A survey shows that nearly 40% of U.S. companies plan to lay off employees. Recession concerns and artificial intelligence are the two main reasons.

On Tuesday local time, several well-known companies in the United States joined the ranks of layoffs. Express giant UPS announced plans to lay off 12,000 people, payment giant Paypal planned to lay off 2,500 people, and Block, owned by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, was reported to be laying off 1,000 people. Nasdaq plans to cut hundreds of jobs as part of its integration of financial software company Adenza, which it acquired in November, people familiar with the matter said.

In 2023, many companies in the technology, media, financial and retail industries have made large-scale layoffs. The situation in 2024 still looks grim, and only one month has passed this year.

Among business leaders surveyed by ResumeBuilder, 38% believe their companies are likely to lay off employees this year, and about half said their companies will freeze hiring.

ResumeBuilder interviewed approximately 900 leaders of companies with more than 10 employees. Half of those surveyed said the reason for layoffs was fear of an economic downturn.

Another major factor is artificial intelligence. About 40% of respondents said they will lay off workers as they replace workers with artificial intelligence.