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Colorado tallied 5,612 layoffs last year, according to the state Department of Labor and Employment (DLE), and virtually all of them were permanent. That’s slightly up from the 5,362 layoffs in 2024, and a 55 percent increase from 2023.
The state’s economy has been weakening over the last few years, and these struggles aren’t exclusive to Colorado. According to national outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Colorado saw 7,202 overall job cuts through the first eleven months of 2025, the 23rd-most in the country (24th when counting Washington, D.C., which saw nearly 304,000 job cuts in the same span, mostly in the federal workforce).
The most recent workforce data from the DLE shows that Colorado’s unemployment rate (3.9 percent) in November was lower than the national average (4.6 percent), as well. However, the share of Coloradans participating in the workforce in November was just 67 percent, the lowest participation rate in over five years, according to the DLE — and more recent layoff filings show Colorado has already seen over 830 in 2026, with 729 layoffs coming from an Aurora-based mail-carrying contractor on January 7.
The state maintains updated layoff listings in accordance with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. According to Colorado’s WARN listings for 2025, the tech, grocery and health-care sectors were hit the hardest by layoffs last year, with several notable and national companies making the list. Tech and engineering jobs in the Colorado Springs area were also hit hard.
Notably absent from the WARN listings are the layoffs of roughly 171 City of Denver workers, who lost their jobs as part of major employment cuts to address a $200 million budget deficit. That’s because local, state and federal governments aren’t subject to the WARN Act, although some government contractors are. But even if the city’s layoffs were included, that number would be just outside the top ten.
From Safeway to Nordstrom, here are the companies that laid off the most employees in Colorado in 2025.
1. Safeway
Safeway closed ten grocery stores across Colorado in late 2025, including four in the Denver metro. According to the DLE, 617 Safeway workers lost their jobs as a result of the closures, the most layoffs of any company in 2025.
2. Amentum
Located in Pueblo, Amentum is an engineering and technology firm that primarily operates under contracts with federal government agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Defense and branches of the military. The company underwent seven rounds of layoffs between last January and October, according to state filings, resulting in 485 layoffs; Amentum cited “milestone completion” as the reason behind the majority of the layoffs. Amentum is currently embroiled in a whistleblower lawsuit alleging fraud under a U.S. Air Force contract regarding the military’s 2021 evacuation of Afghanistan.
3. Battelle
Battelle is a nonprofit organization centered around scientific research…and, according to Battelle, it’s the largest of its kind in the world, with a long list of government contracts for defense, engineering and technology projects. Battelle manages thousands of employees at laboratories and research facilities across the country, but the organization recently closed its Colorado Springs facility, and a decades-long project to destroy a military chemical weapons stockpile in Pueblo finally wound down last year.
According to state filings, Battelle underwent six rounds of layoffs in 2025, resulting in 476 cut positions. The majority of the layoffs were related to remediation, according to the nonprofit’s WARN filings, with a handful of cut jobs in engineering, as well.
4. Banner Health
Banner Health laid off over 350 employees in 2025 after several moves over the summer that led to the job cuts. The major health-care facility operator acquired Village Medical’s northern Colorado primary care network, which came with 200 employees. Along with that acquisition, Banner Health moved the McKee Medical Center in Loveland to the company’s North Colorado Medical Center in Greeley. According to Banner, the Mckee center was only at 25 percent capacity by 2025.
Banner also closed an emergency department and an urgent care facility in Greeley and relocated an OB/GYN practice in Greeley to a larger Banner facility. All in all, the transitions led to 351 job cuts, which were filed with the state in November.
5. TeKnowledge
An AI tech and cybersecurity firm, TeKnowledge’s home office is in Costa Rica, but the company’s Colorado Springs outpost was a major employer in the area — “was” being the key phrase. In September, TeKnowledge filed a WARN notification that the company planned to lay off 324 employees from the Springs outpost between October 30 and December 30. According to the WARN filing, most of the cut roles were in tech support.
6. Comcast
Comcast is a massive technology and communication conglomerate, with companies like NBCUniversal and Xfinity in the Comcast portfolio. In October, Comcast filed a WARN notification for 302 layoffs in Colorado, announcing that it was closing its West Division operating facility in Centennial at the end of 2025. A wide span of roles were included in the layoffs.
7. AGC Biologics
A pharmaceutical research firm and protein-based medicine manufacturer, AGC Biologics is headquartered in Seattle. In September, the company announced it was laying off 278 positions, 267 of which were in Colorado. The company closed facilities in Boulder and Longmont, according to its DLE filings, with the majority of workers laid off in November.
8. Microchip
Microchip is a semiconductor manufacturer based in the Phoenix area, with outposts in Boulder and Colorado Springs. In March, just one year after announcing a hiring spree, Micropchip announced it was laying off 238 employees as part of a move to “substantially reduce manufacturing operations and the number of employees” at the company’s Colorado Springs facility. Employees were terminated in May but were put on paid leave in March, according to Microchip’s WARN letter.
9. West Springs Hospital
Grand Junction medical facility West Springs Hospital, the only psychiatric hospital between Salt Lake City and Denver, closed for good in March. According to a local media report, the closure came after “several years of controversy, layoffs, licensing issues, and financial difficulties.” The hospital employed 187 employees in Colorado, all of whom lost their jobs.
10. Nordstrom
Upscale department store Nordstrom instituted six rounds of layoffs in 2025, for a total of 182. According to the company’s filings with the DLE, all of the cut positions were in the company’s credit operations department at Nordstrom Credit Bank, located in Centennial. The layoffs were part of a plan announced by Nordstrom in 2024 to transition credit operations to TD Bank, the company said. Although the layoffs were announced in 2025 and several took place last year, there are still some Centennial employees working through February and March, and a “small subset” on staff through April, according to the WARN letter from Nordstrom.
