#layoffs

Does anyone have any insights on the COO leaving? Is she training Accenture to do her job too? I never thought they'd let her slip away given hiring goals.

Story by Justin Lahart

Corporate America has ended its firing freeze.

Companies scrambled for years after the pandemic to build back their workforces, learning a simple lesson along the way: Keep the workers you’ve got, because if you lose them you will have a hard time getting them back.

The job market has softened in recent months, however, marking a safer environment for companies to start streamlining their workforces. A host of them have pounced, including Amazon.com, UPS, Target and Meta Platforms, which have announced tens of thousands of layoffs in recent weeks.

It is a shift that could have major repercussions for U.S. workers. Over the past two years, U.S. businesses have become increasingly reluctant to bring new employees on, especially as more recent uncertainty over the direction of tariffs made it harder to plan ahead. But they have also been hesitant to cut the employees they already have, an example of what economists term “labor hoarding.”

The result has been a low-hire, low-fire environment, in which recent graduates and others trying to break into the job market have struggled, but workers who are already employed have been largely insulated.

Now things are looking a bit more like the 1990s, when many big companies were focused on eliminating workers they felt were no longer needed, according to Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM.

Back then, “we used to reward companies for letting people go,” he said

A number of things could be at play in companies’ increasing comfort with layoffs, including optimism over artificial intelligence, but they all come down to the bottom line. Labor is a major cost, and cutting it is one way to bolster profit margins. Tariffs could be adding to the urgency, especially for companies weighing whether and how to pass through the higher costs they are paying for goods on to consumers.

Some companies also added to their payrolls as they moved to keep up with the surge in demand that came in the pandemic’s wake, and may now feel that they are bloated. Amazon had about 800,000 employees at the end of 2019, and about 1.5 million at the end of last year.

In a memo to staff last week explaining Target’s plan to cut 1,800 corporate roles, incoming chief executive Michael Fiddelke said, “Too many layers and overlapping work have slowed decisions, making it harder to bring ideas to life.”

It probably helps, too, that investors have appeared to welcome job cuts. Target’s stock edged up on the day it announced layoffs. When Amazon on Tuesday said it was laying off 14,000 workers, with more to come, its stock rose 1%. When UPS disclosed it had cut 48,000 management and operations positions when it reported earnings on Tuesday, Wall Street’s focus was on its strong results, and its stock rallied 8%.

Nor are companies any more in an environment where hiring back workers would be anything like the struggle it was after the economy began to reopen from the Covid crisis. Then, workers could largely pick and choose between competing offers.

The unemployment rate, which fell to a multidecade low of 3.4% in April 2023, was 4.3% as of August. Many Americans are operating under the assumption that the jobs picture will get worse: 64% of consumers polled by the University of Michigan this month said they expected higher unemployment over the next 12 months, compared with 32% in October 2024.

One risk for the broader economy: In an environment where employment growth is already low, any increase in layoffs could lead the economy to start shedding jobs. In August—the last month of available data before the government shutdown delayed Labor Department economic releases—the U.S. added just 22,000 jobs.

Whether the recent run of layoff announcements augurs a downturn in the job market isn’t clear, said Jed Kolko, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. While those layoff numbers are eye-catching, they don’t necessarily reflect what is going on in a labor force of over 170 million people, he said.

“You need the whole picture, and that whole picture comes from data that are not being released during the shutdown,” Kolko said.

For companies, enthusiasm over the possibility to automate more work with AI is also playing a role. The Federal Reserve’s latest beige book, which compiles economic anecdotes from the 12 regional Fed banks, reported that more employers were reducing head counts through layoffs and attrition “with contacts citing weaker demand, elevated economic uncertainty, and, in some cases, increased investment in artificial intelligence technologies.”

While there is evidence that AI is cutting into demand for certain jobs, such as software development, the degree to which it is more broadly automating away jobs is difficult to tease out, points out Kolko.

But even if they haven’t been able to widely implement AI yet, a belief that they someday will could increase some employers’ comfort with abandoning labor hoarding. Companies including Walmart, Ford, JPMorgan Chase and Amazon have said that they expect AI will allow them to eliminate jobs.

“Labor hoarding was especially pronounced in higher-wage jobs, where employees are harder to find and therefore more costly to lose,” he said. “Those tended to be tech industries and other professional industries, and those overlap with some of the industries that could be most affected by AI.”

Write to Justin Lahart at Justin.Lahart@wsj.com

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/why-companies-are-no-longer-hanging-on-to-employees/ar-AA1PDQy6?ocid=msedgntp&pc=W230&cvid=9d7c22f078db4c4cad85cabf269b82b1&ei=11

If you are impacted by layoffs this week, remember it has little to do with your own performance. If you are retiring now, best of luck in your next chapter. If you are starting a search for a new role, wishing you the best of luck. Invest time in your search and resume building. Use your network. Be strong and resilient. This too shall pass. And you will be stronger!

Someone commented on another board that they are expecting notable layoffs in Abbvie Patient Services. Anyone heard anything?

What a coincidence. Check the career pages, it says that due to an upgrade the open jobs can’t be shown. Until Nov 13. When earnings will be published. Big LR and hiring freeze incoming

Any news?

Does anyone know what changes we can expect come January? PTO, insurance, 401k match? When the remaining 1000 layoffs will happen?

https://www.thelayoff.com/wells-fargo-and

I’d bet my paycheck on it.

No layoffs needed. People are just walking away at a steady pace (which gives me some hope, since it shows the job market is not as terrible as I feared). We even recently backfilled two positions, that's how rough it's gotten (and you know the feeling too, because sometimes it seems like we have a hiring freeze given how often we ask for help and get ignored). Which, funnily enough, makes me feel safe. Go figure.

Layoffs hit Amazon, UPS, Target, and more — but it has little to do with AI

Even perceived winners in the AI-fueled economy, like Meta, have recently announced workforce reductions.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/layoffs-hit-amazon-ups-target-and-more--but-it-has-little-to-do-with-ai-165130022.html

It'll happen Tuesday or Wednesday, if it's going to happen at all.

No matter how long you stay or how hard you work, promotions just don’t happen. I don't know if this is just my group or a company-wide issue, but we're losing great people due to that.

So many people cut on this last round and many have been with the company for over 5 years and they are the people who built how we do things today! Rivian sent them all packing! Don't believe all the positive messages you see on LI about those impacted I hear they paid employees extra on their packages if they wrote something positive.

Sorry, I don’t belong to a union at Verizon so I don’t understand the protections that it gives you.

Are you not able to be laid off without a special package? Or are you able to be laid off but the union will do a strike if or when Verizon does?

In the last two weeks two Store Managers of high profile stores-prototype Pineville and South Park both out???? And at this time of the year??

This place is hopeless. To much politics going around. Managers are firing local employees and recruiting people in India. This is such a shame.

No agreement on Union Contract, New CEO with the mission to cut cost, go lean, blah blah..

Do we need to prepare for EWA?

Just want to get info before I change positions please.

Doesn’t matter if your numbers are solid if you’re not in a hub, you’re a line item that’s easier to justify cutting. The company wants “collaboration” and “presence,” which really means they’re shrinking the map and forcing people back into buildings they can measure.

Hybrid might be safe for now if you’re tied to a hub, but full-WFH employees and anyone sitting outside the big three cities should be watching closely. Seen it before starts as “realignment,” ends as a “streamlined org.”

Does anyone know?

Many people are expected to make lots of money on the IPO shares sale, including Pulte’s friends. Some of them are now getting the contracts and Fannie and Freddie are paying for the contracts.

Does anyone know anything about plans for RIF in HouseCalls department? It’s nerve wracking to see all these layoffs.

Knowing earnings are this week, should we be worried about a layoff coming with it? Part of me thinks it’s not going to be until the new year, but with so many other companies announcing layoffs, I’m not sure if we wait.

I have this feeling I’m not long for my current position anymore if that happens. I work under John Blanchards org and we just had a layoff in August. I think I’m being paranoid but since Srini is taking over soon… I just don’t know. The market is brutal now and I’m job hugging like a motherf----rI’m not ready to leave yet.

Has any C-Level exec ever been to the Atlanta office?

Since Tuesday Nov 11 is holiday, will layoff for that week be Monday or Wed, or no layoff until Nov 25

With the CEO coming in, will the union get a package or incentive to leave? I heard might be some movement or layoffs for some union members.

Cut cut cut cut cut cut

Asked perplexity likelihood of my position at verizon being gone. I'm in sales, and it is around 8%. If you are on the business side, you have a much higher chance of being laid off.

Also, if you work in accounting or finance, you have one of the highest chances of being let go in November.

Please!!

who can survive until year end?

Headwind ahead

Has anyone else heard that HR will be conducting their own layoffs Nov 3rd?

I work on the clinical team where a nurse practitioner is laid off with no notice. Not sure about severance, I'm sure they got it. But why are they getting no notice prior. Most other workers seem to get 30 days or 90 days notice. This is in the Midwest. It was less then 50 people for 1 location

any news of store closings next year

Have you seen the job market?

Have you talked to those who are looking for a job?

Have you talked to those who have been looking for months or even more than a year to find a job?

It is a cr-p job market right now. Even in major metro areas like Des Moines, Minneapolis, Phoenix, etc.. Intelligent, professional, experienced, hard-working people can't find squat right now. And signs from the markets don't point to a turnaround anytime soon. And heading into EOY and holiday season is generally a slow time for hiring in any type of market.

And some of you need to get over this WFH! WFH! WFH! attitude. For several reasons. Not only do many companies hot have a strong WFH position, but don't presume you will just stroll into a job that even offers WFH. Guess what? You are not the only one fighting for the job. You think you are good, but are you the best? You feel you have excellent skills but are they relevant and current to today's world? Guess what? Being an expert at Excel is not the gold star it was 10 years ago.

If you have ANY hint or thought that your position will go away, if you do not have a nice nest egg on-hand, and/or a decent number of years for a nice severance period, you best start looking now while you still have the WF paycheck. And if you are part of a couple where both work at WF, one of you better already be walking out on the blank to jump somewhere else.

This is going to be similar to what Elon did to Twitter when he bought it.

"To the long-suffering men and women in the trenches of the Verizon workforce, this may sound like a new commander's call for another big push days after the last fruitless effort. Under Hans Vestberg, Schulman's predecessor, Verizon's headcount shrank by 44,900 employees between 2018 and 2024, about 31% of the earlier total. Since 2015, the number has plummeted by 78,100. All this carnage has still not apparently produced the lean machine that Schulman, who has been the top independent director on Verizon's board since 2018, wants to see. "

https://www.lightreading.com/ai-machine-learning/verizon-ceo-wants-aggressive-cuts-after-vestberg-culled-45k-jobs

Which caused voluntary attrition. Don’t get me wrong, they did lay some employees off but not on the same scale as meta, Amazon, Microsoft, etc.

What does the future hold for T? Do you all think they will start more structured layoffs in the years to come?

Who else finds it shameful and offensive to employees that Ricoh has can spend millions on a useless Dealer meeting in Nashville (following Printing United) amid a freeze on merit increases and rolling layoffs? Who are they kidding?... Most of what was presented - except for A3 MFPs and Brother-A4's cannot even be sold by their Dealers.