Laid off from S&P Global.

What S&P Global layoffs have meant for employees

If you lost a job in one of S&P Global's restructuring plans, the company's public account is a count in a filing, and the count is of positions. The company's second-quarter 10-Q says severance reserves go unused when people picked for separation are reassigned, or resign and don't receive severance. If you've been offered severance, or hold written terms that could make it available, and you're weighing a departure before your separation date, it's worth asking in writing how leaving early would affect it. Being reduced to a line in a restructuring note is a rotten way to be accounted for, and it's fair to want the terms of your own exit spelled out.

Each plan is one company-wide figure with its cost booked by business line, and neither the 2025 restructuring note nor the 2026 one names a country or an office. Place matters here, because S&P Global's 2025 Form 10-K counted about three in five of its permanent employees in Asia, so a company-wide count can't be read as a US one. Timing is slippery too. The 2025 plan's count grew more than fivefold between the first-quarter 2025 10-Q and the year-end filing, so the first figure that year was an early tally, not a final one.

For managers in the company's Management Severance Plan, a sale or spin-off of their unit can take the plan's pay off the table. A participant offered a comparable or substitute local job with the buyer, the spun-off company or S&P Global gets nothing under the plan in that case, whether or not they accept. The plan counts a role as a substitute if it offers comparable base pay and, in the company's judgment, fits the person's experience, education or skills, even when it calls for different skills, and benefits, bonus opportunity and title needn't figure in. A transfer to another work location doesn't by itself trigger the plan's pay either. If you're in the plan and your unit is being sold or spun off, it's worth asking whether any job you're offered is being treated as comparable or substitute, and on what basis. When the plan does pay, it requires a signed release, keeps a participant in the medical and dental plans they were in for the separation period, paying any required contributions, while the company still offers those plans to active staff, and lets the company choose a single lump sum worth 110% of the separation pay instead.

Employees the NewsGuild of New York represents work under a bargaining agreement with Standard & Poor's Financial Services, one the 401(k) plan's 2025 report still describes. The Guild's 2018 agreement, a five-year deal dating from April 2018, gave members facing a reduction in force the right to apply for comparable positions right away and at least 60 days of retraining after a move. If you're a Guild member, it's worth asking the Guild whether the contract in force now keeps those terms.

For eligible employees in the 2025 plan year, that same report describes the company matching 100% of the first 4% of pay they contributed, with those matching contributions vesting immediately. Profit-sharing contributions went only to employees eligible for them, and they vest 20% after two years of service, 40% after three, 60% after four and fully after five, with unvested amounts forfeited after a five-year break. For the decisions that follow, what happens to a 401(k) goes through the options. If S&P Global is selling or spinning off the part of the business you work in, it's worth asking which company will employ you afterward and how your service and benefits carry over, and if you're offered severance, negotiating a severance agreement lays out what can be on the table.

A sourced history of S&P Global layoffs

• 2026 restructuring plan, sized at about 450 positions

  The 2026 plan was sized at about 450 positions as of June 30, S&P Global's second-quarter 10-Q shows, with a $42 million charge for the first half of 2026, mostly severance; Market Intelligence took $15 million and Corporate $11 million.

• 2025 restructuring plan, about 1,300 positions

  The 2025 plan ended the year at about 1,300 positions and a $157 million pre-tax charge, mostly severance, the 2025 Form 10-K shows, after S&P Global's first-quarter 10-Q had counted about 230. Market Intelligence took $56 million and Corporate $46 million.

• 2024 restructuring plan, about 1,230 positions

  The 2024 plan came to about 1,230 positions company-wide and a $125 million initial charge, $77 million of it in Market Intelligence, by the count in the 2025 Form 10-K, which says the reserve went primarily to severance payments.

• 2023 restructuring plan, about 1,050 positions

  The 2023 plan came to about 1,050 positions company-wide, the 2023 Form 10-K shows, with a $183 million pre-tax charge, chiefly employee severance; Market Intelligence took $90 million and Corporate $43 million.

• 2022 restructuring plan, about 1,440 positions

  The 2022 plan was a company-wide reduction of about 1,440 positions with a $283 million initial charge, Corporate taking $109 million and Market Intelligence $86 million, as S&P Global's 2023 Form 10-K tallies it; its reserve went mainly to severance payments.

• February 2021, Market Intelligence restructuring

  S&P Global Market Intelligence laid off around 700 people, City A.M. reported, in offices including Canary Wharf, Hong Kong and New York City; a spokesperson confirmed a restructuring of "certain teams and roles" and said the company was "committed to treating them fairly."

What to do if you're laid off from S&P Global

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. S&P Global's biggest hubs: 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 S&P Global's hub states run: 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.