#layoffs

#layoffs

Amazon is preparing to cut thousands more jobs as part of a sweeping overhaul driven by artificial intelligence and internal restructuring, according to reports. The world's largest retailer is expected to announce a second round of layoffs as soon as next week, following the removal of 14,000 white-collar roles in October. The latest cuts are expected to be of a similar scale, taking Amazon closer to its longer-term goal of shedding around 30,000 positions.

SAN JOSE Western Digital Technologies eliminated just under 100 jobs in the Bay Area, according to a WARN notice the tech firm filed with the state Employment Development Department. The data storage company cut 87 jobs at its head offices at 5601 Great Oaks Parkway in South San Jose, according to the notice. The layoffs took place on Jan. 20, the WARN letter revealed.

Last year, U.S. employers explicitly blamed AI for 55,000 of the 1.17 million job cuts, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That's fewer than 5% of layoffs. AI is not yet the bête noire nor the magic elixir that people have made it out to be. (Forgive the mixed metaphors there; proof of a human at the helm.) In August, MIT released a study that found 95% of generative AI pilots fail to generate meaningful return.

"You know, having those conversations early on, reaching out to people in different departments ...that was really hard when I didn't have much confidence.” A VP of Design brought this up recently, reflecting what many designers are facing. There's been a crisis of confidence in design, and it's happening all across the career ladder. Due to shrinking budgets and layoffs, more designers are being forced to work solo.

I didn't know who knew and who didn't, and I didn't know that everyone who wasn't under NDA wasn't going to be retained. But it did seem suspicious, because I was like, I know not everyone knows about the sale. I don't know why some people are being told ahead of time. This seems fishy to me, and it was a fishy, weird time period.

2026 is just getting started, and layoffs are already underway. Companies, including Angi, the company formerly known as Angie's List, and the popular web tool Tailwind, have cut staff, citing the impact of artificial intelligence among the reasons for the layoffs. More than 100 other companies, from Amazon to Nike to Verizon, have filed legally mandated WARN notices about job cuts to come in 2026, according to WARN Tracker.

Tailwind, like many startups, has a small head count. In a podcast posted on X, Wathan said that the company had four engineers on staff. Now, there's one. Wathan's post highlights the challenges that startups, which already face tough odds of success, can encounter as AI models grow more capable. The CEO founded the web developer tool in 2017. Tailwind's model is free and open-source, with a paid "pro" tier driving the company's revenue.

Farrell joined TikTok nearly six years ago, starting on the company's Latin America marketing team before shifting to its operations division and later taking over as global creator lead in late 2023. In December, she helped organize TikTok's first awards show for creators at the Hollywood Palladium theater in Los Angeles. Prior to TikTok, Farrell worked in marketing at Booking.com and Google.

Everybody knows this coworker-the one who spirals about cost-cutting layoffs when snacks vanish from the break room. The one who thinks they're getting fired because their boss hasn't been using emojis with them lately. The one who's the office Chicken Little: anxious, somewhat frantic, often misguided . . . and who can't stop talking to others about whatever it is they're anxious about.

The Canadian Kitchen Cabinet Association says while it welcomes U.S. President Donald Trump's postponement of tariff increases on furniture, cabinets and vanities, the industry is still being devastated by the duties. Trump hit the sector with 25 per cent tariffs in October but paused a promised increase to a total of 30 per cent for upholstered furniture and to 50 per cent for cabinets and vanities that was set to take effect Jan. 1.

Recently news outlets reported that layoff announcements have reached pandemic levels, which is highly concerning, but certainly not unforeseen. At the beginning of 2025, the World Economic Forum reported that 41% of organizations were planning to trim their workforces in the face of rapidly advancing AI. In the second half of the year, six in 10 business leaders were planning headcount reductions.

Federal data belatedly released Tuesday shows that the US unemployment rate rose to the highest level in four years last month as President Donald Trump's administration continues its assault on the government's workforce and American corporations lay off workers at a level not seen in decades.

Senior partners at the global management consulting firm, which has been steadily cutting its worldwide workforce over the past few years, are understood to have held initial talks with the heads of non-client-facing departments about shrinking their teams by as much as 10 per cent. A McKinsey spokesman would not confirm how many roles were at risk, but Bloomberg, which first reported the plans, estimated that there could be "a few thousand" layoffs staggered over the next 18 to 24 months.

Lidar company Luminar has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after months of layoffs, executive departures, and a legal fight with its largest customer, Volvo. The company aims to sell off its lidar business during the bankruptcy proceeding, and has already reached a deal to sell its semiconductor subsidiary. While the company will continue to operate during the bankruptcy process to "minimize disruptions" for its suppliers and customers, Luminar will eventually cease to exist once it's completed.