Laid off from UPS.
UPS is running the largest workforce reduction in its history, and whether you drive a truck or sit in a corporate office determines everything about your terms. For drivers, the Teamsters contract did what no HR policy would.
At a glance
What's known about UPS severance and layoffs
- $150,000 · Driver early-retirement payments under the 2026 settlement
- 7,500 drivers · Cap on driver buyouts across the company
- 20,000 jobs, 73 facilities · Announced for 2025 alone
- Barred by the settlement · Other severance programs through July 2028
- About 48,000 · Operational positions cut in 2025, UPS's count
- About $1.1 billion · Separation costs recognized, first half of 2026
- Up to 30,000, through attrition · Planned operational reduction for 2026
- 2, covering 239 jobs · Filings in our WARN tracker since 2025
- About 460,000 · Employees at the 2025 annual report
Recent UPS layoffs
The driver buyout cost UPS $1.1 billion in six months
UPS closed its Driver Choice Program in the second quarter of 2026, and the filing for the quarter ended June 30 puts six months of separation costs at about $1.1 billion, with roughly $1.0 billion already paid and about $100 million more expected in the third quarter. The July 2026 earnings release ties that quarter's $891 million after-tax transformation charge to the program by name. The newest UPS filing our tracker holds is a July 30, 2026 notice covering 172 jobs in New Orleans.
Previous rounds
UPS layoff history
UPS's reduction has been a strategy, not an event. After deciding to cut its Amazon business by more than half, the company announced 20,000 job cuts and 73 facility closures for 2025, and the program carried into the next year, with chief financial officer Brian Dykes telling investors in January 2026 that UPS planned to reduce operational positions by up to 30,000 that year through attrition and a second voluntary separation program for full-time drivers. The buildings are the part of this with addresses on them. UPS reported 93 closed in 2025, 85 of them permanently, and 45 more in the first half of 2026, 44 of them permanently.
The driver story is the remarkable one. UPS launched buyouts for Teamsters drivers without union agreement, the union filed national grievances calling the program a contract violation, and by April 2026 UPS settled, $150,000 early-retirement payments, a hard cap of 7,500 drivers, seniority protections, and no other severance programs through July 2028. A contract turned a unilateral offer into a negotiated one with a published price.
If you're non-union at UPS, the settlement's terms cover drivers rather than you, and corporate terms haven't been published in any recent round. The practical asymmetry is worth sitting with. Represented drivers got their deal in writing at a national table, while management cuts proceeded with whatever appeared in individual packets. That difference shows up in what you can look up before deciding anything, which for a non-union separation is your own paperwork rather than a published national agreement.
UPS published the size of the 2025 reduction itself, and it landed well past what was announced. The 2025 annual report puts the year at approximately 48,000 operational positions, including 15,000 fewer seasonal positions, with daily operations closed at 93 buildings, against the roughly 20,000 positions and 73 closures announced that April. In January 2026, chief financial officer Brian Dykes told investors UPS expected to reduce operational positions by up to 30,000 that year, accomplished through attrition, with a second voluntary separation program for full-time drivers. Set that beside our own tracker, which holds ten filings under United Parcel naming all-time and two since the start of 2025, covering 239 jobs, the newer of them a notice for 172 jobs in New Orleans dated July 30, 2026.
Nothing in the record explains why any particular UPS reduction produced no notice. What the federal rule does say is which events it counts. Notice attaches to what the statute calls an employment loss, and the regulation excludes voluntary departure and retirement from that term, so some reductions may not trigger federal notice at all. The thresholds also apply one site at a time, 50 or more employees losing work in any 30-day period for a closing, or a mass layoff reaching 33 percent of a site's active workforce and at least 50 people, with the percentage test dropping away once 500 are affected. UPS's own filings call the Driver Choice Program a voluntary separation program offered to all full-time drivers in the United States, and the 2026 reduction was presented as attrition. If a package arrived instead of a notice, read everything that came with it, and take anything unclear about the terms or the dates to someone who can advise you on it.
For anyone reconciling their own money, the filings are where the dated numbers sit. UPS recognized about $1.1 billion of separation costs including payroll taxes in the six months to June 30, 2026, paid roughly $1.0 billion of it, and said it expected about $100 million more in the third quarter, and it still carried $180 million of separation accruals at the end of June against $117 million at the end of 2025. None of it reduces to a per-person amount, so your own agreement and your pay records are the two documents to check against what you were told. Our WARN filings tracker gathers the notices state by state, and it's where a new UPS filing would appear.
Reporting on previous UPS layoff rounds
2026 · Up to 30,000 operational positions, to be accomplished through attrition alongside a second voluntary separation program for full-time drivers, the plan chief financial officer Brian Dykes gave investors on the January 27 earnings call. UPS closed 45 buildings in the first half of the year, 44 of them permanently.
Drivers were covered by the Driver Choice Program and the April settlement below. No terms on record for anyone else.
April 2026 · Settlement reached after national grievances over the Driver Choice Program. Offer letters had gone to about 105,000 drivers in late February, and UPS withdrew the program in 13 central states on March 24 before agreeing to negotiate. UPS said the agreement let it offer the program nationwide including the Central Region, with applications approved by seniority and the needs of the business.
2025 · Announced that April as approximately 20,000 operational positions during the year and 73 leased and owned buildings closed by the end of June. UPS reported the year at approximately 48,000 operational positions, including 15,000 fewer seasonal positions, with daily operations closed at 93 buildings, 85 of them permanently.
Corporate and operational terms not published. The first driver buyout program drew about 3,000 acceptances from nearly 115,000 eligible drivers before the union forced changes.
January 2024 · Roughly 12,000 jobs to save $1 billion, aimed primarily at management-level employees and contracted positions, announced on the fourth-quarter 2023 earnings call of January 30, 2024. Separately, UPS describes its Fit to Serve initiative as a workforce reduction of approximately 14,000 positions primarily within management, completed in 2025 at total costs of $463 million.
How UPS's layoffs compare to other companies
No other company on this list had a union rewrite its buyout program mid-flight. The Teamsters deal turned an open-ended program into a capped, priced, seniority-protected one.
What to do after being laid off from UPS
- File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. UPS's biggest hubs: Georgia, Kentucky, Illinois. 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 UPS's hub states run: Georgia, Kentucky, Illinois, 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.
UPS layoff and severance questions
What did UPS drivers get in the buyout settlement?
The April 2026 Teamsters settlement set $150,000 early-retirement payments, offered by seniority and capped at 7,500 drivers company-wide, with UPS barred from other severance programs until the contract expires in July 2028. The first, pre-settlement program drew about 3,000 acceptances from nearly 115,000 eligible drivers.
What severance do non-union UPS employees get?
UPS has published no terms for its management and corporate cuts in the rounds we track, including the roughly 12,000 jobs announced for 2024, aimed primarily at management-level employees and contracted positions. What exists in public is the aggregate in the filings rather than a formula, so the separation agreement you were handed is where your own terms sit.
How many jobs did UPS cut in 2025?
UPS's own count, in its 2025 annual report, is approximately 48,000 operational positions, including 15,000 fewer seasonal positions, with daily operations closed at 93 buildings, 85 of them permanently. That runs well past the roughly 20,000 positions and 73 closures announced in April 2025. Chief financial officer Brian Dykes gave the same 48,000 figure on the January 2026 call, adding 26.9 million labor hours removed and 195 operations closed. None of those are counts of people, and 15,000 of the total is a reduction in seasonal positions rather than in year-round jobs.
How much has UPS paid out in severance?
The filings give aggregates rather than personal amounts. In the six months to June 30, 2026, UPS recognized about $1.1 billion of separation costs including payroll taxes, paid roughly $1.0 billion of it, and said it expected about $100 million more in the third quarter. It still carried $180 million of separation accruals at the end of June, against $117 million at the end of 2025. UPS attributes the quarter's $891 million after-tax transformation charge to the Driver Choice Program by name. None of that breaks down into a per-person figure, and the one published individual amount on record is the $150,000 the settlement set for drivers.
Why are there so few UPS WARN notices?
Our tracker holds ten filings under United Parcel naming all-time, and two since the start of 2025 covering 239 jobs, against a company that reported cutting about 48,000 operational positions in 2025 alone. The record doesn't explain any particular absence. What it does give you is the shape of the federal rule. Notice attaches to what the statute calls an employment loss, and the regulation excludes voluntary departure and retirement from that term, so some reductions may not trigger federal notice at all. The thresholds also apply one site at a time, 50 or more employees losing work in any 30-day period for a closing, or a mass layoff reaching 33 percent of a site's active workforce and at least 50 people. UPS owns or leases roughly a thousand package facilities in the United States.
Where do I file for unemployment after being laid off from UPS?
In the state where you worked, not where the company is headquartered. UPS's biggest U.S. hubs are Georgia, Kentucky, Illinois. 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 UPS?
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 UPS?
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 UPS?
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.