Corporate giants cut thousands of NJ jobs — and more may be coming

Effective today, 1,319 employees of Verizon have been laid off in New Jersey.

The company is one of several big-name employers that are losing workers. A full list is below.

Verizon's executive leadership and corporate functions have remained in Basking Ridge, while its official headquarters are in New York City.

In November, the telecommunications giant announced 13,000 layoffs worldwide. A spokesman for Verizon on Friday said that New Jersey workers were notified of their layoffs that month.

The Verizon cuts were listed with the 2025 New Jersey Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification as being out of Basking Ridge. The layoffs, however, are statewide and extend beyond that location.

SEE ALSO: Rutgers study finds warehouses power New Jersey's economy 

Another big New Jersey employer, Merck, announced 204 layoffs. Some of those cuts, largely out of the pharmaceutical giant's Rahway complex, will be effective in March and May.

As for new mass layoffs, Target, Bristol Myers Squibb, JP Morgan Chase and Walmart have announced several hundred more New Jersey job cuts, as seen below.

In 2025, the number of announced layoffs across New Jersey (including the Verizon cuts that took effect in February 2026) totaled more than 16,000 for the year.

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