As 2025 unfolds, the news cycle is filled with economic and political uncertainty—ranging from tariff threats and election-year volatility to unexpected concerns like the soaring price of eggs. Against this backdrop, a new trend has begun to dominate headlines—waves of layoffs. From tech giants to retail chains to federal agencies, organizations of all sizes are announcing workforce reductions, signaling broad shifts in market confidence and corporate strategy.
The media attention spiked in late February, but was notably higher when reporting specifically about federal layoffs. Our media analysis team dug into the coverage patterns.
Here’s how layoffs stories were trending this year through late February:
- Media mentions peaked during the last week of February
- U.S. Federal Agencies layoffs dominated these mentions, accounting for 57% of coverage about job cuts
Corporate layoffs in the news
Large corporations including tech, retail and other major sectors are cutting thousands of jobs—Estée Lauder is eliminating nearly 7,000 positions, Workday is laying off 2,000 employees, and Starbucks is reducing its corporate workforce by 1,100, to name a few. Overall, more than 50 companies in the tech sector alone have announced layoffs.
Analyzing the media sentiment around the layoffs
In addition to this domination of media mentions, coverage of federal layoffs are also significantly more negative in tone compared to that of corporate layoffs.
These headlines illustrate the sentiment that the media is using when reporting on corporate layoffs vs federal agencies:
Analyzing the media words and phrases used in coverage of corporate/retail vs. federal layoffs
Just by looking at the language used in media articles about this subject in 2025, our analysis shows an unmistakable difference in sentiment when comparing corporate and retail layoffs coverage to that of federal cuts—showcasing how important it is to manage messaging and narratives, especially on sensitive topics such as layoffs.
Words and phrases dominating coverage of corporate and retail layoffs:
Words and phrases dominating coverage of federal layoffs:
In conclusion
These differences in sentiment demonstrate the stark reality of how differently the media are framing both aspects of layoffs coverage—and the importance of PR and communicators having control over the messaging the media receives.
This research was conducted by Agility PR Solutions’ team of media analysis experts.
