The Layoff Club

Laid off from Goldman Sachs.

Goldman ran its cuts on a calendar for years, a performance review that trimmed 2 to 7% of the firm most years. Reporting puts 2026 on a different pattern, several smaller rounds instead of one spring event, and the January 2023 round is still the one whose package made headlines for what it left out, the bonus.

At a glance

What's known about Goldman Sachs severance and layoffs

  • 46,200, down 800 in three months · Headcount at the end of June 2026
  • 2 to 7% of the firm · The annual review's typical cut
  • Up to 3,200 roles · January 2023, the big one
  • 60 days active pay + 5 weeks severance · The 2023 package
  • Reported as not paid · Annual bonus for those cut in 2023
  • About $250 million · Severance expense booked in 2025
  • Rolling cuts reported from April 2026 · What replaced the single spring cull
  • Two all time, none since 2025 · Goldman WARN filings in our tracker

Recent Goldman Sachs layoffs

Goldman Sachs ended June 2026 with 800 fewer people

Goldman reported 46,200 people at the end of June 2026, against 47,000 three months earlier, a 2% drop across one quarter. On the July 2026 earnings call David Solomon said the firm wasn't growing its human capital footprint quite the same way, and that he wouldn't say the expense base had structurally changed. The quarter produced no WARN filings, none in our tracker.

Previous rounds

Goldman Sachs layoff history

Goldman has run its cuts through an annual performance review since it reinstated the practice in 2022, and the rounds since have surfaced in reporting rather than in announcements. The review is a single annual headcount reduction known as a Strategic Resource Assessment, historically in the spring, and reporting in August 2024 put its usual cut at 2 to 7% of the workforce, the share moving with the year's outlook. A spokesman has described the exercise as normal, standard and customary and said the firm doesn't comment on specifics in any given year. 2024 meant a few hundred jobs. 2025 was set for May and aimed particularly at vice presidents, after the chief executive told senior executives the firm had hired too many of them.

That calendar broke in 2026. Business Insider reported through Seeking Alpha in March that the firm would run several rounds of smaller cuts from April through the summer across every business line, with business-line leaders setting their own timelines in place of one firmwide spring event. Five months earlier an October 2025 memo told staff the firm would constrain headcount growth and was planning a limited reduction in roles across the firm. That memo, signed by David Solomon, John Waldron and Denis Coleman, launched OneGS 3.0, which Goldman told investors is a multi-year initiative to transform its operating model and told staff is a multiyear effort to put artificial intelligence into client onboarding, lending, regulatory reporting and vendor management.

The filings count what the announcements skip. Goldman had 49,100 people at the end of September 2022, and its annual report puts period-end headcount at 45,300 for 2023, 46,500 for 2024 and 47,400 for 2025, which leaves the firm 2,100 people larger at the end of 2025 than at the end of 2023, arithmetic on one filed table rather than a running count. Direction changed inside 2025. Headcount reached 48,300 at the end of September, then 47,400 by December, then 47,000 in March 2026 and 46,200 in June, a fall of 800 over that last quarter and 1,200 since the end of 2025. Those are net numbers, so hiring and resignations sit inside them next to anyone cut. The firm also booked about $250 million of severance expense in 2025, largely in connection with headcount reduction initiatives during the year.

The only severance terms on record come from one round. Fortune read copies of the January 2023 offers and reported that people stayed active employees for at least 60 days depending on state regulation, drawing base pay and eligible benefits, then took five weeks of severance at base pay, benefits through those five weeks, and outplacement. Vacation was paid out through the active period, after the firm scrapped carryover of unused days the previous spring. Annual bonuses weren't part of the agreements, and a former analyst in the Salt Lake City office told Fortune the bonus was money they had counted on for school. One clause deserves a second read. Someone who found new work or went self-employed before the severance period began lost pay for the rest of the active employment period, though the severance still arrived as a lump sum. Fortune set the offer beside Meta's, 16 weeks plus two more for every year of service.

None of this reaches our WARN tracker. It holds two filings under the Goldman Sachs name all time, and none in our tracker since the start of 2025 or in 2026. The rounds on record ran across business lines and months. Three things in your own paperwork matter more than any of that. The date your active employment actually ends, whether starting somewhere new changes what you're paid for that stretch, and what the release you sign gives up. Goldman tells investors that employment-related claims rise after periods when it has reduced headcount, which is the firm noting in its own filing that people push back. Our WARN filing tracker is where any notice would surface. For where the work sits, Goldman names the New York metropolitan area as its headquarters and lists Salt Lake City and Dallas among its strategic locations, though it publishes no headcount for any single office.

Reporting on previous Goldman Sachs layoff rounds

How Goldman Sachs's layoffs compare to other companies

Goldman's severance made news for its floor, not its ceiling. Sixty days of active employment plus five weeks was thin against tech's packages, and losing the annual bonus on the way out was the detail nobody inside forgot.

What to do after being laid off from Goldman Sachs

  1. File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Goldman Sachs's biggest hubs: New York, Utah, Texas. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
  2. 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 Goldman Sachs's hub states run: New York, Utah, Texas, and every other state is here.
  3. 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.
  4. Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
  5. 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.

Goldman Sachs layoff and severance questions

What severance did Goldman Sachs pay in its 2023 layoffs?

Reported as roughly 60 days of continued active employment with pay and benefits, then five weeks of severance at base pay, vacation paid out through the active period, and outplacement services. Those cut were reported to lose their annual bonuses, which drew more attention than the package itself. Fortune read it from copies of the offers, so it describes one round in January 2023, not a standing policy.

Does Goldman Sachs do layoffs every year?

Most years, yes. The annual performance review has historically cut 2 to 7% of the firm, paused for two years in the pandemic and reinstated in 2022, and by 2026 the reporting had the firm moving toward rolling targeted cuts through the year instead of one spring event. A spokesman calls it normal, standard and customary talent management and doesn't comment on specifics in any given year.

Is Goldman Sachs still cutting jobs in 2026?

The record stops short of that. Business Insider reported through Seeking Alpha in March 2026 that the firm planned several rounds from April through the summer in place of one spring reduction, with business-line leaders setting their own timelines, and Goldman didn't reply to a request for comment. Whether any of those rounds closed, and at what scale, isn't on record. What the firm has filed is headcount, 46,200 at the end of June 2026 against 47,000 three months earlier.

Has Goldman Sachs filed WARN notices for its layoffs?

Hardly any. Two filings sit under the Goldman Sachs name in our tracker across its whole history, and neither 2025 nor 2026 has produced one, so the review-cycle cuts the reporting describes don't appear there. Our WARN filing tracker is where notices show up when an employer files them, and for this one it holds almost nothing.

What happens to Goldman severance if you start a new job during the notice period?

In the January 2023 letters, someone who found new work or went self-employed before the severance period began wasn't paid for the whole active employment period, though the severance still came as one lump sum. That was one round's terms as Fortune read them, not a rule binding any later agreement, so put the sequencing to your own paperwork before agreeing to a start date.

Where do I file for unemployment after being laid off from Goldman Sachs?

In the state where you worked, not where the company is headquartered. Goldman Sachs's biggest U.S. hubs are New York, Utah, Texas. Severance usually doesn't block you from filing, and benefits run from your filing date, so file the same week.

Is it OK to file for unemployment after a layoff at Goldman Sachs?

Yes. Unemployment insurance is funded by payroll taxes employers pay on wages, the claim never appears on credit reports or background checks, and future employers cannot see it. If the hesitation itself is the obstacle, whether filing is OK has its own article.

What happens to my health insurance after a layoff at Goldman Sachs?

Your plan sets the end date rather than the law, so the separation packet is where that date actually lives, and it is often the last day of the month rather than your last day of work. After coverage ends, COBRA lets you keep the identical plan by paying the whole premium yourself, up to 102 percent of what the plan really costs, which lands as several times the payroll deduction you were used to. You get 60 days to elect, counted from the later of coverage ending or the election notice arriving, and electing reaches the coverage back to the day the old plan stopped so no gap exists. How continuation coverage works walks the timing, and whether to take it rather than a marketplace plan is a separate decision.

Should I sign the severance agreement right away?

First pin down how much review time you actually have. If you're 40 or older, federal law gives you 21 days to consider an agreement that waives age claims, 45 in a group layoff, and a waiver signed under a shorter deadline can be invalid. If you're under 40, no federal window applies and the deadline in your packet may be real, so confirm it in writing and ask for more time if you need it. Use whatever window you have to read the release terms, especially non-disparagement and no-lawsuit clauses, and don't stall past a real deadline, because offers can be withdrawn.

Can I collect unemployment if I got severance from Goldman Sachs?

Usually yes, though some states delay benefits until severance pay periods end, and lump sums are treated differently than salary continuation. Check your state's rules on our state benefit pages, and file immediately either way so your claim date is locked in.