American Express will cut about 3,500 jobs, roughly 5% of its workforce, chief executive Stephen Squeri said Oct. 23 as the company reported third-quarter results and raised its 2026 profit forecast. Squeri gave the number in an interview with Bloomberg Television, according to a report from the dpa-afx news service. The company took a $336 million pretax restructuring charge for what it calls efficiency initiatives.
The same morning’s earnings release lifted full-year earnings per share guidance to $18.30 to $18.60 on a reported basis. Amex’s adjusted outlook is $17.60 to $17.90 a share, and the company said it is on track for another year of 10 percent revenue growth.
Who is losing a job at American Express?
Amex has not said which countries, business units or pay levels the cuts reach. The earnings release mentions restructuring costs but gives no job count, and nothing in it describes severance. At the end of 2025, about 25,900 of the company’s employees worked in the United States and about 50,900 worked abroad, 24/7 Wall St. reported.
For anyone on the payroll, the practical questions arrive before the explanations do: how many weeks of severance, when the last paycheck lands, how long the company health plan runs, and what happens to a 401(k) balance. None of those terms has been made public, so employees are waiting on their own paperwork.
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Why cut jobs in a quarter this strong?
Revenue net of interest expense reached a record $20.1 billion in the quarter, up 9%, and adjusted earnings were $4.68 a share, up 13%, from the same release. Reported earnings were $5.42 a share. Part of that came from a $982 million pretax gain on the sale of Amex’s stake in Global Business Travel Group, which 24/7 Wall St. reported as the main driver of the guidance increase.
Chief financial officer Christophe Le Caillec told CNBC the goal is to make Amex “leaner, more agile, and also to prepare for AI,” according to HR Reporter’s account of the interview. He described the plan as reducing layers of management and widening spans of control so that automation can follow. MarketScale’s summary notes the company has not said AI is replacing the eliminated roles.
Investors were not entirely won over. Revenue came in a touch under the $20.12 billion analysts had expected, and the shares fell 3.68% to $313.22 on the day, 24/7 Wall St. reported. Barclays confirmed a 5,000-job cut the day before, according to The Next Web, so Amex is not the only large financial company trimming staff this fall.
What does a layoff set in motion for pay and health coverage?
Unemployment insurance is run state by state. The U.S. Department of Labor says people should file with the state where they worked as soon as possible after becoming unemployed, and that a first benefit check generally arrives two to three weeks after filing. Eligibility turns on losing a job through no fault of your own and meeting the state’s wage requirements.
The Labor Department’s page does not say how severance pay affects those benefits, and states handle it differently, so that question goes to the state agency. The same goes for the date a claim can start.
Health insurance is the other pressure point. Under COBRA, employers with 20 or more employees generally must let laid-off workers and their families keep the group health plan. The catch is price: former employees “may be required to pay the entire premium for coverage up to 102% of the cost to the plan.” For someone in their late 50s and not yet on Medicare, that can be a steep new monthly bill.
If a layoff arrives a few years before retirement, which bills get cut first?
A job cut at a company posting record revenue gives a worker little warning and no say in the timing. Amex has not published severance terms, and a COBRA premium at the full group rate can arrive in the same weeks the paychecks stop. Households that have not sorted out which expenses to trim tend to sort it out under pressure.
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
