Raw Story

Layoffs hit their highest total last month since the Great Recession nearly two decades ago, according to a new analysis, and employers don't look to be adding jobs soon.

U.S. employers announced 108,435 layoffs for January, up 118 percent from the same period a year ago and 205 percent from December, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, and CNBC reported those were the highest totals for January since the depths of the global financial crisis in 2009.

“Generally, we see a high number of job cuts in the first quarter, but this is a high total for January,” said Andy Challenger, chief revenue officer for the firm. “It means most of these plans were set at the end of 2025, signaling employers are less-than-optimistic about the outlook for 2026.”

Companies announced only 5,306 new hires, also the lowest January since 2009, and the Challenger data calls into question a narrative that has formed around a no-hire, no-fire labor market.

"Some high-profile layoff announcements have boosted fears of wider damage in the labor market," CNBC reported. "Amazon, UPS and Dow Inc. recently have announced sizable job cuts. Indeed, transportation had the highest level from a sector standpoint in January, due largely to plans from UPS to cut more than 30,000 workers. Technology was second on the back of Amazon’s announcement to shed 16,000 mostly corporate level jobs."

Planned hiring dropped 13 percent since January 2025 and fell off 49 percent since December, and initial jobless claims spiked since early December to a seasonally adjusted total of 231,000 for the last week of January.

"Sobering data from Challenger on the US labor market," said Wharton School professor Mohamed A. El-Erian. "Announced job cuts in January more than doubled year-over-year, hitting their highest level since the 2009 Great Recession. Most notably, these layoffs are occurring while GDP continues to grow at approximately 4 percent, accelerating the decoupling of employment from economic growth — a phenomenon that, if it persists, has profound economic, political, and social implications."

Dramatic new polling results have revealed that Americans want Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem fired and a majority oppose ICE's actions, according to CNN's data guru Thursday.

CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten described the attitude among voters towards ICE's harsh immigration tactics and specifically the high dissatisfaction against the Trump administration, namely Noem, who has led and carried out Trump's harsh immigration policies — and now 58% of Americans want her out of the job.

"The numbers absolutely tell a story," Enten said. "It has been a bad political situation for the president of the United States. And more than that, it is only getting worse. Just take a look at ICE's approval rating. I mean, look at this. And unfortunately immigration. Look, it was already low in early January, right? It was -17 points. But look, after the events of the last month, we are now talking about -29 points, the worst it has ever been. You look among independents, it is even worse than that. We are talking about a negative 40, -40 net approval rating for ICE on enforcing immigration laws. No wonder the president of United States, the president of United States, is changing his tone. And that is because you just look here. You see, the American people aren't just not with him — they are on a totally other planet."

The results have also pointed to a serious problem for President Donald Trump.

"Yeah, there's a reason why John [Berman] stuttered over that and couldn't figure out exactly, because the bottom line is this Kristi Noem has turned into an absolute political albatross," Enten said.

"Look at this. Take a look here. Voters on Noem job performance disapproved in early January 50th 2% and now want her fired. Fired is up to 58%, 58% want her removed," Enten added. "We're not just talking about the fact that her disapproval rating is through the roof. We're now talking about nearly 3 in 5 Americans who believe that Kristi Noem should be removed from her job as DHS secretary. No wonder Tom Homan is in there. And that is because Kristi Noem is a big reason why this has turned into such a deepening political problem for the president."

New York Times columnist David French recently outlined a strategy that could prevent President Donald Trump from undermining the midterm elections.

In recent columns, French has sounded the alarm about "all of Trump's threats against American elections."

"Trump has filled his administration with cronies and true believers, and his attorney general is one of his chief enforcers. In 2020 Bill Barr, who was then the attorney general, resigned rather than continue to pursue Trump's stolen election claims," he noted on Sunday.

Writing on Thursday, French proposed pushing through the so-called Bivens Act, supported by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Reps. Hank Johnson (D-GA) and Jamie Raskin (D-MA). If signed into law by the president, the legislation would remove federal officials' immunity from lawsuits.

"It would amend Section 1983 by stating that officials 'of the United States' can be held liable on the same basis as officials of any state," French wrote. "That's it. That's the bill. And it's worth shutting down the Department of Homeland Security to get it passed."

The law would also apply to violations of voting rights.

"In my law practice, I saw fear of liability deter many constitutional violations. College presidents have removed speech codes. Police departments have changed policies. And not because of criminal prosecution, but from fear of substantial monetary judgments or injunctions from the courts," French explained. "I'm aware that it will be difficult to get Republicans to agree to greater legal accountability when they control the executive branch, when Republicans would be most likely to be held accountable, at least in the short term. And they would have to do so in force here to get past a potential presidential veto."

"But the Bivens Act would also hold Democrats accountable when they're back in power," he added. "It would give Republicans tools to restrain Democratic excess. The Bivens Act protects the Constitution. It does not punish any particular political party."

"Yes, a corrupt president may pardon the crooks and cronies who act on his behalf, but a modest change in the law could give them pause. Violating civil rights should carry a profound cost, and the message to the Trump administration should be simple and clear: Protect the integrity of the election, or we will make you pay."

New polling reveals that most Americans doubt President Donald Trump’s commitment to free and fair elections, with just 43% believing he supports democratic processes and 56% saying he does not. CNN analyst Harry Enten noted independents are even more skeptical, with only a third trusting Trump on election integrity. The findings come after Trump suggested Republicans should nationalize elections in 15 states and amid his ongoing legal battles over the 2020 election, reinforcing widespread voter mistrust in his dedication to democracy.

Watch the video below.

Poll shows majority of Americans don’t trust Trump to support free and fair elections Poll shows majority of Americans don’t trust Trump to support free and fair elections

A newly released tranche of Justice Department records tied to Jeffrey Epstein includes an unverified allegation that names conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, according to documents disclosed Friday. The claim, sent by email to federal prosecutors in New York and two federal judges, was discussed internally last August but offers no evidence and has not resulted in any charges or investigation involving Thomas. The accuser, who claimed to be an Epstein victim, alleged she was raped by mobster Johnny Martorano and further alleged — without corroboration — that Martorano referenced Thomas and that Thomas sexually assaulted her as a child. Federal prosecutors acknowledged the complaint internally as part of standard protocol, underscoring that the sprawling Epstein file release contains numerous raw, unsubstantiated claims that do not establish wrongdoing.

Watch the video below.

DOJ Epstein files surface unverified allegation naming Justice Clarence Thomas DOJ Epstein files surface unverified allegation naming Justice Clarence Thomas

If you thought that President Donald Trump and Georgia Republican candidates for higher office have left the 2020 election in the rearview mirror, think again.

Federal agents on Wednesday were seen seizing records from Fulton County’s election center warehouse as the president continues echoing false claims surrounding his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Justice Department have not provided a reason for the raid, but a U.S. magistrate judge signed off on a warrant allowing agents to access a trove of information from ballots to voter rolls.

It doesn’t appear that county or state officials had advanced notice of Wednesday’s raid at the 600,000-square-foot facility in Union City, which is used as a polling place, a site for county election board meetings and a storage facility for ballots and information about Fulton voters.

Concerns about election security are not new in Georgia’s most populous county, which includes Atlanta and routinely gives overwhelming support to Democratic presidential and statewide candidates. But this week’s raid is a major escalation in a years-long battle over election integrity — one that appears to be emerging as more of a political litmus test.

“This is a blatant attempt to distract from the Trump-authorized state violence that killed multiple Americans in Minnesota,” said Democrat Dana Barrett, a Fulton County commissioner who is also running for Secretary of State.

“Sending 25 FBI agents to raid our Fulton County elections office is political theater and part of a concerted effort to take over elections in swing districts across the country.”

The raid comes as the 2026 Republican primary for governor, which features many of the same Republicans who sparred over that year’s election results, is starting to heat up. Both Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Attorney General Chris Carr have repeatedly vouched for Georgia’s 2020 tally and refused to join any attempts to subvert it, putting them on a collision course with MAGA world over their loyalty to President Donald Trump as they campaign for the state’s top job.

Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who is running with the president’s endorsement, praised Wednesday’s raid and offered us a preview of what we will likely soon see in his doom-and-gloom campaign commercials.

“Fulton County Elections couldn’t run a bake sale,” Jones said on social media Wednesday. “And unfortunately, our Secretary of State hasn’t fixed the corruption and our Attorney General hasn’t prosecuted it.”

In the months and weeks leading up to the November 2020 vote, Trump’s repeated warnings of potential nefarious activity in that year’s election became part of his rhetoric. Georgia would emerge as the epicenter of the president’s claims of election fraud, even after multiple hand recounts and lawsuits confirmed Biden’s ultimate victory.

His allies in the state Legislature urged leaders to call a special session to reallocate Georgia’s 16 electoral votes. Some Republicans, including Jones, signed a certificate designating themselves as the “electors” who officially vote for president and vice president. And Trump’s January 2021 phone call to Raffensperger, where he urged the secretary to “find” enough votes to erase his defeat, was at the heart of Fulton County’s election racketeering case against Trump and his allies.

The case was dismissed late last year.

Nevertheless, Trump’s claims of fraud have become a key pillar in his party’s political identity: More than half of Republicans in Congress still objected to the certification of Trump’s defeat in the hours following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. A 2024 national poll from the University of Massachusetts Amherst found that roughly three in ten voters still had questions about the validity of Biden’s win three years prior, a glaring sign of just how mainstream that belief has become among the general public.

Six years later, Trump’s return to the White House hasn’t helped him move on. He continues to say in remarks and at campaign events that he carried the Peach State “three times.” His now-infamous Fulton County mugshot hangs right outside the Oval Office. And he warned of prosecutions against election officials during a speech in Davos this month.

“[Russia’s war with Ukraine] should have never started and it wouldn’t have started if the 2020 U.S. presidential election weren’t rigged. It was a rigged election,” Trump said. “Everybody now knows that. They found out. People will soon be prosecuted for what they did. That’s probably breaking news.”

It’s clear that the past is still very much shaping the present in Georgia Republican politics. This week’s federal raid on the Fulton elections center just adds more fuel to old grudge matches, and a politician’s role in the 2020 election could ultimately determine their political standing.

For candidates like Carr and Raffensperger, the primary could be a test of whether or not there is a political price to pay for defending Georgia’s election results against the barrage of attacks and conspiracy theories. And for Jones, it’s a test of whether election denialism is still an effective political attack for MAGA-aligned candidates to use.

• Niles Francis recently graduated from Georgia Southern University with a degree in political science and journalism. He has spent the last few years observing and writing about the political maneuvering at Georgia’s state Capitol and regularly publishes updates in a Substack newsletter called Peach State Politics. He is currently studying to earn a graduate degree and is eager to cover another exciting political year in the battleground state where he was born and raised.