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Tag: Layoffs

  • Experts Worry AI is Driving Layoffs, Even if It’s Not Delivering on its Promises

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    Amid a flurry of tech industry layoffs, Amazon’s recent culling of some 14,000 staff stands out for one dramatic reason: it was blamed, for the most part, on advances in AI — a technology that Amazon Senior Vice President Beth Galetti wrote was “the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the Internet,” NBC News noted. But experts are increasingly worried that companies embracing AI in an effort to drive down costs while driving up efficiency and profitability may not actually be gaining anything from adopting the tech. The news might make you reconsider how you’re rolling out AI to your own company.

    The news outlet quotes David Autor, an MIT economics professor, explaining one key issue he thinks may be behind some layoffs that are being blamed on AI. “It’s much easier for a company to say, ‘We are laying workers off because we’re realizing AI-related efficiencies’,” he noted, compared to a company simply fessing up to the truth and issuing a statement like, “‘We’re laying people off because we’re not that profitable or bloated, or facing a slowing economic environment, etc.’.” He even went a little further, and argued that it was “wise” to attribute the reason to deploy AI tech, “whether or not AI were the reason,” possibly because of the optics of this ploy: it makes a company look like it’s operating at the cutting edge, and it’s a positive spin on otherwise devastating news.

    In the light of this, and very interestingly, NBC News also notes that an Amazon representative later tried to walk back the notion, promoted by Galetti, that AI was the motivating reason behind taking away the income of 14,000 people, and instead tried to argue it was merely an extension of a plan to “strengthen our culture and teams by reducing layers” that was begun last year.

    This somewhat contradicts a statement made by Amazon’s CEO Andy Jassy in June, where he set out how he feels AI is going to revolutionize both the customer-facing work Amazon does, and also its internal operation. “As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done. We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs,” Jassy wrote. 

    But maybe there’s something deeper going on here. As NBC notes, a recent survey by consultancy giant Deloitte found that only 10 percent of companies that had rolled out AI tools broadly said they saw “significant return on investment from agentic AI,” which is thought to be the most cutting-edge of AI tools, and the system that can, it’s promised, take over some mundane office tasks for the average worker. 

    The message that AI is going to save people time is actually broadly supported by many of the workers who actually use AI, a recent survey found. The Global Workforce of the Future annual report by staffing and tech advisory company Adecco Group found that 77 percent of respondents who use AI said it let them carry out tasks that they hadn’t been able to previously, and 71 percent said there was nothing holding them back from an increased AI use. Meanwhile, just 20 percent of U.S. respondents said they thought AI would destroy jobs, and 90 percent thought it’d actually create new jobs.

    What’s going on here? And what does it mean for your company?

    Firstly, the jury really is still out on whether or not AI can truly transform businesses to the extent that they can successfully cut costs by eliminating certain types of worker — a separate survey found, for example, that some AI use may actually be costing companies time and money rather than saving it. So, if you are deploying AI tools into your business, the trick might be to not have too great expectations of money saving, and the wisest way to roll out this innovative tech may be to carefully choose the tools you’re using so that they’re actually applicable to your needs, and also educate your workers on the best way to use them efficiently.

    The other thing to think about is the messaging on AI deployments is still evolving. If, like Amazon, you make public-facing statements about the benefits that AI is bringing to your business, choose your words carefully — they may backfire, and imply that your business was bloated and inefficient, whether or not the news is accompanied by notice that you’re laying people off.

    The early-rate deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, November 14, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

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  • Laid-off Meta workers may have future in FinAi

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    Technology companies and financial institutions are open to hiring some of the 600 AI unit employees laid off by Meta last month.   AI-native feedback intelligence platform Pulse and financial services giant JPMorgan Chase are both hiring. Pulse co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Ritvik Pandey took to LinkedIn to say, “For those impacted by the […]

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  • How Companies Are Turning No-Hire, More-Fire Into a Growth Strategy

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    Job creation by U.S. companies has nearly flatlined since last spring, with most employers only hiring to replace departing staff members, or leaving those positions vacant. The bad news for people looking for work is that this trend may be gaining momentum as many businesses decide they can continue growing while either maintaining or cutting current headcounts.

    That thinking contrasts the conventional wisdom often cited to explain why hiring rates have fallen to a measly monthly average of 26,750 new jobs filled since May. Many analysts said that hesitation to recruit was based in large part on uncertainties employers faced about future economic growth. Other experts pointed to the still evolving effects that import tariffs, mass deportations, and relatively robust inflation are having on businesses.

    Another reason cited was the spreading effort by companies in adopting artificial intelligence(AI) to automate tasks that many employees previously performed. That move has provoked thousands of layoffs, while also fully taking over many entry-level positions that younger job seekers have habitually relied on.

    But while all those factors may be shaping the wider business community’s current aversion to hiring, other evidence suggests some companies recently made indefinitely freezing or decreasing their headcounts a central growth strategy.

    “We’re convinced that we need to be organized more leanly, with fewer layers and more ownership, to move as quickly as possible for our customers and business,” Beth Galetti, Amazon senior vice president of people, experience, and technology wrote in a staff memo Tuesday announcing “an overall reduction in our corporate workforce of approximately 14,000 roles.”

    Similarly, on Tuesday UPS said it has already cut 48,000 jobs in 2025 alone in an effort to improve productivity. Other companies have also adopted the tactic.

    “By reducing the size of our team, fewer conversations will be required to make a decision, and each person will be more load-bearing and have more scope and impact,” Meta’s chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang, said in a memo obtained by Business Insider that announced last week’s 600 job cuts at the company’s Superintelligence Labs division.

    ‘Preemptively hold the line’

    Both Wang and Galetti noted their dramatic cuts would be followed by the creation of future, presumably far fewer jobs. But a recent Wall Street Journal report offered evidence that the trend to continually reduce net staffing levels is spreading across big U.S. businesses.

    The paper quoted a JPMorgan Chase executive’s observation that the bank now has a “very strong bias against” reflexively hiring people for needs it might fulfill otherwise. It also noted Goldman Sach’s stated intention to “constrain head count growth through the end of the year,” and Walmart’s similar objective of keeping overall staffing flat.

    In many cases it examined, the Journal said the increased use and performance of AI are allowing businesses to continue growing, innovating, and serving customers with fewer employees than previously required.

    “If people are getting more productive, you don’t need to hire more people,” Airbnb’s chief executive Brian Chesky told the paper, saying he plans to keep headcount stable at around 7,000 employees over the next year. “I see a lot of companies preemptively holding the line, forecasting, and hoping that they can have smaller workforces.”

    Yet there are also signs that in addition to hedging against economic uncertainties and reaping the efficiencies provided by AI, there may be another calculation in the current moves to freeze or cut staffing levels. That thinking may internalize the habitual approval of Wall Street investors to layoff announcements, as companies move to reduce their salary bases, increase efficiencies, and boost their bottom lines.

    “(H)istorically, if someone leaves, if Jane Doe leaves, I’ve got to backfill Jane,” Intuit chief financial officer Sandeep Aujla told the Journal. To weaken that that reflex, Aujla said, company managers are required to make convincing arguments for replacing departing employees to get approval, with new hiring now viewed as a last resort.

    As a result, Aujla said, both layoffs and voluntary quits encourage managers to ask, “Is there an opportunity for us to rethink how we staff?”

    ‘Companies do not want to hire’

    A similar reflection process in the opposite direction is now underway across social media platforms. A growing number of users are posting their beliefs that even companies that advertise job openings no longer have any intention of actually filling them.

    Whether commentators attribute that to continual downsizing strategies, AI as an opportunity for replacing employees, or the economic uncertainty that has reduced hiring levels since May, many online commentators now suspect the entire employment and recruitment process is broken, or even rigged.

    “Companies do not want to hire new employees,” posted JackReaper333 on a recent Reddit thread. “They want their current employees to (a) produce more and (b) do the work of any other employees that quit… Companies will only hire new employees when they are forced to do so, that is to say, things have gotten so bad that even the higher-ups have to finally admit that their current employees cannot produce anymore.”

    Some redditors sharing that view also interpret the abundance of job openings overlapping with flat or shrinking hiring rates as reflecting an ulterior motive behind recruitment notices. One thread claimed employers who are advertising opportunities, or even interviewing candidates, “are prospecting, not hiring.”

    “I have seen first hand, companies will just prospect without actually hiring anyone,” wrote thread initiator pastelpaintbrush. “They will post job listings, do interviews, and never hire. They just want to see what’s in the job pool.”

    Another redditor offered an alternative analysis that factors in the the increasing use of AI to automate the scanning and analysis of job applications.

    “They want to data mine our resumes and show their investors that they are ‘growing,’” said Feisty-Problem516. “Making job postings is a win-win. There is no intent to hire.”

    While those allegations are clearly too broad to apply to many, perhaps even most businesses recruiting people, they do reflect darkening public opinions about the health of the U.S. employment market. Those dim views aren’t likely to improve after redditors get a look at the Journal’s report quoting business leaders’ no-hire strategies seeming to confirm their fears.

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    Bruce Crumley

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  • Small Businesses Aren’t Seeing the Same AI Gains as Big Corporations. Here’s Why

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    Companies of all sizes and sectors are moving swiftly to boost productivity by integrating artificial intelligence applications to automate tasks previously performed by employees. But recent reports clash significantly in calculating AI’s effects on humans, while also diverging on whether larger corporations seem to benefit from AI more than smaller businesses.

    In the end, the difference in those analyses appears to be opinions about how fast and far AI should go in replacing humans in a given workplace, and how beneficial machines taking over from employees is to the results sought in using the tech.

    The first of those inquiries came from Wells Fargo chief equity strategist Ohsung Kwon, who compared changes in revenue generated per each worker on the staffs of big S&P 500 firms. He then made the same calculation for companies on the small-cap Russell 2000 index.

    Using the 2022 release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT AI bot as the starting point, Kwon’s team determined that the increased scaling abilities of larger corporations allowed them to benefit from the tech’s automating capabilities to boost the output—and with it, revenue—of workers they employed. During the same period, by contrast, it found productivity in the modest-size businesses fell.

    ″While productivity for the S&P 500 has soared 5.5 [percent] since ChatGPT, it’s down 12.3 [percent] for the Russell 2000,” Kwon wrote in a recent note to clients that was featured in a CNBC report on the differing results of AI adoption in business. “We see other examples of diverging trends in consumer, industrial, and financial markets.”

    But much like today’s big news that Amazon is laying off 14,000 corporate employees as it expands its use of AI across the business, Kwon’s measurement of productivity gains appears to depend mainly on human workers losing their jobs to the tech. Even if overall output remains the same or even dips following tech-driven head count reductions, the lower number of total workers—and payroll savings added back into the bottom line—mechanically boosts per employee claims of revenue generated.

    In addition to Amazon, the CNBC report lists big companies—including Meta, UPS, Starbucks, Oracle, Microsoft, and Google—that have announced big staff cuts this year. Those were undertaken to streamline their structures, but primarily to make way for use of AI to automate many of the tasks eliminated that employees previously performed.

    That willingness of big companies to sacrifice employees, cut labor costs, and boost revenue by scaling their use of AI appears to explain why they’ve benefited more from the tech than small-business owners under Kwon’s analysis. After all, even entrepreneurs responsive to investor demands for increasing returns tend to be more hesitant about laying off people they’re often working in close contact with than corporate managers.

    Any aversion to company founders cutting staff as an integral part of AI adoption may well also explain another of Kwon’s findings. While the S&P 500 rose 74 percent since use of AI took off in 2022, the Russell 2000 increased by just 39 percent—probably reflecting investor views about where the biggest, fastest potential boosts to share prices are.

    Still, none of that means smaller companies are holding back on introducing the tech to their workplaces or missing out on the productivity gains it can offer.

    A recent survey of small-business owners in the U.S., Australia, Canada, and the U.K. by Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Insights found nearly 70 percent of respondents used AI on a daily basis, with 75 percent reporting increased productivity as a result. Around 15 percent of participants said adoption of the tech had allowed them to create jobs, with only 5 percent saying they’d cut head counts instead.

    Results of a recent study by business consultancy Deloitte also measured successful adoption of AI in ways other than merely reducing head counts and costs. Its Humans x Machines report argues that both big corporations and small businesses that focus primarily on the tech rather than the employees who use it end up with disappointing results.

    Its survey found that nearly 60 percent of responding companies that deployed AI first and asked workplace questions about its use and effectiveness later are 1.6 times more likely to report lower return on their investment than other businesses.

    Companies with the best outcomes, the report said, are organizations that allowed human relations and other managers to work with staff to identify the most useful kinds of AI applications, train workers to adopt them, and then encourage continued deployment of those tools across the business. The report concluded that the tech will never meet its effectiveness potential unless business leaders prepare employees to enable that beforehand.

    “[M]ost organizations are investing heavily in AI, but not enough in the work design needed to unlock its value,” said Deloitte U.S. human capital head of research and chief futurist David Mallon in comments about the study. “This shouldn’t be an ‘either/or’ approach—it should be a ‘both/and’ strategy to maximize value. Organizations that take a technology-first approach struggle to scale, while those that intentionally design roles, workflows, and decision-making to integrate humans and machines are more likely to exceed their ROI expectations.”

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    Bruce Crumley

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  • Amazon CEO Now Says AI Is Not Responsible for Recent Layoffs

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    Amazon just posted its third-quarter earnings and it turns out it was a phenomenal quarter for the e-commerce giant, despite recent layoffs.

    The company giant raked in $180.2 billion in sales in the three months ending Sept. 30, up 13% from the same period last year. Its cloud business, AWS, reported its largest year-over-year growth since 2022, climbing 20% to $33 billion. The company’s stock even popped 13% in after-hours trading following the report.

    So why, with the company performing so well, did Amazon just slash 14,000 corporate jobs and hinted that more cuts could be on the way?

    Fortunately for us, CEO Andy Jassy was asked to comment on the layoffs during the company’s earnings call Thursday evening. However, he was quick to downplay any connection to AI.

    “What I would tell you is, you know, the announcement that we made a few days ago was not really financially driven, and it’s not even really AI driven, not right now at least,” Jassy told investors. “It’s culture.”

    He went on to try to make the case that the company’s rapid growth over the last several years added more people, layers, and complexity to its operations. This quick growth, in turn, slowed decision-making and weakened ownership for workers at the frontlines.

    Jassy said Amazon is now committed to operating like the world’s largest startup in order to move more quickly during what he called the major “technology transformation happening right now.”

    The memo sent to laid-off employees earlier this week hit a lot of the same points Jassy made. But it also directly named the big tech shift, AI, that he had been hinting at, even as he claimed it wasn’t driving this round of layoffs.

    “This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the Internet, and it’s enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before (in existing market segments and altogether new ones). We’re convinced that we need to be organized more leanly, with fewer layers and more ownership, to move as quickly as possible for our customers and business,” wrote Beth Galetti, senior vice president of people experience and technology at Amazon, in the memo.

    Still, these job cuts also come as Amazon, and the rest of Silicon Valley, is seemingly betting it all on AI.

    Jassy said on Thursday that the company’s AI and cloud infrastructure added more than 3.8 gigawatts of power capacity in the past 12 months and is expected to add another gigawatt this fourth quarter.

    And future cuts may not be limited to corporate workers. The New York Times reported last week that Amazon’s automation team expects that by 2027, the company could avoid hiring more than 160,000 U.S. workers it would normally need. Overall, Amazon’s robotics team has an ultimate goal to automate 75 percent of the company’s operations, according to internal documents obtained by The New York Times.

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    Bruce Gil

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  • Mannington shuts McAdenville yarn plant in Gaston County NC

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    A flooring manufacturer is shutting down its Gaston County factory, laying off almost 300 employees right after Christmas.

    New Jersey-based Mannington Mill is closing its McAdenville plant on Dec. 27, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) filed recently with the North Carolina Department of Commerce. All 296 employees will be laid off permanently.

    The site was the former Pharr plant, a McAdenville-based yarn manufacturer, which started in 1939. Pharr left the yarn business in 2020, selling the company to Mannington Mill.

    Pharr also sold a portion of its company to the London-based Coats Group, which also laid off 41 employees at its McAdenville facility in 2023.

    Mannington manufactures flooring product such as hardwood, laminate and vinyl for residential and commercial uses. It also produced residential carpeting, until now.

    The closure is part of Mannington’s move to exit the residential carpet business due to decline in demand and unfavorable market conditions, according to a LinkedIn post.

    “The continued consumer shift to resilient flooring has forced us to reevaluate residential carpet in our portfolio,” Mannington CEO Tom Pendley said in the post. “This has led us to make the difficult decision to exit residential carpet.”

    The company will focus on its residential hard surface options.

    The McAdenville facility is one of three that will be closing. The others are located in Dalton and Chatsworth, Georgia. More than 200 people will also be laid off at those facilities.

    The company is still taking carpet orders until Dec. 1, according to its website. It will also continue to honor its warranties.

    McAdenville is going to be hit with nearly 300 layoffs at a local mill right after Christmas.
    McAdenville is going to be hit with nearly 300 layoffs at a local mill right after Christmas. Town of McAdenville

    About Mannington Mill

    The floor manufacturer opened in 1915 in Salem, New Jersey. In 2020, Mannington entered the residential carpet industry, purchasing Pharr Fibers and Yarns in McAdenville and Phenix Flooring in Dalton. Two years later, it bought Georgia Carpet Finishers in Chatsworth.

    All three facilities will be closed by 2026.

    Mannington will still produce carpets for commercial properties. Yarn processing operations in McAdenville will be transitioned to Mannington’s site in Calhoun, Georgia.

    Mannington may fill open roles at that facilities with the laid-off employees. It’s unclear if that will include the McAdenville workers.

    Related Stories from Charlotte Observer

    Desiree Mathurin

    The Charlotte Observer

    Desiree Mathurin covers growth and development for The Charlotte Observer. The native New Yorker returned to the East Coast after covering neighborhood news in Denver at Denverite and Colorado Public Radio. She’s also reported on high school sports at Newsday and southern-regional news for AP. Desiree is exploring Charlotte and the Carolinas, and is looking forward to taking readers along for the ride. Send tips and coffee shop recommendations.

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  • Meta, Google, and Microsoft Triple Down on AI Spending

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    While Microsoft didn’t offer a specific forecast for its AI capital expenditures for the next quarter or coming year, the company’s chief financial officer, Amy Hood, said that the company’s total spend will “increase sequentially, and we now expect the fiscal year 2026 growth rate to be higher than fiscal year 2025.”

    Tech companies are making these ambitious plans for more capital spending under the assumption that demand for AI will only continue to grow. But some analysts are raising concerns that the AI market is a bubble and will eventually burst.

    Those worries are being fueled by announcements about enormously expensive, multi-year data center projects and staggered investments. Last month, Nvidia said it would invest “up to $100 billion” in OpenAI, provided that the ChatGPT maker builds and deploys at least 10 gigawatts of AI data centers using Nvidia’s chips. OpenAI, meanwhile, said just yesterday that it was planning to develop 30 gigawatts of computing resources worth $1.4 trillion.

    Microsoft has committed to putting a total of $13 billion in OpenAI, and it continues to use the company’s frontier AI models, but took a $3.1 billion hit in net income this quarter due to losses from that investment. Microsoft said that the ongoing nature of its partnership with OpenAI will result in increased volatility. Going forward, Hood said, the company will exclude any impacts from its OpenAI investment in its financial outlooks.

    Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told analysts there are two “critical” things to consider about how the company views its capital expenditures. The first is that it is finding ways to make its fleet of data centers “fungible,” or interchangeable, meaning they can be easily modified to meet changing customer demands in the future. The second is that the company is expecting to continually modernize its infrastructure.

    “It’s not like we buy one version of Nvidia and load up for all the gigawatts we have. Each year, you buy, you ride Moore’s Law, you continually modernize and depreciate it, and you use software to grow efficiency,” Nadella said.

    Mark Moerdler, a senior research analyst covering global software at Bernstein, says that Microsoft is “building capacity in tranches over time and can shift resources, which gives them a lot of protection.” But, he added, “Is there an overall AI bubble? [It’s] possible, and that they did not answer.”

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    Lauren Goode, Will Knight

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  • Paramount Layoffs Hit Motion Picture Execs In Production, Marketing, Music & More; Studio Co-Chairs Say, “Today Has Been A Difficult One”

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    EXCLUSIVE: Paramount‘s motion picture divisions, including production, literary, marketing and music, were impacted today with many Melrose Ave lot vets exiting. The new David Ellison run conglom is handing out approximately 1,000 pink-slips as it looks to achieve $2 billion in overall savings. We understand that some of those savings aren’t in job cuts alone.

    Among those departing, we hear, are President of Worldwide Music, Randy Spendlove who has been at the studio since 2006. Spendlove arrived to Paramount as a Grammy Winner for Best Soundtrack Album for the Miramax Best Picture Oscar winner, Chicago. He started at A&M Records as VP of Promotions where he worked with Janet Jackson, Sheryl Crow, Soundgarden and Bryan Adams. In 1998, he became President of Motion Picture Music at Miramax Films where he worked on Chicago, Shakespeare in Love, Cold Mountain and Finding Neverland. While at Paramount, he co-supervised the music and co-produced the soundtrack album for Dreamgirls, which was nominated for three Best Song Oscars.

    Other executive departures include Bryan Oh, SVP of Production, who most recently was shepherding a K-pop music drama starring Ji-young Yoo and singer-songwriter Eric Nam; Geoff Stier, EVP of Production who was formerly with Showtime Original Programming and a previous Paramount vet overseeing such titles as World War Z and True Grit before coming back in July 2024; Andres Alvarez, EVP of Home Entertainment; Rachel Cadden, EVP of International Theatrical Marketing; Christine Benitez, SVP Multicultural Marketing; and Phil Cohen, SVP of Literary Affairs who arrived to the studio in 2022.

    In a note to staff today, Paramount Co-Chairs Dana Golberg and Josh Greenstein took a knee, expressing how “difficult” today is and how “we want to take a moment to acknowledge the departure of valued colleagues and express our deep gratitude for their contributions, dedication, and the impact they’ve made on our studio.” The duo also emphasized the new Skydance-owned Paramount’s plan of “right-sizing our organization” which aims to “refocus our energy, and align our efforts with the endless opportunities ahead.”

    There are 1,000 more expected to be cut from the roughly 20,000-employee count of the combined Paramount and Skydance. The next wave is hitting offshore offices. As Deadline previously reported, Paramount television and marketing/distribution were effected today.

    Below is the internal email from Paramount Co-Chairs Dana Golberg and Josh Greenstein.

    Team,

    We recognize that today has been a difficult one as our workforce changes take effect. We want to take a moment to acknowledge the departure of valued colleagues and express our deep gratitude for their contributions, dedication, and the impact they’ve made on our studio.

    This restructuring marks a pivotal step in shaping the path forward. We’re right-sizing our organization to ensure Paramount Pictures remains not only the iconic studio built on more than a century of storytelling, but also the leading destination for creators and innovators who will define the future of entertainment. Please know that we’re making these changes as comprehensively as possible to ensure we can move forward decisively, refocus our energy, and align our efforts with the endless opportunities ahead.

    As we set our sights on the future, our goal is to create clarity and momentum as we begin this next chapter. Your managers and HR business partners are here to support you—please don’t hesitate to reach out with questions or concerns. What makes this place exceptional is the spirit of collaboration and kindness you show one another every day. We know that same generosity will carry us through this transition.

    We will be sharing more around our strategy and structure in the coming weeks and appreciate your continued commitment and focus. 

    Thank you for everything you bring to this team. We’re confident that, together, we’ll build an even stronger future.

    Dana and Josh

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  • ‘Everyone is doing well’: President Trump praises economy amid layoffs, potential SNAP crisis

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    ‘Everyone is doing well’: President Trump praises economy amid layoffs, potential SNAP crisis

    President Trump promotes economic prosperity during his visit to Japan, while layoffs and a federal shutdown threaten millions back in the U.S.

    Updated: 3:03 PM PDT Oct 28, 2025

    Editorial Standards ⓘ


    White House Correspondent

    President Donald Trump is promoting Japanese companies investing $550 billion in the United States while visiting the East Asian country. The president said the funds would be “at my direction” as part of a trade framework secured with Japan. The president also boasted about the U.S. economy, despite contrasting economic challenges.”Well, everyone in our country is now doing well. My first term, we built the greatest economy in the history of the world. We had an economy like nobody has seen before now. We’re doing it again, but this time, actually, it’s going to be much bigger, much stronger,” Trump said.The president highlighted the stock market reaching all-time highs, but economists point to other indicators that tell a different story. Amazon announced it is cutting 14,000 jobs, UPS is eliminating roughly 48,000 positions and closing more than 90 buildings as part of a turnaround plan, and Target, Ford, and GM have also announced layoffs amid slowing demand. Additionally, the federal government shutdown threatens food aid benefits for more than 40 million Americans as soon as Nov. 1, and September’s CPI data showed prices are rising again just as the Federal Reserve has cut interest rates to support the economy.”I don’t really understand the optimism to be perfectly honest, and I’m a very optimistic, very little of a ‘doomer’ person. We’ve had seven months in a row of contractions and manufacturing output. The labor market cooled to such an extent that it forced the Fed to cut rates in September,” said Jai Kedia from the Cato Institute.President Trump is preparing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping amid the ongoing U.S.–China trade war. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the two countries have reached a “very successful framework” ahead of their summit, covering tariffs, rare-earth exports and large U.S. agricultural purchases.Meanwhile, 26 states and Washington, D.C., are suing the USDA, arguing the agency has contingency funds that could be used to maintain SNAP benefits during the shutdown. In a memo, the USDA stated that those funds can only be used for a natural disaster or other emergency, not to operate during a shutdown, and placed the blame on Senate Democrats, saying, “We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats. Continue to hold out for the Far-Left wing of the party or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive timely WIC and SNAP allotments.” The states argue the law requires the USDA to issue benefits as long as money is available.It comes after another failed vote occurred today in the Senate. A federal judge in San Francisco has issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration from firing federal workers during the government shutdown. This move comes as a lawsuit challenges recent job cuts in education, health, and other areas.For more coverage from the Washington News Bureau here:

    WASHINGTON —

    President Donald Trump is promoting Japanese companies investing $550 billion in the United States while visiting the East Asian country. The president said the funds would be “at my direction” as part of a trade framework secured with Japan.

    The president also boasted about the U.S. economy, despite contrasting economic challenges.

    “Well, everyone in our country is now doing well. My first term, we built the greatest economy in the history of the world. We had an economy like nobody has seen before now. We’re doing it again, but this time, actually, it’s going to be much bigger, much stronger,” Trump said.

    The president highlighted the stock market reaching all-time highs, but economists point to other indicators that tell a different story.

    Amazon announced it is cutting 14,000 jobs, UPS is eliminating roughly 48,000 positions and closing more than 90 buildings as part of a turnaround plan, and Target, Ford, and GM have also announced layoffs amid slowing demand.

    Additionally, the federal government shutdown threatens food aid benefits for more than 40 million Americans as soon as Nov. 1, and September’s CPI data showed prices are rising again just as the Federal Reserve has cut interest rates to support the economy.

    “I don’t really understand the optimism to be perfectly honest, and I’m a very optimistic, very little of a ‘doomer’ person. We’ve had seven months in a row of contractions and manufacturing output. The labor market cooled to such an extent that it forced the Fed to cut rates in September,” said Jai Kedia from the Cato Institute.

    President Trump is preparing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping amid the ongoing U.S.–China trade war. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the two countries have reached a “very successful framework” ahead of their summit, covering tariffs, rare-earth exports and large U.S. agricultural purchases.

    Meanwhile, 26 states and Washington, D.C., are suing the USDA, arguing the agency has contingency funds that could be used to maintain SNAP benefits during the shutdown.

    In a memo, the USDA stated that those funds can only be used for a natural disaster or other emergency, not to operate during a shutdown, and placed the blame on Senate Democrats, saying, “We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats. Continue to hold out for the Far-Left wing of the party or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive timely WIC and SNAP allotments.”

    The states argue the law requires the USDA to issue benefits as long as money is available.

    It comes after another failed vote occurred today in the Senate. A federal judge in San Francisco has issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration from firing federal workers during the government shutdown. This move comes as a lawsuit challenges recent job cuts in education, health, and other areas.

    For more coverage from the Washington News Bureau here:

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  • From retail to tech, here are the 10 corporations that recently announced mass layoffs | Fortune

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    Amid wider economic uncertainty, some analysts have said that businesses are at a “no-hire, no fire” standstill. That’s caused many to limit new work to only a few specific roles, if not pause openings entirely. At the same time, some sizeable layoffs have continued to pile up — raising worker anxieties across sectors.

    Some companies have pointed to rising operational costs spanning from President Donald Trump’s barrage of new tariffs and shifts in consumer spending. Others cite corporate restructuring more broadly — or, as seen with big names like Amazon, are redirecting money to investments like artificial intelligence.

    In such cases, “it’s not so much AI directly taking jobs, but AI’s appetite for cash that might be taking jobs,” said Jason Schloetzer, professor business administration at Georgetown University’s McDonough School. He pointed to wider “trade offs” from employment to infrastructure investment seen across companies today.

    Federal employees have encountered additional doses of uncertainty, impacting worker sentiment around the job market overall. Shortly after Trump returned to office at the start of the year, federal jobs were cut by the thousands. And many workers are now going without pay as the U.S. government shutdown nears its fourth week.

    “A lot of people are looking around, scanning the job environment, scanning the opportunities that are available to them — whether it’s in the public or private sector,” said Schloetzer. “And I think there’s a question mark around the long-term stability everywhere.”

    Government hiring data is on hold during the shutdown, but earlier this month a survey by payroll company ADP showed a surprising loss of 32,000 jobs in the private sector in September.

    Here are some companies that have moved to cut jobs recently.

    Amazon

    Amazon said Tuesday that it will cut about 14,000 corporate jobs, close to 4% of its workforce, as the online retail giant ramps up spending on AI while trimming costs elsewhere. A letter to employees said most workers would be given 90 days to look for a new position internally.

    CEO Andy Jassy previously said he anticipated generative AI would reduce Amazon’s corporate workforce in the coming years. And he has worked to aggressively cut costs overall since 2021.

    UPS

    United Parcel Service has cut about 34,000 jobs since the start of this year as part of turnaround efforts, amid wider shifts in the company’s shipping outputs.

    The layoffs, disclosed in a regulatory filing on Tuesday, are notably higher than the roughly 20,000 cuts UPS forecast earlier this year. On Tuesday, UPS said it also closed closed daily operations at 93 leased and owned buildings during the first nine months of this year.

    Target

    Last week, Target that it would eliminate about 1,800 corporate positions, or about 8% of its corporate workforce globally.

    Target said the cuts were part of wider streamlining efforts — with Chief Operating Officer Michael Fiddelke noting that “too many layers and overlapping work have slowed decisions.” The retailer is also looking to rebuild its customer base. Target reported flat or declining comparable sales in nine of the past eleven quarters.

    Nestlé

    In mid-October, Nestlé said it would be cutting 16,000 jobs globally — as part of wider cost cutting aimed at reviving its financial performance.

    The Swiss food giant said the layoffs would take place over the next two years. The cuts arrive as Nestlé and others face headwinds like rising commodity costs and U.S. imposed tariffs. The company announced price hikes over the summer to offset higher coffee and cocoa costs.

    Lufthansa Group

    In September, Lufthansa Group said it would shed 4,000 jobs by 2030 — pointing to the adoption of artificial intelligence, digitalization and consolidating work among member airlines.

    Most of the lost jobs would be in Germany, and the focus would be on administrative rather than operational roles, the company said. The layoff plans arrived even as the company reported strong demand for air travel and predicted stronger profits in years ahead.

    Novo Nordisk

    Also in September, Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk said it would cut 9,000 jobs, about 11% of its workforce.

    Novo Nordisk — which makes drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy — said the layoffs were part of wider restructuring as the company works to sell more obesity and diabetes medications amid rising competition.

    ConocoPhillips

    Oil giant ConocoPhillips has said it plans to lay off up to a quarter of its workforce, as part of broader efforts from the company to cut costs.

    A spokesperson for ConocoPhillips confirmed the layoffs on Sept. 3, noting that 20% to 25% of the company’s employees and contractors would be impacted worldwide. At the time, ConocoPhillips had a total headcount of about 13,000 — or between 2,600 and 3,250 workers. Most reductions were expected to take place before the end of 2025.

    Intel

    Intel has moved to shed thousands of jobs — with the struggling chipmaker working to revive its business as it lags behind rivals like Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices.

    In a July memo to employees, CEO Lip-Bu Tan said Intel expected to end the year with 75,000 “core” workers, excluding subsidiaries, through layoffs and attrition. That’s down from 99,500 core employees reported the end of last year. The company previously announced a 15% workforce reduction.

    Microsoft

    In May, Microsoft began began laying off about 6,000 workers across its workforce. And just months later, the tech giant said it would be cutting 9,000 positions — marking its biggest round of layoffs seen in more than two years.

    The latest job cuts hit Microsoft’s Xbox video game business and other divisions. The company has cited “organizational changes,” with many executives characterizing the layoffs as part of a push to trim management layers. But the labor reductions also arrive as the company spends heavily on AI.

    Procter & Gamble

    In June, Procter & Gamble said it would cut up to 7,000 jobs over the next two years, 6% of the company’s global workforce.

    The maker of Tide detergent and Pampers diapers said the cuts were part of a wider restructuring — also arriving amid tariff pressures. In July, P&G said it would hike prices on about a quarter of its products due to the newly-imposed import taxes, although it’s since said it expects to take less of a hit than previously anticipated for the 2026 fiscal year.

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    Wyatte Grantham-Philips, The Associated Press

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  • A comprehensive list of 2025 tech layoffs | TechCrunch

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    The tech layoff wave is still kicking in 2025. Last year saw more than 150,000 job cuts across 549 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. So far this year, more than 22,000 workers have been the victim of reductions across the tech industry, with a staggering 16,084 cuts taking place in February alone.

    We’re tracking layoffs in the tech industry in 2025 so you can see the trajectory of the cutbacks and understand the impact on innovation across all types of companies. As businesses continue to embrace AI and automation, this tracker serves as a reminder of the human impact of layoffs — and what could be at stake with increased innovation.

    Below you’ll find a comprehensive list of all the known tech layoffs that have occurred in 2025, which will be updated regularly. If you have a tip on a layoff, contact us here. If you prefer to remain anonymous, you can contact us here.

    October

    Rivian

    Is cutting 600 jobs, about 4% of its workforce, amid an EV market pullback, marking its third layoff this year. Details of the latest layoffs remain undisclosed, while earlier cuts in June and September affected 100 to 150 employees in its commercial and manufacturing teams.

    Meta

    Will reportedly lay off approximately 600 employees across its AI infrastructure units, including the Fundamental Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR) team and other product-related roles. However, top-tier AI hires in TBD Labs, managed by new chief AI officer Alexandr Wang, will not be affected.

    Applied Materials

    Plans to cut about 4% of its workforce, or roughly 1,400 jobs, to streamline operations amid tighter U.S. semiconductor export controls.

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    Handshake

    Laid off around 100 employees in October, about 15% of its 650-person U.S. workforce. The layoffs affected various roles across its recruiting business vertical. The San Francisco-based startup is an online platform connecting college students and recent graduates with employers for early-career jobs.

    Smartsheet

    Has reportedly laid off over 120 employees amid a leadership transition following CEO Mark Mader’s retirement. The enterprise software company, which grew to more than 3,300 employees, was acquired for $8.4 billion by Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners earlier this year, taking it private.

    Google

    Has cut over 100 design roles in its cloud division, hitting U.S.-based teams especially hard, as the company shifts focus toward AI investments, per a CNBC report. Many affected employees have until early December to find a new role within Google, following additional layoffs across its Silicon Valley offices, including at least 50 permanent cuts in Sunnyvale.

    Paycom

    Is reportedly laying off over 500 employees due to AI and automation improving back-office efficiencies. The Oklahoma City-based HR and payroll software company will provide affected workers with severance packages, outplacement services, and access to internal job opportunities.

    September

    Just Eat

    Will eliminate around 450 jobs as part of a cost and operations review, according to Reuters. The layoffs will span multiple functions and countries, including customer service and sales. Europe’s largest food delivery company said it is increasingly using automation and AI, shifting many manual service tasks to automated systems.

    Fiverr

    Plans to cut around 250 jobs, approximately 30% of its workforce, as part of a push to become a leaner, faster, and AI-focused company, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Tel Aviv-headquartered freelance services marketplace said the restructuring will reduce management layers and position it to pursue growth with an AI-native approach.

    ZipRecruiter

    Is closing its Tel Aviv development center, cutting about 80 jobs. Led by Yosi Taguri, the office specialized in software, data, and AI research, including algorithm development. The California-based recruitment firm, founded in 2010, is trimming costs amid a challenging labor market.

    GupShup

    Has laid off at least 100 employees, including junior developers, just months after cutting nearly 200 jobs. The San Francisco-based conversational AI company, which is preparing for an IPO within two years, raised $60 million in equity and debt in July.

    xAI

    Laid off about a third of its data annotation team, cutting roughly 500 jobs, according to Business Insider. The move comes as the company shifts focus from generalist AI tutors to specialist roles, after testing workers to assess their strengths. Employees were told they’ll be paid through the end of their contracts — or November 30 at the latest — but their system access was cut immediately, Business Insider reports.

    Rivian

    Has reportedly laid off about 200 workers, or 1.5% of its staff, as the company braces for the end of federal EV tax credits under President Trump’s policy changes. The $7,500 incentive for new electric cars expires this month, adding to pressure from cooling demand. Despite the cuts, Rivian says it’s moving ahead with plans for a lower-cost model.

    Oracle

    Is cutting another 101 jobs in Seattle and 254 in San Francisco, just weeks after a wave of layoffs in August. The company, which had about 3,900 local employees before the cuts, hasn’t explained the move and declined to comment.

    Salesforce

    Is trimming another 262 jobs at its San Francisco headquarters, according to a state filing, with layoffs set to take effect November 3. The move comes just weeks after CEO Marc Benioff touted AI’s potential to cut customer support roles and follows a smaller round of cuts in Seattle and Bellevue earlier this month.

    August

    Cisco

    Will eliminate 221 positions across its Milpitas and San Francisco offices, including 157 in Santa Clara County and 64 in San Francisco, effective October 13, according to filings with California’s Employment Development Department reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. The cuts are part of the company’s broader workforce-reduction strategy.

    Restaurant365

    Laid off about 100 employees last month, around 9% of its workforce, after falling short of ambitious growth targets. The cuts affected staff across all departments. The company provides back-office software for restaurant chains.

    Oracle

    Is set to cut 101 jobs at its Santa Clara location, with notices issued on August 13 and terminations effective October 13. The company, which recently disclosed nearly 200 layoffs at its Pleasanton and Redwood City offices, is also planning to lay off 161 employees in Seattle, according to filings with the Washington state Employment Security Department.

    F5

    Is cutting 106 positions at its Seattle and Liberty Lake, Washington, offices, according to a state Employment Security Department filing. The layoffs, which affected senior engineers and managers, are part of a broader global workforce reduction, although the security and application delivery company has not disclosed the total number of employees affected.

    Peloton

    Will cut 6% of its workforce in its sixth layoff in just over a year. Peloton CEO Peter Stern said the cuts are needed to improve long-term business health.

    Kaltura

    Is cutting 10% of its workforce, or about 70 employees, as part of a cost-saving effort to reduce operating expenses by $8.5 million, marking its third round of layoffs since 2022. The corporate video software company plans to maintain and gradually grow its sales and marketing budgets, driven by a robust pipeline and growing adoption of its AI-powered offerings.

    Yotpo

    Is laying off about 200 employees, roughly 34% of its global workforce, as it shuts down its email and SMS marketing operations. The Israeli-founded unicorn is partnering with Attentive and Omnisend to continue supporting marketing services while investing in AI-powered tools like automated review summaries, smart sorting, and a new Loyalty Tiers system.

    Windsurf

    Laid off 30 employees and is now offering buyouts to the remaining 200. The AI coding startup recently acquired by Cognition has had a rocky stretch, including a near-acquisition by OpenAI and a reverse-acqui-hire by Google that saw key talent depart before Cognition stepped in. Despite initial promises to value Windsurf’s team, the deal now looks more focused on the startup’s intellectual property than its people.

    Wondery

    Is cutting 100 jobs, and its CEO, Jen Sargent, is departing. Amazon is reorganizing its audio operations, moving Wondery’s audio-only podcasts under Audible and placing video-focused shows into a new Creator Services division. Amazon acquired Wondery in 2020.

    July

    Atlassian

    Has cut 150 roles in customer service and support, following enhancements to its platform and tools that have significantly reduced support needs. The decision came via a prerecorded message from CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes, just hours before co-founder Scott Farquhar urged Australia to embrace an “AI revolution” and move beyond “jobs of the past” in an Australian Press Club address. The Australian software firm was founded 2002.

    Consensys

    Is cutting about 7% of its workforce, or 47 employees, as part of a push toward profitability, Bloomberg reports. The decision follows the recent acquisition of a startup with around 30 staff, who will stay on with the company. Despite the cuts, the blockchain software company that operates the popular digital wallet MetaMask says it will continue hiring for select roles.

    Zeen

    Is shutting down operations, per a report by Business Insider. The social collaging platform aimed at creators was founded in 2019 and raised $9 million in funding. Its closure highlights the persistent challenges social media startups face in building user bases and achieving long-term growth.

    Scale AI

    Is laying off around 200 employees — roughly 14% of its workforce — and severing ties with 500 global contractors. The cuts come just weeks after Meta brought in the data-labeling startup’s CEO in a $14.3 billion deal.

    Lenovo

    Plans to cut more than 100 U.S. full-time jobs, about 3% of its workforce, including positions at its Morrisville, North Carolina, campus. As of February 2024, the PC maker employed around 5,100 workers in the U.S.

    Intel

    Is reportedly planning to lay off nearly 2,400 workers in Oregon, which is almost five times more than what was announced earlier this week. Last week, Intel announced that it will lay off more than 500 employees in Oregon, which is about 20% of its workforce, per Bloomberg.  

    Indeed + Glassdoor

    Plan to eliminate approximately 1,300 jobs combined as part of a larger restructuring effort to combine their operations and focus on AI. The layoff will mostly affect employees in the U.S., particularly in the R&D, HR, and sustainability teams, according to an internal memo by Hisayuki “Deko” Idekoba, the CEO of Recruit Holdings, which is the Japanese parent company of Indeed and Glassdoor.

    Eigen Lab

    Has laid off 29 employees as part of its reorganization, per a report by Blockworks. The Seattle-based research and engineering startup recently launched EigenCloud, a platform that provides blockchain-level trust guarantees for any Web 2.0 or web3 application. The reduction will affect 25% of the company’s workforce. Eigen Labs said it had raised $70 million in tokens from a16z Crypto in June.

    Microsoft

    Will cut 9,000 employees, which is less than 4% of its global workforce across teams, role types, and geographies. The reduction follows a series of layoffs earlier this year: It cut less than 1% of the headcount in January, more than 6,000 in May, and at least 300 in June.

    ByteDance

    Is laying off 65 employees in Bellevue, Washington, according to media reports. The parent company of TikTok arrived in Seattle in 2021 and has been expanding its presence there by growing its TikTok Shop online shopping division.

    June

    TomTom

    Announced on June 30 that the company is cutting 300 jobs, or 10% of its workforce, as part of organizational restructuring within its sales and support divisions amid the AI shift. The startup is an Amsterdam-based location tech startup that provides navigation and mapping products.

    Rivian

    Has reduced its headcount by approximately 140 employees, accounting for roughly 1% of its total workforce. The recent layoffs mostly affected Rivian’s manufacturing team.

    Bumble

    Announced in an SEC filing that it will cut approximately 240 jobs, or 30% of its workforce, to enhance operational efficiency and allocate the resulting savings to the development of new products and technologies, according to a CNBC report. The layoff will help the online dating app save $40 million annually, per the report.

    Klue

    Has reportedly laid off 85 employees, which accounts for approximately 40% of its workforce. The Vancouver-based startup sells software products that use artificial intelligence for business intelligence. It helps sales professionals at tech companies gather information on competitors to improve their sales.

    Google

    Has downsized its smart TV division by 25% of its 300-member team to adjust its strategy, per reports. Funding for the smart TV division, including Google TV and Android TV, has been cut by 10%, but investment in AI projects has been raised.

    Intel

    Says that it plans to lay off 15% to 20% of workers in its Intel Foundry division starting in July. Intel Foundry designs, manufactures, and packages semiconductors for external clients. Intel’s total workforce was 108,900 people as of December 2024, according to the company’s annual regulatory filing. It also confirmed to TechCrunch that it plans to wind down its auto business.

    Playtika

    Announced that it is letting go of around 90 employees, with 40 in Israel and 50 in Poland. The most recent round of job cuts comes after the Israel-based gaming company laid off 50 employees a few weeks ago.

    Airtime

    Has let go of around 25 employees from the 58-person team, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. Evernote’s founder Phil Libin launched the video startup in 2020, offering Airtime Creator and Airtime Camera.

    Microsoft

    Is laying off more employees, just a few weeks after announcing a job cut of over 6,500 in May, which was around 3% of its global workforce. The most recent layoffs affected software engineers, product managers, technical program managers, marketers, and legal counsels.

    May

    Hims & Hers

    Plans to downsize its workforce by letting go of 68 employees, approximately 4% of its total staff, per Reuters. The San Francisco telehealth platform said that its layoffs were unrelated to a U.S. ban on producing large quantities of the weight-loss drug Wegovy. The startup said it intends to keep on recruiting employees who fit in with its long-term expansion plans.

    Amazon

    Is reportedly laying off around 100 employees from its devices and services division, which encompasses various businesses like the Alexa voice assistant, Echo smart speakers, Ring video doorbells, and Zoox robotaxis. The company has reduced its workforce by approximately 27,000 since the start of 2022 to cut costs.

    Microsoft

    Will cut over 6,500 jobs, affecting 3% of its worldwide workforce. As of June, the Seattle-headquartered company had a total of 228,000 employees globally. It would be one of the company’s biggest layoffs since it cut 10,000 employees in 2023.

    Chegg

    Reportedly plans to let go of 248 employees, or about 22% of its workforce, to reduce expenses and improve efficiency, it said. The San Francisco-based edtech startup, which offers textbook rentals and tutoring services, has seen a drop in web traffic for months as students opt for AI tools instead of traditional edtech platforms.

    Match

    Is reducing its workforce by 13% as part of a reorganization that aims to reduce costs, shore up margins, and streamline its organizational structure.

    CrowdStrike

    Is laying off 5% of its global workforce, or around 500 people. The company said the layoffs were part of “a strategic plan (the ‘Plan’) to evolve its operations to yield greater efficiencies as the Company continues to scale its business with focus and discipline to meet its goal of $10 billion in ending [Annual Recurring Revenue]” in its 8-K filing.

    General Fusion

    Has cut roughly 25% of its current workforce. The Vancouver-based company, which is developing a technology to generate fusion energy, has raised $440 million from investors, including Jeff Bezos, Temasek, and BDC Capital.

    Deep Instinct

    Reduced its headcount by 20 employees, accounting for 10% of its total workforce. In April 2023, the Israeli cybersecurity startup had previously laid off a similar number of employees during a round of layoffs.

    Beam

    Has shut down its operations months after announcing major expansion plans, per Sifted. The British climate startup has let go of approximately 200 employees, according to a LinkedIn post by James Reynolds, the head of talent.

    April

    NetApp

    Is reportedly eliminating 700 jobs, affecting 6% of its total workforce, as it reorganizes for its operational efficiency. The company, based in San Francisco, provides data storage, cloud services, and CloudOps solutions for businesses.

    Electronic Arts

    Is reportedly letting go of approximately 300 to 400 employees, including around 100 at Respawn Entertainment, to focus on its “long-term strategic priorities,” according to Bloomberg.

    Expedia

    Is laying off around 3% of its employees as part of its restructuring. The job cuts will mainly affect midlevel positions in the product and technology teams. The latest round of layoffs comes after the company let go of hundreds of employees from its marketing team globally in early March.

    Cars24

    Has reduced its workforce by about 200 employees in its product and technology divisions as part of a restructuring measure. The India-based e-commerce platform for pre-owned vehicles provides a range of services like buying and selling pre-owned cars, financing, insurance, driver-on-demand, and more. In 2023, the SoftBank-backed startup raised $450 million at a valuation of $3.3 billion.

    Meta

    Is letting go of over 100 employees in its Reality Labs division, which manages virtual reality and wearable technology, according to The Verge. The job cuts affect employees developing VR experiences for Meta’s Quest headsets and staff working on hardware operations to streamline similar work between the two teams.

    Intel

    Announced its plan to lay off more than 21,000 employees, or roughly 20% of its workforce, in April. The move comes ahead of Intel’s Q1 earnings call helmed by recently appointed CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who took over from longtime chief Pat Gelsinger last year.

    GM

    Is laying off 200 people at its Factory Zero in Detroit and Hamtramck facility in Michigan, which produces GM’s electric vehicles. The cuts come amid the EV slowdown and is not caused by tariffs, according to a report.

    Zopper

    Has reportedly let go of around 100 employees since the start of 2025. Earlier this week, about 50 employees from the tech and product teams were let go in the latest round of job cuts. The India-based insurtech startup has raised a total of $125 million to date.

    Turo

    Will reduce its workforce by 150 positions following its decision not to proceed with its IPO, per Bloomberg. The San Francisco-based car rental startup, which had about 1,000 staff in 2024, said the layoffs will bolster its long-term growth plans during economic uncertainty.

    GupShup

    Laid off roughly 200 employees to improve efficiency and profitability. It’s the startup’s second round of layoffs in five months, following the job cuts of around 300 employees in December. The conversational AI company, backed by Tiger Global and Fidelity, was last valued at $1.4 billion in 2021. The startup is based in San Francisco and operates in India.

    Forto

    Has reportedly eliminated 200 jobs, affecting around one-third of its employees. The German logistics startup reduced a significant number of sales staff.

    Wicresoft

    Will stop its operations in China, affecting around 2,000 employees. The move came after Microsoft decided to end outsourcing after-sales support to Wicresoft amid increasing trade tensions. Wicresoft, Microsoft’s first joint venture in China, was founded in 2022 and operates in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. It has over 10,000 employees.

    Five9

    Plans to cut 123 jobs, affecting about 4% of its workforce, according to a report by MarketWatch. The software company prioritizes key strategic areas like artificial intelligence for profitable growth.

    Google

    Has laid off hundreds of employees in its platforms and devices division, which covers Android, Pixel phones, the Chrome browser, and more, according to The Information.

    Microsoft

    Is contemplating additional layoffs that could happen by May, Business Insider reported, citing anonymous sources. The company is said to be discussing reducing the number of middle managers and non-coders in a bid to increase the ratio of programmers to product managers.

    Automattic

    The WordPress.com developer is laying off 16% of its workforce across departments. Before the layoffs, the company’s website showed it had 1,744 employees, so more than 270 staff may have been laid off.

    Canva

    Has let go of 10 to 12 technical writers approximately nine months after telling its employees to use generative AI tools wherever possible. The company, which had around 5,500 staff in 2024, was valued at $26 billion after a secondary stock sale in 2024.

    March

    Northvolt

    Has laid off 2,800 employees, affecting 62% of its total staff. The layoffs come weeks after the embattled Swedish battery maker filed for bankruptcy.

    Block

    Let go of 931 employees, around 8% of its workforce, as part of a reorganization, according to an internal email seen by TechCrunch. Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and CEO of the fintech company, wrote in the email that the layoffs were not for financial reasons or to replace workers with AI.

    Brightcove

    Has laid off 198 employees, who make up about two-thirds of its U.S. workforce, per a media report. The layoff comes a month after the company was acquired by Bending Spoons, an Italian app developer, for $233 million. Brightcove had 600 employees worldwide, with 300 in the U.S., as of December 2023.

    Acxiom

    Has reportedly laid off 130 employees, or 3.5% of its total workforce of 3,700 people. Acxiom is owned by IPG, and the news comes just a day after IPG and Omnicom Group shareholders approved the companies’ potential merger.

    Sequoia Capital

    Plans to close its office in Washington, D.C., and let go of its policy team there by the end of March, TechCrunch has confirmed. Sequoia opened its Washington office five years ago to deepen its relationship with policymakers. Three full-time employees are expected to be affected, per Forbes.

    Siemens

    Announced plans to let go of approximately 5,600 jobs globally in its automation and electric-vehicle charging businesses as part of efforts to improve competitiveness.

    HelloFresh

    Is reportedly laying off 273 employees, closing its distribution center in Grand Prairie, Texas, and consolidating to another site in Irving to manage the volume in the region.

    Otorio

    Has cut 45 employees, more than half of its workforce, after being acquired by cybersecurity company Armis for $120 million in March.

    ActiveFence

    Will reportedly reduce 22 employees, representing 7% of its workforce. Most of those affected are based in Israel as the company undergoes a streamlining process. The New York- and Tel Aviv-headquartered cybersecurity firm has raised $100 million at a valuation of about $500 million in 2021.

    D-ID

    Will cut 22 jobs, affecting nearly a quarter of its total workforce, following the announcement of the AI startup’s strategic partnership with Microsoft.

    NASA

    Announced it will be shutting down several of its offices in accordance with Elon Musk’s DOGE, including its Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy and the DEI branch in the Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity.

    Zonar Systems

    Has reportedly laid off some staff, according to LinkedIn posts from ex-employees. The company has not confirmed the layoffs, and it is currently unknown how many workers were affected.

    Wayfair

    Announced plans to let go of 340 employees in its technology division as part of a new restructuring effort.

    HPE

    Will cut 2,500 employees, or 5% of its total staff, in response to its shares sliding 19% in the first fiscal quarter.

    TikTok

    Will cut up to 300 workers in Dublin, accounting for roughly 10% of the company’s workforce in Ireland. 

    LiveRamp

    Announced it will lay off 65 employees, affecting 5% of its total workforce.

    Ola Electric

    Is reportedly set to lay off over 1,000 employees and contractors in a cost-cutting effort. It’s the second round of cuts for the company in just five months.

    Rec Room

    Reduced its total headcount by 16% as the gaming startup shifts its focus to be “scrappier” and “more efficient.”

    ANS Commerce

    Was shut down just three years after it was acquired by Flipkart. It is currently unknown how many employees were affected.

    February

    HP

    Will cut up to 2,000 jobs as part of its “Future Now” restructuring plan that hopes to save the company $300 million before the end of its fiscal year.

    GrubHub

    Announced 500 job cuts after it was sold to Wonder Group for $650 million. The number of cuts affected more than 20% of its previous workforce. 

    Autodesk

    Announced plans to lay off 1,350 employees, affecting 9% of its total workforce, in an attempt to reshape its GTM model. The company is also making reductions in its facilities, though it does not plan to close any offices.

    Google

    Is planning to cut employees in its People Operations and cloud organizations teams in a new reorganization effort. The company is offering a voluntary exit program to U.S.-based People Operations employees.

    Nautilus

    Reduced its headcount by 25 employees, accounting for 16% of its total workforce. The company is planning to release a commercial version of its proteome analysis platform in 2026.

    eBay

    Will reportedly cut a few dozen employees in Israel, potentially affecting 10% of its 250-person workforce in the country.

    Starbucks

    Cut 1,100 jobs in a reorganizing effort that affected its tech workers. The coffee chain will now outsource some tech work to third-party employees.

    Commercetools

    Laid off dozens of employees over the last few weeks, including around 10% of staff in one day, after failing to meet its sales growth targets. The “headless commerce” platform raised money at a $1.9 billion valuation just a few years ago.

    Dayforce

    Will cut roughly 5% of its current workforce in a new efficiency drive to increase profitability and growth.

    Expedia

    Laid off more employees in a new effort to cut costs, though the total number is unknown. Last year, the travel giant cut about 1,500 roles in its Product & Technology division.

    Skybox Security

    Has ceased operations and has laid off its employees after selling its business and technology to Israeli cybersecurity company Tufin. The cuts affect roughly 300 people. 

    HerMD

    Is shutting down its operations after shifting from a brick-and-mortar model to a fully virtual women’s healthcare provider. The startup, which raised $18 million in 2023, has not disclosed how many employees are affected, saying recent layoffs were tied to its former in-person business.

    Zendesk

    Cut 51 jobs in its San Francisco headquarters, according to state filings with the Employment Development Department. The SaaS startup previously reduced its headcount by 8% in 2023.

    Vendease

    Has cut 120 employees, affecting 44% of its total staff. It’s the Y Combinator-backed Nigerian startup’s second layoff round in just five months.

    Logically

    Reportedly laid off dozens of employees as part of a new cost-cutting effort that aims to ensure “long-term success” in the startup’s mission to curb misinformation online.

    Blue Origin

    Will lay off about 10% of its workforce, affecting more than 1,000 employees. According to an email to staff obtained by CNN, the cuts will largely have an impact on positions in engineering and program management. 

    Redfin

    Announced in an SEC filing that it will cut around 450 positions between February and July 2025, with a complete restructuring set to be completed in the fall, following its new partnership with Zillow.

    Sophos

    Is laying off 6% of its total workforce, the cybersecurity firm confirmed to TechCrunch. The cuts come less than two weeks after Sophos acquired Secureworks for $859 million.

    Zepz

    Will cut nearly 200 employees as it introduces redundancy measures and closes down its operations in Poland and Kenya.

    Unity

    Reportedly conducted another round of layoffs. It’s unknown how many employees were affected.

    JustWorks

    Cut nearly 200 employees, CEO Mike Seckler announced in a note to employees, citing “potential adverse events” like a recession or rising interest rates.

    Bird

    Cut 120 jobs, affecting roughly one-third of its total workforce, TechCrunch exclusively learned. The move comes just a year after the Dutch startup cut 90 employees following its rebrand.

    Sprinklr

    Laid off about 500 employees, affecting 15% of its workforce, citing poor business performance. The new cuts follow two earlier layoff rounds for the company that affected roughly 200 employees.

    Sonos

    Reportedly let go of approximately 200 employees, according to The Verge. The company previously cut 100 employees as part of a layoff round in August 2024. 

    Workday

    Laid off 1,750 employees, as originally reported by Bloomberg and confirmed independently by TechCrunch. The cuts affect roughly 8.5% of the enterprise HR platform’s total headcount.

    Okta

    Laid off 180 employees, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. The cuts come just over one year after the access and identity management giant let go of 400 workers.

    Cruise

    Is laying off 50% of its workforce, including CEO Marc Whitten and several other top executives, as it prepares to shut down operations. What remains of the autonomous vehicle company will move under General Motors.

    Salesforce

    Is reportedly eliminating more than 1,000 jobs. The cuts come as the giant is actively recruiting and hiring workers to sell new AI products.

    January

    Cushion

    Has shut down operations, CEO Paul Kesserwani announced on LinkedIn. The fintech startup’s post-money valuation in 2022 was $82.4 million, according to PitchBook.

    Placer.ai

    Laid off 150 employees based in the U.S., affecting roughly 18% of its total workforce, in an effort to reach profitability.

    Amazon

    Laid off dozens of workers in its communications department in order to help the company “move faster, increase ownership, strengthen our culture, and bring teams closer to customers.”

    Stripe

    Is laying off 300 people, according to a leaked memo reported by Business Insider. However, according to the memo, the fintech giant is planning to grow its total headcount by 17%. 

    Textio

    Laid off 15 employees as the augmented writing startup undergoes a restructuring effort.

    Pocket FM

    Is cutting 75 employees in an effort to “ensure the long-term sustainability and success” of the company. The audio company last cut 200 writers in July 2024 months after partnering with ElevenLabs.

    Aurora Solar

    Is planning to cut 58 employees in response to an “ongoing macroeconomic challenges and continued uncertainty in the solar industry.”

    Meta

    Announced in an internal memo that it will cut 5% of its staff targeting “low performers” as the company prepares for “an intense year.” As of its latest quarterly report, Meta currently has more than 72,000 employees.

    Wayfair

    Will cut up to 730 jobs, affecting 3% of its total workforce, as it plans to exit operations in Germany and focus on physical retailers.

    Pandion

    Is shutting down its operations, affecting 63 employees. The delivery startup said employees will be paid through January 15 without severance.

    Icon

    Is laying off 114 employees as part of a team realignment, per a new WARN notice filing, focusing its efforts on a robotic printing system.

    Altruist

    Eliminated 37 jobs, affecting roughly 10% of its total workforce, even as the company pursues “aggressive” hiring.

    Aqua Security

    Is cutting dozens of employees across its global markets as part of a strategic reorganization to increase profitability.

    SolarEdge Technologies

    Plans to lay off 400 employees globally. It’s the company’s fourth layoff round since January 2024 as the solar industry as a whole faces a downturn.

    Level

    The fintech startup, founded in 2018, abruptly shut down earlier this year. Per an email from CEO Paul Aaron, the closure follows an unsuccessful attempt to find a buyer, though Employer.com has a new offer under consideration to acquire the company post-shutdown.

    This list updates regularly.

    On April 24, 2025, we corrected the number of layoffs that happened in March.

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    Cody Corrall, Alyssa Stringer, Kate Park

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  • Target will lay off around 1,000 employees

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    New York (CNN) — Target will lay off 1,000 corporate employees and close 800 open roles — affecting roughly 8% of its global corporate workforce — the company said Thursday.

    The layoffs and changes “set the course for our company to be stronger, faster and better positioned” for the future, incoming Target CEO Michael Fiddelke said in an email to employees.

    Fiddelke will take over from veteran CEO Brian Cornell next year, the company announced in August.

    The layoffs, which come ahead of the critical holiday shopping season, are the latest sign of struggles at the Minneapolis-based company. It has been been reeling from slumping sales and fierce blowback to its retreat on DEI programs.

    Its decision to end some of those initiatives angered supporters of diversity and inclusion policies, who felt blindsided. Target had staked out a reputation as a strong corporate supporter of DEI.

    Target said its move weighed on sales, which have fallen for three straight quarters.

    Economic conditions and competition from Walmart, Amazon and Costco have also taken a toll on Target.

    Customers have shifted their buying patterns, purchasing less of the company’s home goods and clothing.

    The company’s (TGT) stock has dropped 30% in 2025, putting it among the worst-performing companies in the S&P 500 this year.

    A Target spokesperson said the company did not lay off employees to cut costs. Instead, it was a step to rewire its organization to make decisions more swiftly.

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    Nathaniel Meyersohn and CNN

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  • South Bay tech company, East Bay oil titan prep fresh job cutbacks

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    South Bay tech company Bill.com and East Bay energy giant Chevron have revealed plans for new rounds of job cuts that are poised to displace well over 100 workers in the Bay Area, filings with the state government show.

    The layoffs are a reminder that job cuts in the tech industry have yet to run their course, as a wide range of tech companies continue to reveal their plans to trim staffing levels in the region.

    Bill.com logo on the tech company’s office building at 6220 America Center Drive in north San Jose. (Google Maps)

    Chevron, which has moved its headquarters from San Ramon to Houston in another example of the corporate exodus from California to Texas, revealed prior layoffs that erased 600 jobs in the Bay Area.

    According to WARN notices the companies sent to the state Employment Development Department, the layoffs include:

    — Bill is cutting 84 jobs in North San Jose at the company’s headquarters complex. These layoffs are expected to take effect on Dec. 15, the WARN letter to the EDD shows.

    — Chevron is eliminating 100 jobs in San Ramon, an East Bay city where the energy giant had once based its headquarters, according to the WARN letter. These most recent cutbacks are due to occur on Oct. 23. Chevron is also cutting 75 jobs in the Kern County city of Bakersfield.

    Bill and Chevron both stated that the layoffs would be permanent.

    “We are providing severance pay, medical continuation coverage, access to education and training resources, and outplacement assistance,” Henry Perea, Chevron’s manager of state government affairs, wrote in the WARN letter to the EDD.

     

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    George Avalos

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  • Paramount Skydance to Cut 2,000 US Jobs Starting Week of October 27

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    Paramount Skydance will begin mass layoffs the week of October 27, eliminating around 2,000 U.S. jobs as part of a $2 billion cost-cutting plan under new CEO David Ellison, Variety reported on Saturday.

    The layoffs follow the $8.4 billion merger between Skydance Media and Paramount Global, which closed in August.

    Additional international job cuts are expected, with the company aiming to disclose full details in its third quarter earnings report on November 10, the report added.

    Variety had reported on August 22 that Paramount was looking to cut between 2,000 and 3,000 jobs by early November.

    As of December 2024, Paramount had nearly 18,600 full- and part-time employees, and 3,500 project-based staff.

    Paramount Skydance did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

    Reporting by Rajveer Singh Pardesi in Bengaluru; Editing by Jan Harvey and Marguerita Choy

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    Kayla Webster

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  • Colorado-based Newmont Corp. announces third round of layoffs at headquarters

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    In a third round of layoffs, Newmont Corp. plans to let go 65 employees at its headquarters in Denver, bringing to 107 the number of recently announced staff reductions.

    Newmont, the world’s largest mining company, notified state and Denver officials Wednesday that the layoffs are expected to occur around Dec. 14. The announcement follows one in August that 19 employees would be laid off and one Oct. 1 that 23 positions, primarily in its headquarters, would be terminated on or around Nov. 30.

    Many of the targeted positions are management jobs. Newmont said in its notice that the reductions don’t “constitute a shutdown or closure of all operations at the company’s Denver headquarters.”

    Newmont said the employees will be offered severance.

    The latest notice of layoffs is part of a process the company has been working through, according to a statement from Newmont on Friday. Newmont won’t have a total number of affected employees until the process is finished, the company said.

    Newmont has said the layoffs are part of a plan announced in February that includes both labor and non-labor reductions. The company said in August that it is taking several steps “to reduce our cost base and improve productivity” to deliver on commitments to shareholders and partners.

    The cuts come as gold prices have hit record heights, rising above $4,000 an ounce for the first time. The price was about $4,265 per ounce Friday, down slightly from recent highs of above $4,300 per ounce.

    The New York Times reported that gold has jumped more than 50% in value this year.

    Newmont’s cost-cutting follows its $19.5 billion acquisition of Australian-based Newcrest Mining Ltd. in late 2023. Newmont completed its sale of the Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mine in March. SSR Mining Inc. paid Newmont $100 million in cash and agreed to up to $175 million in additional payments for the Colorado mine.

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    Judith Kohler

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  • Judge Blocks Federal Shutdown Layoffs – KXL

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    The Trump administration plans to cut over 10-thousand federal jobs during the government shutdown, a federal judge is delaying that move. MGN image.

    SAN FRANCISCO, CA – A federal judge in San Francisco is blocking the Trump administration from laying off federal workers during the shutdown. Unions asked the federal court to block the move, calling the firings illegal.

    Susan Illston, a President Clinton-appointed judge, called the layoffs “politically motivated,” but her decision is expected to be appealed by the administration.

    The Supreme Court overruled Illston in July, when she temporarily halted President Trump’s DOGE cuts.

    More about:

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    Tim Lantz

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  • What to do when you get laid off – MoneySense

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    Statutory vs. common-law severance

    In every province and territory, there are statutory minimum payments that you are entitled to receive as an employee whose employment is terminated. This is called termination pay. This generally applies after three months of continuous employment and is meant to provide a safety net after you are let go without cause. Termination pay is generally a certain number of weeks of salary per year of service up to a maximum. 

    Beyond this minimum payment, employers may also offer severance pay. This compensation is beyond the statutory minimum and based on common-law entitlements—basically, what you might get if you went to court. Both employees and employers prefer non-litigious solutions to a termination, and so may agree on a payment that is somewhere in between the statutory minimum termination pay and the common-law severance amount. 

    Severance pay is not a specific formula, because the potential entitlement can be based on things like someone’s length of service, the type of position they hold, their age, and other factors.

    When an employer offers a severance package, the employee is not obligated to take it. They can seek advice from an employment lawyer to understand the offer and whether they should be asking for any variations.

    Should you take a lump sum or salary continuance?

    Some employers offer a lump-sum severance payment that is payable all at once, while others offer salary continuance where payroll deposits continue for the duration of the severance. 

    If you have the option to receive a lump sum, you may be eligible to defer some or all of it to a subsequent calendar year. This may be advantageous, especially if it is late in the year, to avoid having a large payment taxed at a high tax rate. Due to Canada’s progressive tax system, you may pay less tax to have the payment deferred and taxed in a subsequent year than added to your current year’s income.

    If you have registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) room, you might choose to direct some or all of the payment to your RRSP. In this case, it will be deposited pre-tax, so that the gross amount goes directly into your RRSP. That means you will not get a large tax refund when you file your tax return, as you would were you employed the whole time. It is as if you received the tax refund up-front since no tax was withheld from the income deposited to the RRSP in the first place.

    Compare the best RRSP rates in Canada

    New EI rules can help

    When an employee is terminated, they are generally eligible to collect Employment Insurance (EI) benefits. The federal government introduced a temporary change to EI for new claims in March 2025 in response to the U.S. government’s tariffs on several foreign countries, including Canada. The temporary measure was meant to end on October 11, 2025, but has been extended to April 11, 2026. 

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    There is typically a one-week waiting period after salary continuance ends. For lump-sum separation earnings like severance pay, vacation pay, or sick-leave credits, there is normally a further delay to apply. But under the temporary EI measures, a terminated employee can apply for EI benefits immediately.

    Regular EI benefits are generally capped at 45 weeks, but under the temporary measures, a recipient may be entitled to an additional 20 weeks if they are a long-tenured worker. To be considered a long-tenured worker, the applicants must have met two conditions:

    • Received fewer than 36 weeks of regular or fishing benefits in the three years before the start of a claim
    • Paid at least 30% of the annual maximum EI premiums for at least seven of the 10 years before the year that a claim starts (the EI maximum for 2025 is $695 per week)

    Are you still entitled to benefits?

    If you had benefits like life, disability, or medical insurance, a termination will generally end this coverage. Life insurance is often extended based on the number of weeks of salary you are paid out. Disability insurance generally ends on your last day of work. 

    Some group life insurance policies allow you to convert your coverage to a personal policy. This may be advisable if your health is poor, as you may be able to maintain it without having to provide health information to the insurer. 

    You can purchase your own life insurance policy from an insurer, and this may be preferable if your health is good. Disability insurance is more complicated to replace, because if you are not working, you do not have an income to replace. 

    Although the loss of medical coverage may be worrisome, it may not be necessary to replace it. Health insurance is not meant to create a windfall where you receive more back from the insurance company than you pay in premiums. To the contrary, the insurer makes a profit when the average policyholder pays more in premiums than they receive back in reimbursements. As a result, rushing to replace coverage may not be advantageous compared to just paying for health-care costs out of pocket when your coverage ends. 

    Dealing with pensions and group RRSPs

    If you have a defined benefit (DB) pension, you may have the option to take a lump-sum payout, some or all of which may be eligible to transfer on a tax-deferred basis to a locked-in retirement account (LIRA). When you forgo your future monthly pension, you need to invest the proceeds to produce a retirement income. Not all pensions allow you to take a commuted value transfer, however, and some limit the option based on your age (e.g., only under age 55). 

    When interest rates are lower, the lump sums paid out are higher; when interest rates are higher, the payouts are lower. Those best suited to consider a lump sum are investors with a high risk tolerance or a short life expectancy. 

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    Jason Heath, CFP

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  • Amazon is planning a new wave of layoffs, sources say | Fortune

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    Amazon is preparing to cut as much as 15% of its human resources staff, with additional layoffs likely in other divisions, according to multiple sources familiar with the plans. 

    Two sources told Fortune that Amazon’s human resources division—known internally as PXT or the People eXperience Technology team—will be hard hit, but that other areas of Amazon’s core consumer business are also likely to be affected. It couldn’t be learned how many employees in total Amazon plans to let go, nor the exact timing of the cuts.

    The company laid off relatively small numbers of employees earlier this year in areas such as its consumer devices unit, its Wondery podcast division, and in Amazon Web Services.

    Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel declined to comment.

    Amazon’s PXT division, which reports to senior vice president Beth Galetti, has more than 10,000 employees worldwide, and includes a large recruiting team, plus technology staff and other traditional HR roles.

    The new cuts come as Amazon continues to look for ways to lower employee costs while investing aggressively in AI products and infrastructure – both for internal use and to sell to enterprise customers. The company has said it intends to spend upwards of $100 billion in capital expenditures this year, as it builds out its cloud and AI datacenters.

    Amazon CEO Andy Jassy already oversaw the largest layoffs in company history from late 2022 into 2023, when the company cut at least 27,000 corporate jobs, which accounted for a high single digit percentage of the company’s office jobs. Many other Big Tech companies also slashed their headcounts around that time as the pandemic receded and consumer demand trends changed.

    Now, many employers are looking to harness the power of AI—initially for mundane and repetitive tasks and eventually for more complicated jobs—to reduce the need to maintain the same level of human staffers on their payrolls.

    Jassy himself is one of them. The CEO fired a bit of a warning shot to his own employees in June, when he encouraged them to welcome this new AI-powered era.

    “Those who embrace this change, become conversant in AI, help us build and improve our AI capabilities internally and deliver for customers, will be well-positioned to have high impact and help us reinvent the company,” he wrote in a companywide email that was also published on Amazon’s corporate blog.

    At the same time, Jassy also made a point to note that there won’t be room on the bus for everyone: “We expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company.”

    Jassy, who succeeded Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in the CEO job in 2021, has earned a reputation as a cost-cutter (though to be fair, he inherited a company that many say had become wasteful and bloated in some areas). Amazon executives regularly require managers to hit a certain percentage goal for unregretted attrition, or URA – essentially a percentage of employees that the company would be OK losing, whether through voluntary departures, being “managed out,” or through formal layoffs. But sources told Fortune that these cuts are being discussed differently internally than the typical URA process.

    While Amazon plans these layoffs of corporate roles, the company announced its typical holiday hiring spree of warehouse staff on Tuesday. This year, the company will hire 250,000 seasonal employees across its US warehouse and logistics networks.

    Amazon’s stock price is down about a little more than 1% this calendar year, but 15% higher than it was 12 months earlier. The company will report earnings later this month.

    Are you a current or former Amazon employee with thoughts on this topic or a tip to share? Contact Jason Del Rey at jason.delrey@fortune.com, jasondelrey@protonmail.com, or through messaging apps Signal and WhatsApp at 917-655-4267. You can also contact him on LinkedIn or at @delrey on X, @jdelrey on Threads, and on Bluesky.

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    Jason Del Rey

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  • JPL Hit With Another 550 Layoffs as NASA’s Budget Crisis Deepens

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    Roughly 550 employees at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory are losing their jobs today in the fourth round of layoffs since the beginning of last year. This latest cut adds to mounting uncertainty around the future of the federally funded research center and the missions it’s involved in.

    In an update on Monday, JPL director Dave Gallagher announced that the California-based lab will undergo a staff reduction affecting approximately 11% of its workforce across technical, business, and support areas. The reduction is part of a reorganization that began in July and is not related to the current government shutdown, according to the update.

    “I recognize this is a tremendous amount of change in a short period of time and will be challenging for our entire community in the coming weeks,” Gallagher wrote in an internal memo to JPL employees, according to NASA Watch.

    “While not easy, I believe taking these actions now will help the Lab transform at the scale and pace necessary to help achieve humanity’s boldest ambitions in space,” he said.

    Seemingly endless blows to JPL’s workforce

    With the addition of this most recent staff reduction, JPL has laid off more than 1,500 staffers and contractors in four rounds of cuts since January 2024. The first round saw 100 contractors sacked, followed by 530 staffers and another 40 contractors in February 2024. In November of that year, 325 more employees were let go.

    Laurie Leshin, director of the lab during the 2024 layoffs, cited budget constraints and uncertainties surrounding the JPL-spearheaded Mars Sample Return mission as the reason for the cuts. In May 2025—just days after President Donald Trump released his “skinny” budget request for fiscal year 2026—she resigned due to “personal reasons” and was replaced by Gallagher.

    That budget request sought to reduce NASA’s overall budget by nearly $6 billion compared to 2025, putting some of the agency’s most ambitious missions on the chopping block. Now, the fate of those missions hangs in the balance as we enter the third week of a government shutdown due to a budget dispute.

    NASA at odds with its own mission

    Two days before the shutdown, the Democratic staff of the Senate Commerce Committee released a report alleging that the White House budget office has been pushing NASA to carry out the “devastating” cuts outlined in the 2026 budget proposal for months, citing evidence gleaned from whistleblower documents and interviews.

    Again, JPL said this latest staff cut is part of a reorganization process that’s unrelated to the government shutdown. That said, it’s unfolding amid perceived political pressure to downsize NASA regardless of whether Trump’s budget request for the agency is ultimately approved.

    “I have spoken with multiple people who have been told point-blank that is what is happening,” Keith Cowing, an astrobiologist and former NASA employee who now serves as editor of NASA Watch, told Gizmodo. “[NASA] had an internal verbal order saying this is the budget you work to, and if there’s a shutdown, that’s where we go,” Cowing said.

    The Trump administration’s effort to gut NASA’s workforce undermines its goal of beating China back to the Moon and maintaining U.S. leadership in space. Even if NASA is spared from major budget cuts and key mission cancellations, the loss of thousands of engineers and scientists will inevitably hamper its ability to meet such ambitious objectives.

    “If you really want NASA to be that leader—not just to win, but also to show why we won—you would be doing the exact opposite of what you’re doing at NASA right now,” Cowing said.

    JPL’s press office declined to comment and instead referred Gizmodo to the workforce update made Monday.

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    Ellyn Lapointe

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  • This Report Says AI Stole 17,000 Jobs This Year. The DOGE Effect Is Much Worse 

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    AI evangelists continue to insist that AI is improving workers’ efficiency and thus business productivity, freeing up staff from mundane duties to do more meaningful work. Not as many boosters are cheering the fact that it’s just as easy for companies that have gone all in on the new technology to cut labor costs by replacing people’s jobs. According to a new report thousands of jobs have already gone from the job market this year as AI has assumed those duties instead, and fully 7,000 of the losses happened in September alone. All of this may feed into your thinking about rolling out AI at your own company.

    The data, from Chicago-based executive outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, attributes 17,375 job losses to adoption of AI tech since the start of 2025. Most of these cuts were made public in the second half of the year, industry news site HRDive reports.

    The numbers are dramatic, especially since a similar report from Challenger in July said that among some 20,000 jobs lost to “automation” in the first half of the year, only 75 were directly connected to AI. Andy Challenger, senior vice president at the firm, told CFODive at the time that the suspicion was that many more jobs were actually lost to AI. “We do see companies using the term ‘technological update’ more often than we have over the past decade, so our suspicion is that some of the AI job cuts that are likely happening are falling into that category,” Challenger said then, also noting that some firms were being careful because they “don’t want press on it.” 

    In the new report, Challenger noted that it’s mainly tech firms that are “undergoing incredible disruption,” because of AI. Challenger also backed up many earlier reports by noting that the buzzy, controversial tech is “not only costing jobs, but also making it difficult to land positions, particularly for entry-level engineers.” 

    HRDive notes that it’s losses at Salesforce that may be linked to those massive AI-related job cuts in recent months, with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff noting in August that customer service staff numbers were slashed by about 4,000 after AI agents took on some customer handling duties. The interesting wrinkle here is that Salesforce is one of the big tech names that is pivoting aggressively and openly to adopting AI tech, and is even selling it to its customers with the promise that agent-based AIs can save them money. Benioff in early 2025 also said “my message to CEOs right now is that we are the last generation to manage only humans.” In his vision for future company leadership, managers will be steering both AIs and humans through their day to day operations. 

    While 17,000 jobs lost to AI sounds like a lot, it’s dwarfed by other causes, the Challenger report shows. DOGE-related actions is the “leading reason for job cut announcements in 2025,” the report notes, with 293,753 planned layoffs connected to DOGE activities, including reductions to federal workforce numbers and the cutting of contractor deals. Nearly 21,000 more jobs have been lost as part of what Challenger’s report says is “DOGE Downstream Impact,” where funding cuts have hit nonprofits that depend on federal grants. Traditional market and general economic concerns drove another 208,227 cuts in 2025, the report also notes. This means DOGE and the typical workings of the economy are responsible for around 30 times as many job losses than AI.

    But it would be unreasonable to assume AI’s body count won’t rise, considering Big Tech’s push to get AI into the workplace, while developing increasingly capable AI tools that can handle human jobs. And while Challenger notes that tech-centric firms are bearing the brunt of AI-related job cuts right now, it would be sensible to guess that other industries will soon follow.

    What’s the takeaway for your company?

    Primarily that it may be a good idea to reassure your staff that if you’re rolling out AI tools to streamline operations, you’re not actually planning on downsizing your workforce. ”AI won’t be stealing anyone’s job here” is a strong message that will build your team’s trust, assuming that this is actually the case. 

    Another side effect may be a glut of workers in the job marketplace. Since many job seekers are using AI tools to boost their hunt for new employment, you may actually see many more applicants than before for open positions at your company, and your HR team may be quickly overburdened.

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    Kit Eaton

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