader recalibration ahead. When luxury retailers and logistics companies simultaneously pull back, it suggests cross-currents in the economy that aggregate employment data can't capture. The real question isn't whether this week's 790 affected workers represent a trend reversal, but whether they're the leading edge of a more gradual economic softening that's finally becoming visible in the data.