UPS announced plans to eliminate 20,000 jobs this year, a move that feels shortsighted and cur that could reverberate through working families and local economies across the country.
The company claims these cuts are part of a long-term plan to reduce costs and increase profits, but the timing couldn’t be worse. In an already precarious job market, where inflation remains stubborn and wages still haven’t caught up to the cost of living, slashing this many jobs feels less like a strategy and more like abandonment.
UPS has cited “macroeconomic uncertainty” and a dip in shipping volumes linked partly to President Donald Trump’s tariffs as justification for the mass layoffs. But these aren’t just numbers on a balance sheet — these are warehouse workers, drivers and support staff, among many, who kept goods moving through a global pandemic.
Gutting the workforce now in the name of corporate efficiency is not only aggressive but also dangerous and tone-deaf to the current state of the job market. UPS’s decision to implement more technology in its facilities will lead to unemployment for 20,000 people.
UPS currently employs around 490,000 people, with approximately 330,000 represented by the Teamsters union. Last year, the company cut 12,000 jobs.
In a report from April 29, UPS announced additional cuts targeting its “operational workforce”—those directly involved in package sorting, transportation and delivery.
Its decision to remove 4% of its workforce is due to increased use of technology and a previously announced plan to trim its Amazon business, citing its partnership with the company as “not profitable.”
UPS also stated that it plans to increase automation across its operations, ranging from package sorting to label application and the loading and unloading of trucks. 400 facilities are expected to become partially or fully automated.
The Teamsters union, which represents more than 300,000 UPS hourly workers, said it would fight any layoffs of its members.
“If UPS wants to continue to downsize corporate management, the Teamsters won’t stand in its way,” Teamsters president Sean O’Brien said. “But if the company intends to violate our contract or makes any attempt to go after hard-fought, good-paying Teamsters jobs, UPS will be in for a hell of a fight.”
UPS is facing a challenging second quarter, forecasting a total-company operating margin of about 9.3%, below the double-digit margins investors typically prefer.
UPS’s largest U.S. business is expected to experience a 9% drop in average daily packages handled and a slight decline in revenue.
Despite these struggles, UPS is trying to adapt to changing economic conditions, planning for automation in facilities and navigating the fallout from Trump’s new 145% tariffs on many Chinese goods. These tariffs are expected to significantly impact UPS’s China-to-U.S. trade lanes, which accounted for about 11% of UPS’s international revenue last year.
As the global trade landscape continues to shift, UPS is already seeing increased volume from countries like Vietnam and Thailand, but replacing the trade volume from China will take a while — maybe even years.
UPS is also worried about the effect on small and medium-sized businesses, which may struggle as tariffs increase costs on goods sourced from China. UPS’s reliance on deliveries for large retailers like Amazon is another concern. If U.S. consumers buy fewer goods due to higher prices from the tariffs, UPS will likely feel the impact. Additionally, the end of the duty-free status for Chinese e-commerce sellers like Temu and Shein could further reduce volume.
While the company is struggling to profit, its employees could soon struggle to make a living. With automation expanding and operational jobs at risk of extinction, thousands of workers face an unfair certainty when human labor should be valued, not replaced.
