Thread regarding Humana Inc. layoffs

Keep in mind for the 5-6k US employees laid off, they will hire at least 1-2k Indians, if not more. They aren’t trying to reduce the overall workforce substantially, just payroll.

But as soon as they can, what they really want is to replace as many employees with AI. So, eventually both American citizens and Indians will be let go and replaced with AI. This isn’t scare mongering; these are facts. It is coming soon!

I am not sure if our economy is ready for this nor do I think that corporate executives are thinking things through. Actually, they probably don’t even care.

How many American Citizen Employees have been replaced by Offshoring, H-1B, or Contractors each year at Humana ?

Humana does not publicly report the specific number of American citizen employees replaced by offshoring, H-1B visa holders, or contractors each year. Like most private corporations, Humana treats detailed metrics regarding the displacement of its workforce via outsourcing as highly confidential internal data.
However, regulatory filings, corporate strategy announcements, and internal workforce data provide an indirect look at their employment practices:

1. H-1B Visa Activity
   Data tracked via Labor Condition Applications (LCAs) filed by Humana Inc. on H1B Graderindicates that the company directly sponsors a relatively small number of H-1B workers. For instance, in fiscal year 2026, Humana filed 150 LCAs. Because these filings are generally for highly technical or specialized roles, they represent a small fraction of Humana’s total global workforce of approximately 67,000 employees.

2. Offshoring & Contracting Trends
   While exact replacement figures are unavailable, Humana has explicitly acknowledged shifting its operations toward vendor contracting and offshore resources to manage costs:

• The "Expanding Contracting" Strategy: In July 2025, during its Q2 earnings reports, Humana leadership officially announced plans to expand the contracting of certain business functions as part of broad enterprise efficiency goals. This plan coincided with massive cost-cutting initiatives and a voluntary early retirement buyout offered to U.0.S. employees.
• Department Transitions: Internal employee reviews and reports on platforms like Glassdoor and Indeed highlight that roles in IT, accounting, grievance appeals, and even certain Registered Nurse (RN) administrative tasks have gradually transitioned over the years to third-party offshore teams (such as workers in India or Puerto Rico).
• Indirect H-1B Displacement: Industry experts note that American workers are most frequently replaced not by direct corporate sponsorship of H-1B visas, but through third-party global IT consulting and outsourcing firms (e.g., Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Cognizant). These vendors employ heavily concentrated blocks of H-1B and offshore workers, allowing companies like Humana to contract out entire departments rather than directly managing individual visa replacements.

Summary of Known Reductions
Rather than sudden, publicized mass mass-replacements, Humana's reduction in U.S. staff historically aligns with multi-million dollar corporate restructurings, department-specific automation, or exiting specific markets (such as completely dropping their employer-sponsored commercial insurance market to focus purely on government programs like Medicare)

How many gross employee count drops by year for humana?

Humana's gross annual headcount has dropped across 10 specific fiscal years over the past few decades, with the most massive decline occurring in 2022.
The year-over-year net headcount declines are structured below by decade, followed by an explanation of the largest shifts.

Drops in the 2020s

• 2024: Declined by 1,920 employees (down to 65,680 from 67,600)
• 2022: Declined by 28,400 employees (down to 67,100 from 95,500)

Drops in the 2010s

• 2018: Declined by 4,300 employees (down to 41,600 from 45,900)
• 2017: Declined by 5,700 employees (down to 45,900 from 51,600)
• 2015: Declined by 6,900 employees (down to 50,100 from 57,000)

Drops in the 1998–2009 Period

• 2009: Declined by 800 employees (down to 28,100 from 28,900)
• 2002: Declined by 1,000 employees (down to 13,500 from 14,500)
• 2001: Declined by 1,100 employees (down to 14,500 from 15,600)
• 2000: Declined by 1,700 employees (down to 15,600 from 17,300)
• 1998: Declined by 3,200 employees (down to 16,300 from 19,500)

@e0 You, or rather chatgpt, is looking at net counts. You would need to look at gross drop and gross add employee count to obtain a proper picture. In other words, employee tenure.

Also, would be helpful to see how many American Citizen employees were replaced with either offshoring, H-1B, or contractors

Humana employee count, 2015–2025

Year-end employee/associate counts are available in the annual Form 10-Ks that public companies file. I asked ChatGPT to compile and I didn't double check but this looks right. The dramatic 2021 spike coincides with Humana's expansion into home health and related acquisitions.

YEAR Employees
2015 ~50,100
2016 51,600
2017 45,900
2018 41,600
2019 46,000
2020 48,700
2021 95,500
2022 67,100
2023 67,600
2024 65,680
2025 67,060

Humana was shrinking through 2018, then grew steadily into 2020, had the extraordinary 2021 jump from 48,700 to 95,500 which is attributable largely to the Kindred Acquisition, and then settled back into a fairly stable 65,000–68,000 employee range from 2022 through 2025.

While this metric is accurate if you pull total employees from the annual 10-K filings from 2020-2025, it is an incomplete story. Humana acquired Kindred and then spun off the majority, that alone accounts for nearly 30k.

@ar I bet it’s true.

This is not true, headcount is still 100k+ w/ 60+ associates

That’s not that many for five years considering the games they play in padding the numbers of contractors versus employees versus vendors.

I'm one of the 30k and would love to know how you found a number.