Laid off from USC.

What USC layoffs have meant for employees

If you received a USC layoff notice in 2025, which rules applied to you depended on your job category. USC's Leaving USC FAQ, written for those layoffs, covered only benefits-eligible, non-union staff. Faculty were in the notices too. Professors were among those laid off at the Health Sciences Campus, the Daily Trojan found, and part-time faculty had hours cut in a later notice the paper's November 25 report described. The FAQ said faculty weren't eligible for severance and pointed them to the nonrenewal provisions in the Faculty Handbook, so a professor or adjunct couldn't assume the staff terms applied. Union-represented employees were sent to their HR contact, with a union contract governing wherever it and the FAQ differ. For staff in grant-funded jobs, the FAQ promised at least 30 days' written notice before a job ended over an unexpected loss of grant funding. If you're faculty or in a union, the Faculty Handbook or your contract holds the terms that cover you.

USC has more than once paired a layoff with a chance to come back. When it laid off maintenance workers and groundskeepers during a 1992 deficit, the campus paper reported they would get priority for new campus jobs, though a hiring freeze made openings rare, according to the Los Angeles Times. Dornsife's 2025 restructuring and Viterbi's 2026 notice both put that kind of offer in writing, as the Daily Trojan reported, and Interim President Beong-Soo Kim's November 2025 update said USC was working to place as many as 200 people with notices in reorganized positions. One laid-off Dornsife staff member said in the paper's October 10 report that staff had 10 days to say whether they wanted to be considered. If you're invited to apply, it's worth asking how the new role's title, pay and duties compare with the old one, and, if you were offered severance, whether taking the job changes it.

The notice period had rules of its own. USC's FAQ said staff kept working through it unless told otherwise, and that anyone relieved of duties early stayed employed, with pay and benefits, until it ended. It also said some people might get pay in lieu of notice where their notice fell short. Taking a full-time job elsewhere before the period ended was treated differently. The FAQ said it removed you from the notice period and ended your employment as a voluntary resignation. If you're severance-eligible and an offer elsewhere wants you to start before your separation date, consider asking USC in writing how that resignation would affect your severance and the COBRA subsidy tied to it.

A few dates in that FAQ are worth having in hand. USC medical, dental and vision coverage ended at the close of the month you separated, and if you signed the release and elected COBRA, the weeks USC subsidized counted against COBRA's 18-month limit; there's more on that clock in how COBRA works. If you were laid off, the FAQ said final wages, including unused vacation and winter recess, would come by your last day of employment. Read-only Workday access lasted until June 30 of the year after you left, and the FAQ encouraged downloading W-2s, payslips and employment documents while it did.

Every one of USC's 34 filings from January 2025 through its September 2026 notice went to California, according to our WARN tracker. California's rules for a jobless claim are at California unemployment benefits, and California layoffs sets USC's notices beside the rest of the state's.

A sourced history of USC layoffs

• September 2026, Viterbi information technology restructuring

  USC gave 65 Viterbi information technology employees layoff notice, 14 of them systems administrators, in a filing the Daily Trojan obtained that promised new positions for them to apply for. Layoffs were set for November 4 through December 3.

• October 2025, Dornsife academic support restructuring

  Dornsife laid off 162 employees, nearly all its academic support staff, the Daily Trojan reported, and the dean's email gave them preference for 115 roles in a smaller department and asked them to work 60 more days.

• September 2025, layoffs across both campuses

  Notices filed September 11 and 14 laid off or cut the hours of 295 people, the Daily Trojan found, among them 135 at University Park, led by research staff, and 158 at the Health Sciences Campus, including 33 professors.

• August 2025, Keck Medicine and health system layoffs

  USC laid off 89 employees across its health system, the Daily Trojan reported from the notice, among them 24 managers and staff of USC Care Medical Group, Keck Hospital of USC and USC Norris Cancer Hospital.

• July 2025, Office of Cybersecurity restructuring

  On July 8 USC eliminated every role in its Office of Cybersecurity, among 55 layoffs in state data the Daily Trojan obtained, and let those affected apply to the restructured office. Its letter to the state cited funding cutbacks and budget reductions.

• September 2024, Verdugo Hills Hospital maternity unit closing

  USC Verdugo Hills Hospital filed notice that it would permanently close its maternal health services, ending 65 jobs by November 20; the notice, as the Daily Trojan quoted it, cited shifting demographics, reduced demand and rising labor costs.

• 2024, Auxiliary Services restructuring

  USC restructured Auxiliary Services, laying off staff in Hospitality, the USC Hotel, Marketing and other units and citing cutbacks in revenue and increased operational costs; Auxiliary Services told the Daily Trojan those laid off were provided severance benefits, including job-hunting help.

• May 2024, Keck School and Ostrow dental school layoffs

  The Keck School of Medicine filed USC's first permanent layoff notice in the public record back to 2014, the Daily Trojan reported, for 85 at Keck and the Ostrow dental school, mostly clinical assistant professors, citing Los Angeles General Medical Center buying fewer services from USC.

• January 1992, maintenance and grounds layoffs during a deficit

  USC laid off 58 employees, mainly maintenance workers and groundskeepers, the Los Angeles Times reported, and planned to cut 31 vacant non-teaching positions while struggling to cover a $15 million deficit.

What to do if you're laid off from USC

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