Laid off from CarMax.

What CarMax layoffs have meant for employees

Corporate staff have been cut three times starting in August 2024, when Richmond BizSense reported 15 home office product delivery roles gone a month after the drivers, and the two 2026 rounds came with nearly the same explanation. CarMax told Virginia Business in January 2026 that it needed "a faster, leaner corporate workforce," and the outlet's September report quoted it cutting again to "operate with a leaner corporate workforce." The January cut ran across technology, human resources, legal, marketing and finance roles at several levels. Both 2026 rounds ended work the day people heard the news, while pay was set to run on to a fixed date with severance offered on top of it. If you're let go in a round handled that way, the pay-through date shapes your budget more than the last day you spend at work.

Customer experience center staff, who help buyers shop and arrange financing by phone and online, went through the cut CarMax's annual report calls its first significant step toward its SG&A savings goal, made in the three months to November 30, 2025 and expected to save about $35 million a year. The company told Virginia Business that new processes and technology had let it consolidate teams there, and when fiscal 2026 closed the annual report counted 879 sales associates still working in the centers. If you lost a center job, CarMax's offer in that round included the chance to apply for open internal roles, and the annual report books the cut as part of savings it calls ongoing.

For store and field staff, the record has signals of its own. Drivers made up most of the 2024 cut, and the field came up again in CarMax's September 29 results, which credited savings from actions taken to trim field and corporate payroll toward its cost target. In its annual report for the year that ended February 28, 2026, CarMax said no associate was subject to a collective bargaining agreement, so on that filing's date no union contract covered the terms of any store cut.

In August 2024 CarMax told Richmond BizSense it did "not anticipate any further broad reductions." Cuts followed in October 2025, January 2026 and September 2026, with a leadership change in between, and the latest came under Keith Barr, chief executive since March 2026. CarMax's strategy under Barr, as the September results describe it, has four pillars, one of them "Run Lean," which includes continuing to reduce SG&A. The annual report sets a $200 million exit-rate savings target for SG&A when fiscal 2027 ends, raised from $150 million, with the full effect expected in fiscal 2028. Restructuring CarMax completed in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 was expected to save about $60 million a year more, and its fiscal 2026 restructuring charges of $49.8 million include severance for the CEO change and the workforce cuts. If you're deciding between waiting it out and starting a search, the September 29 results show that savings program still running, and neither those results nor the annual report ties it to another round of cuts.

Virginia, where CarMax had about 3,300 of its roughly 30,000 employees in summer 2025, has lost jobs in every round since 2024, and the September cuts also reached Dallas, Atlanta and the Edmunds office in California. For a job based around Richmond, our Virginia unemployment benefits page lays out how claims work in that state, and people cut in Dallas, Atlanta or at Edmunds will find the same for their states on the Texas, Georgia and California pages. If severance arrives with a separation agreement attached, negotiating severance terms covers which parts people tend to push on.

A sourced history of CarMax layoffs

• September 2026, corporate offices and Edmunds

  About 145 corporate staff went, roughly 60 near Richmond, Virginia Business reported. Told they no longer needed to report to work, they were to keep drawing pay through October 2, with severance eligibility and outplacement support.

• January 2026, home office and CarMax Auto Finance

  About 230 positions went, 113 near Richmond and nearly all salaried, Virginia Business reported. Sent home when told, they were to be paid through at least January 31, with severance, career support and internal openings offered.

• October 2025, customer experience centers

  About 350 jobs went, 55 in Virginia, with severance and career support offered, Virginia Business reported. A few workers told 12 On Your Side, in unverified accounts, that they learned by short video call or from locked work accounts.

• July and August 2024, logistics drivers and home office

  About 400 logistics drivers went in July and 15 home office product delivery jobs in August, Richmond BizSense reported. CarMax offered severance and career counseling and said nearly 20 percent of the drivers were moving into other company roles.

• April 2020, pandemic furlough of about 15,500

  Furloughs were to start April 18, with transition pay first and full medical premiums for plan members, CarMax's April 8 release said. California's WARN report logged store notices as temporary, and a July 2020 filing said the furlough would end that month.

• January 2020, Edmunds.com notice for Santa Monica

  Edmunds.com notified California of 122 permanent layoffs in Santa Monica, effective in March, the state's WARN report shows. CarMax bought Edmunds later, and its annual report dates the purchase to June 1, 2021.

What to do if you're laid off from CarMax

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. CarMax's biggest hubs: Virginia, California, Texas, Georgia. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what CarMax's hub states run: Virginia, California, Texas, Georgia, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.