Laid off from Kohl's.

What Kohl's layoffs have meant for employees

In 2025 the biggest Kohl's job losses on record came from shutting buildings. A closing takes a whole workplace at once, so at the 27 stores and the two warehouses, losing a job wasn't a judgment about anyone's work, and staying with Kohl's depended on landing a role at another location. For anyone hoping to stay, the closings came with time to apply, since each was announced months before its last day.

San Bernardino is also where the record shows the handoff. On February 26, 2025 Kohl's halted production and paid associates to spend the day at an on-site event with the county Workforce Development Board's Rapid Response team. More than 300 came, county staff and California's Employment Development Department ran sessions, and 20 employers recruited. The board says it receives WARN notices and sends its Rapid Response team, with help ranging from resumes and training money to answers on unemployment benefits, COBRA, 401(k) options and the Affordable Care Act.

Months later it was Ohio's turn. Kohl's Monroe notice covered every employee, full-time, part-time and temporary, and 664 of them were material handlers, which left hundreds of people with the same job title facing the same last day. It also says no union represented them and no bumping rights applied. Interim chief executive Michael Bender called the closing a necessary step to drive greater cost efficiency, and Kohl's said newer centers and store fulfillment let it fill orders without Monroe. Kohl's sent the notice to the Rapid Response program in Ohio's Office of Workforce Development.

The company's 10-K prices the closures. Kohl's booked $76 million in closing costs and impairments for San Bernardino and the 27 stores in 2024, $14 million of it severance, and $15 million in 2025, including $10 million of severance. The filing describes $6 million of other 2025 costs as primarily related to closing Monroe, and it reversed $12 million of the 2024 exit costs, crediting favorable landlord negotiations. Across 2025 Kohl's averaged about 84,000 associates, 29,000 of them full-time. None of those associates were represented by a collective bargaining unit, so no union contract set the terms at any of these closings.

The office cuts ran on their own schedule. Some of the corporate roles Kohl's cut in January 2025 were unfilled, a spokesperson told Fortune, so fewer people lost jobs than the size of the cut suggests. For credit and customer service teams, Kohl's tied the 2024 change to moving back-office card work to Capital One, an outsourcing that left the comparable jobs on offer in customer service. One employee's unverified account to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had a manager reading the news from a script in a virtual meeting, and the same employee called the offer of customer service or debt collector work insulting. Chief executive Ashley Buchanan was fired in May 2025, CBS News reported, over a vendor founded by someone he had a personal relationship with.

Bender said after the 2025 results, Fox Business reported, that Kohl's had no grand plan to take stores out or add them and would keep reviewing each store's performance every year, and the newest change on record is one eliminated executive role, chief marketing officer, in an August 2026 realignment, which a Kohl's 8-K records. If you're weighing a Kohl's offer, it's worth knowing whether taking the severance package rules out applying for another open role, since both 2025 closure announcements joined the two with an "or," and having the written terms and the deadline to respond in hand before you decide.

A sourced history of Kohl's layoffs

• June 2025, Monroe e-commerce fulfillment center closing

  The Monroe center, open since 2001, would close for good by October 31 and take all 768 jobs with it, Kohl's told Ohio in a WARN notice, and its Monroe announcement offered competitive severance or a shot at other open roles.

• January 2025, corporate office reduction

  Kohl's cut about 10% of its corporate-office roles, CEO Ashley Buchanan wrote in an email WPR quoted. Fewer than 200 people were affected, a spokesperson told Fortune, which reported two weeks' pay plus severance.

• January 2025, store and San Bernardino center closings

  Kohl's planned to close its San Bernardino center and 27 stores, Fortune and Sourcing Journal reported, and WARN notices listed 690 warehouse layoffs and 239 at four California stores. Associates were offered severance or a chance at other open roles.

• May 2024, credit and customer service changes

  Roughly 20% of credit staff would see roles change or end and a few dozen customer service jobs would go, with most offered comparable jobs or severance, Kohl's told the Journal Sentinel; one employee's unverified account said more than 100 could be affected.

What to do if you're laid off from Kohl's

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Kohl's's biggest hubs: California, Ohio, Wisconsin. 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 Kohl's's hub states run: California, Ohio, Wisconsin, 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.