UPS said on Tuesday that it would cut 20,000 jobs this year as part of a long-term plan to reduce costs and bolster profit.
The cuts come as President Trump’s tariffs are prompting some UPS customers to ship fewer goods. The company said “macroeconomic uncertainty” prevented it from updating its forecasts for revenue and profits for 2025.
UPS already cut 12,000 jobs last year. It now has some 490,000 employees, many of whom are members of the Teamsters union. In its latest cuts, the company said it would shed “operational” employees, or those who sort or deliver packages.
UPS has been trying to improve its profit margins, partly by reducing costs and shedding parts of its business that don’t make money. The company has said that many of the deliveries it does for Amazon, its largest customer, are not profitable. It plans to slash in half the volume of packages it delivers for Amazon by the middle of next year.
On a call with investors Tuesday, UPS’s chief executive, Carol Tomé, said Mr. Trump’s trade policies were particularly debilitating for small and midsize businesses that buy goods from China. The president has raised tariffs by as much as 145 percent on many goods imported from that country.
Ms. Tomé said smaller companies, which didn’t have the financial wherewithal to stock up before the tariffs took effect, are now saying, “Wow, how are we going to handle this cost increase that’s coming our way?”
Peter Eavis reports on the business of moving stuff around the world.
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