Tootfinder

Etsy says it will cut ~220 employees, or ~12% of its workforce, mostly in product and engineering, and reports Q2 revenue up 6% YoY to $668.3M, vs. $649.1M est. (Annie Palmer/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/05/etsy-layoffs-q2-earnings.html

Etsy laying off 12% of staff in bid to streamline business, position for growth
Etsy announced the layoffs along with second-quarter earnings.

Sources: nearly all staff at music outlets BrooklynVegan, Alternative Press, Revolver, and Goldmine appear to have been laid off by Veeps, owned by Live Nation (Jazz Monroe/Pitchfork)
https://pitchfork.com/story/brooklynvegan-alt-press-hit-with-mass-layoffs/…

BrooklynVegan, Alt Press Hit With Mass Layoffs
Music publications Revolver and Goldmine have also been gutted by owners Veeps and Live Nation

in addition to the suckass news about brooklyn vegan (& goldmine & alt press) getting shut down by a livenation-owned company founded by members of good charlotte, i also resent now knowing the names of individual members of good charlotte. https://pitchfork.com/story/brooklynve

BrooklynVegan, Alt Press Hit With Mass Layoffs
Music publications Revolver and Goldmine have also been gutted by owners Veeps and Live Nation

Employers added 172,000 jobs last month as US job market shows resilience despite Iran war (Paul Wiseman/Associated Press)
https://apnews.com/article/employment-economy-jobs-layoffs-iran-94068a0f4e441024b05e72eb370b3a15
http://www.memeorandum.com/260605/p34#a260605p34

"The engineers spoke at a Seattle City Council meeting, where officials unanimously passed a proposal to limit new mega data center developments for one year."
Amazon engineers in Seattle slam employer for AI data amid layoffs
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/03/amazon-engineers-in-seattle-slam-employer-for-ai-data-amid-layoffs.html

'...the payment processing giant announced a massive acquisition of BioCatch, an Israeli AI fraud detection company, in a $2.4 billion cash deal. A joint news release on Monday said the company uses biometric data, like key strokes and touch gestures, to detect fraud in “real time.”'
So the plan is to use AI to see if "key strokes and touch gestures" are genuine? It strikes me that #AI

'...the payment processing giant announced a massive acquisition of BioCatch, an Israeli AI fraud detection company, in a $2.4 billion cash deal. A joint news release on Monday said the company uses biometric data, like key strokes and touch gestures, to detect fraud in “real time.”'
So the plan is to use AI to see if "key strokes and touch gestures" are genuine? It strikes me that #AI

Memo: E. W. Scripps Company is laying off 268 workers across its broadcast TV operation; sources: workers at stations in NY, NE, OK, and TX were among those cut (Matthew Keys/TheDesk.net)
https://thedesk.net/2026/08/scripps-confirms-pink-slips-affecting-…

Scripps confirms pink slips affecting nearly 270 workers
August 4, 2026 - The layoffs are part of Scripps' decision to execute on a new "phase of our transformation plan," which involves centralized news production and the use of automation tools.

Senate defense bill seeks to attract cyber talent, limit civilian layoffs
https://federalnewsnetwork.com/congress/2026/06/senate-defense-bill-seeks-to-attract-cyber-talent-limit-civilian-layoffs/

Senate defense bill seeks to attract cyber talent, limit civilian layoffs
Senate lawmakers seek to expand cyber interagency transfer authority, provide workforce protections to civilians and reward high-performing managers.

Can Companies Embrace A.I. Without Layoffs? This One Says It Is Trying to. - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/02/world/europe/germany-sap-ai-jobs-skilled-workers.html
The German software giant SAP says it is betting …

German software giant SAP says it is encouraging workers to invent new, more valuable jobs aided by AI, in a bid to avoid layoffs; SAP cut ~10K staff in 2024 (Jim Tankersley/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes…

Can Companies Embrace A.I. Without Layoffs? This One Says It Is Trying to.
The German software giant SAP says it is betting that employees can reinvent jobs instead of eliminating them. Experts are divided on whether it will work.

There have been some layoffs at #Disney / #Pixar
https://variety.com/2026/fil…

Pixar Layoffs: Animation Studio Hit Hard as Disney Axes Several Hundred Employees
Pixar Animation Studios, despite riding high on the success of summer blockbuster "Toy Story 5," was hit particularly hard in a wave of corporatewide layoffs at Disney.

Sources: Microsoft plans to announce job cuts next week affecting less than 2.5% of its 220,000-person workforce, including roles in sales, consulting, and Xbox (Ashley Stewart/Business Insider)
https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-job-cuts-layoffs-sal…

Microsoft eyes thousands of new job cuts in coming days
Microsoft is planning job cuts that are expected to affect areas such as sales, consulting, and Xbox as it ramps up AI spending.

Dozens of Meta employees have sued the social media company over claims that it used artificial intelligence tools to tag workers for mass layoffs.
The workers allege that those AI tools targeted them after they asked for protected or maternity leave or disability accommodation
https://www.…

Meta used AI to tag workers who took leave to be laid off, lawsuit claims
Lawsuit filed by dozens of employees says people who took maternity or disability leave were disproportionately selected for layoffs

Booming #economy. Just tremendous.
What say you, #MAGA? #Trump is putting all the brown people in concentration camps yet still there are no

2026 layoffs in Tennessee eclipsing recent years
Thousands of workers have been laid off in Tennessee just four months into 2026.

A group of employees has sued Meta, alleging the tech giant relied on AI-driven tools that unfairly selected workers with disabilities, medical conditions and approved leave for redundancy during its latest round of layoffs.

Meta sued over claims AI selected staff with medical conditions for layoffs
A group of 26 employees has sued Meta, alleging the technology company relied on AI-driven tools that unfairly selected workers with disabilities, medical conditions and ...

The Minnesota Star Tribune, which has ~495 staffers, plans to cut its workforce by 15%, or 65 jobs, via buyouts and layoffs, one month after winning a Pulitzer (Christopher Vondracek/Minneapolis Star Tribune)
https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-star…

Amazon shutters its AGI Lab as part of layoffs in its AGI unit earlier this week; the lab's former head David Luan left in February (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/briefings/amazon-shuts-ai-agent-research-lab-agi-layoffs…

Amazon Shuts AI Agent Research Lab In AGI Layoffs
Amazon this week closed its AGI Lab, a San Francisco-based research and product team that was developing software to improve the usefulness of AI agents, according to an Amazon spokesperson. The lab was shuttered as part of Amazon’s layoffs in its artificial general intelligence unit earlier this week. AGI Lab was founded in December 2024 and initially included several dozen employees that

If only someone had predicted this three years ago, before this whole fiasco destroyed an industry...
https://www.theregister.com/ai-and-ml/2026/05/06/ai-layoffs-backfire-as-cutting-staff-doesnt-cut-it-firms-warned/5230…

AI layoffs backfire as cutting staff doesn't cut it, firms warned
Replacing meatbags with failure prone agents isn't the gold mine some CEOs hoped for

Yeah, 8,000 layoffs & 7,000 internal transfers tend to piss people off.
✅ Meta AI Reshuffle Sparks Employee Morale Revolt
https://winbuzzer.com/2026/06/21/meta-ai-reshuffle-sparks-reported-employee-morale-revolt-xcxwbn/

Meta AI Reshuffle Sparks Employee Morale Revolt
Meta's AI reorganization has reportedly deepened morale problems after 8,000 layoffs and 7,000 internal transfers, testing control over AI-support work.

Significant layoffs at Wikimedia Foundation have hit technical staff involved in a nascent union. The response on Wikipedia has been quite large.
First, an advocate's summary:
https://mastodon.social/@JakeOrlowitz/116642070621496950

"it's like what the fuck" is the best, most honest rhetorical simile out of the Silicon Valley ownership class in literal decades
https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-ruthless-management-style-reckoning-2026-6

Meta's reckoning has arrived
After years of layoffs, restructuring, and hard-charging management tactics, Meta's leaders are acknowledging a collapse in employee trust and morale.

Source: iHeartMedia has begun a new round of layoffs affecting dozens of workers in its local radio broadcasting units as part of a broader restructuring (Matthew Keys/TheDesk.net)
https://thedesk.net/2026/06/iheartmedia-layoffs-new-round/

iHeartMedia begins fresh round of layoffs in radio business
iHeartMedia has begun a company-wide programming realignment tied to technology investments and a new cost-reduction initiative.

Let me get this straight. Xbox leadership believes the way to winning back people with great exclusives is by firing the people who make them — the people whose expertise they already paid billions to acquire? Sure. Seems really smart! https://www.eurogamer.net/xbox-layoffs-business-reset

RE: https://techhub.social/@Techmeme/116652503085166164
Blaming AI for mass-layoffs is hot these days.

The security industry is somewhat unique. It's probably the only industry created by the worker as a threat. If you talk to hackers who were in the scene before Operation Sundevil, you'll realize that it's always been a Bullshit Job.
Folks in L0ft and cDc were hacking companies and basically blackmailing them into paying for their services. Operation Sundevil "straightened up" the industry. Some people went to prison, some people build security services companies. Pretty much anyone who actually believed in the manifesto was locked up or edged out.
Using the Graeber framework here, hackers are partially duct tapers and partially goons. The critical thing here is that the industry was basically created to give money to people who would otherwise destroy the system.
Neuroatypical folks have always been forced to the margins of society, but computers gave us a super power. Now we were extremely dangerous. Tech, especially hackers, have always been paid a lot to minimize the risk of developing a class consciousness.
Graeber talked about this. Kings and nobles would often find some job or title that they could bestow on potential enemies in order to keep them close, to defang them. What better role than sheriff, a type of goon, for a rebel?
We turned it in to a whole thing. Not only did hackers make their own industry and force everyone else to accept it, we even created a whole parallel box ticker industry of "compliance" as a side effect.
The Hacker's Manifesto was decontectualized and made a fun artifact of the past. We were sold a story of "good hackers" who "protected grandma from the bad hackers." But the whole industry always existed to keep us on a leash. The funny thing is that it was a leash that we made ourselves.
But now we're seeing massive layoffs in tech, even in security. Now that we're this far in, everyone has forgotten the history. Leadership doesn't understand what security people do, so they think that LLMs can replace us. But the people in the industry now, the ones who came to it as a career, don't understand the history.
There was always a split for these weird outsiders, these people who couldn't fit in to the system but now had power over it. Some wanted in and they were willing to use extortion to get in, and others wanted to destroy the system to set everyone free.
Operation Sundevil, and the industry that evolved out of it, existed to neutralize those revolutionary elements by offering extortionists a safe entry. Extortionists trusted the capitalists to not stab them in the back the same way capitalists have stabbed everyone in the back through all of history. Now my LinkedIn feed is full of Meta layoffs, and I wonder if that class consciousness is starting to click for anyone yet.

SentinelOne's stock closes down 8% after the company announced plans to lay off 8% of its workforce and forecasted Q2 and FY revenue guidance below estimates (Samantha Subin/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/29/sentinelone-s-stock-earnings-ai-layoffs.html

SentinelOne stock drops 8% as cyber firm trims headcount to boost AI investments
SentinelOne reported earnings after the bell Thursday and issued lackluster guidance for the current quarter and full-year.

Truly top tier Streisand effect territory
Also, fuck Ubisoft
https://aftermath.site/ubisoft-layoffs-winnipeg-belgrade-barcelona-press-embargo/

Artificial intelligence has triggered fierce competition for top talent and is also fueling tens of thousands of layoffs this year.
The class divide is widening in Silicon Valley as a tiny group of employees is landing unprecedented packages for AI skills,
while many others struggle to find work
The have-nots are doing everything that used to guarantee great jobs
— refreshing resumes, optimizing LinkedIn profiles and doing interviews
— but companies are much mo…

Reading about the financial structure and layoffs at companies like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_Technologies are so charming compared to today's bizarro financializations and investor-appeasing layoffs.

Sony's Bungie says it is laying off a "significant number of employees", including "most of the Destiny team"; Bungie has an estimated headcount of 800 (Ethan Gach/Kotaku)
https://kotaku.com/mass-layoffs-have-started-at…

Mass Layoffs Have Started At Bungie After The End Of Destiny 2
The studio said the sci-fi MMO failed to meet expectations.

Oh.
https://lemmy.world/comment/23699816

GitLab Act 2 - A letter to our customers and our investors. - Lemmy.World
Lots of layoffs (“re-evaluating our operational footprint”) and switching to “agentic” processes. Target user is AI. Anyone still hosting Gitlab?

In a memo, BuzzFeed announces plans to lay off ~35% of staff, or 180 people, across BuzzFeed, HuffPost, and Tasty (Erik Hayden/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/buzzfeed-huffpost-layoffs-1236657384/…

BuzzFeed, HuffPost and Tasty to Lay Off 180 Staffers
The move marks a major restructuring at the Byron Allen-controlled media company.

Ugh
Snyk to lay off 90 employees
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-snyk-to-lay-off-90-employees-1001546903

Snyk to lay off 90 employees
The veteran cybersecurity company is embarking on its fourth round of layoffs.

Might them being an ocean freight forwarder have anything to do with that?
Expeditors cuts 230 tech jobs in Seattle region, ending decades-long policy against layoffs – GeekWire
https://www.geekwire.com/2026/expeditors-cuts-230-tech-jobs-in-seattle-region-ending-decades-long-policy-against-layoffs/

ESPN's layoffs cement its new identity, where it prioritizes self-promoting individuals like Pat McAfee, because it thinks that is the only way to break through (Andrew Marchand/The Athletic)
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/74648…

Once the ‘Worldwide Leader in Sports,’ ESPN’s latest layoffs cement its new identity
ESPN is still a destination spot in sports media, The Athletic's Andrew Marchand writes, but it has not been a utopia for a long time.

Education Department launches hiring spree in key office, roughly a year after mass layoffs (Rebecca Carballo/Politico)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/08/education-department-launches-hiring-spree-in-key-office-after-2025s-mass-layoffs-00912445
http://www.memeorandum.com/260509/p1#a260509p1

I know Amazon has been frantically replacing HR with AI, and I know that they have also been firing otherwise top performers who are on medical leave. But it seems like it would be difficult to figure out if they did exactly the same thing without a similar leak.
https://www.reuters.com/world/meta-used-ai-target-workers-with-medical-conditions-layoffs-former-employees-2026-07-14/

Cloudflare stock down 23.83% after announcing layoffs yesterday.

A well-deserved written take-down of the recent Xbox corpo-speak https://aftermath.site/microsoft-xbox-layoffs-asha-sharma/

Jeff Bezos defends WaPo layoffs, saying the outlet needs to be a profitable enterprise as "a measure of its relevance", and noted it won a Pulitzer in 2026 (Fox News)
https://www.foxnews.com/media/jeff-bezos-c

Jeff Bezos confronted on Washington Post layoffs, argues paper must be profitable regardless of his wealth
Owner Jeff Bezos defended the Washington Post's bruising layoffs, saying the paper must be a profitable enterprise that stands on its own regardless of his wealth.

Cisco is initiating a corporate restructuring that will result in layoffs of almost 4,000 of its employees.
https://www.computing.co.uk/news-network/20…

Cisco to cut nearly 4,000 jobs
Cisco has said it is initiating a corporate restructuring that will result in layoffs of less than 4,000 of its employees.

New #Bandcamp Layoffs:
Why Artists Are Worried and Where to Turn
Last week, Bandcamp laid off more engineers.
Here's why some artists are panicking and the alternative direct-to-fan platforms gaining traction.
For independent artists and labels, Bandcamp isn't just another platform.
While Spotify and other streamers pay artists a small fraction of revenue per play,

New Bandcamp Layoffs: Why Artists Are Worried and Where to Turn
Last week, Bandcamp laid off more engineers. Here's why some artists are panicking and the alternative direct-to-fan platforms gaining traction.

Job loss? That one really seems weird. The numbers are not adding up to the stories we hear yet. But the numbers are not dire yet. Of course, our actual tracking of those numbers is increasingly suspect because of the US fascist project.
The big tech companies are absolutely pulling shenanigans, and using "AI" as an excuse for layoffs in a great number of cases, and in many cases, openly admitting they don't have any good ideas, so they'll lay people off instead of allocate them better. We are absolutely seeing the shifts in what are viable careers in tech though. And that was underway before AI: the UX bootcamps, for example, destabilized those job function, devaluing the workers, and the resulting shifts absolutely wrecked those job titles and the pay for them, leaving a bunch of people in the lurch.
But behind that too was our broken education system in the US: it was a shortcut around the massive debt that going to college can produce for people. But it didn't last, because it was vocational training being used purposefully as a wedge to change the labor market. Similar, sometimes intentional effects have happened in other aspects.
A huge amount of the "AI" problem is actually labor problems coming home to roost. We can blame Reagan for a lot of this.

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and CCO Matt Booty warn of an "Xbox reset" in the next 100 days, citing challenges like annual revenue down ~$500M over the past five years (The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/games/948142/microsoft-xbox-layoffs-reset-asha-sharma…

Xbox warns of a ‘reset’ as it prepares for layoffs
Microsoft’s Xbox division will be hit with significant layoffs next month. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and chief content officer Matt Booty sent a memo warning of a “reset.”

In a memo, ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro announces layoffs, mostly due to the NFL Network acquisition; sources: analysts Karl Ravech and Ryan Clark are affected (Andrew Marchand/The Athletic)
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7460561/2026/07/21/karl-rave…

Karl Ravech, Tom Pelissero among ESPN layoffs in latest round of cuts: Sources
Among other expected ESPN cuts Tuesday are on-air NFL talent Cam Newton, Charles Davis and Bart Scott.

How Schneider Electric is using AI in call centers and manufacturing to complement employees' work and boost productivity, rather than to replace them (Patricia Cohen/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/29/busines

A.I. Doesn’t Have to Mean Layoffs
A French multinational, Schneider Electric, decided to use artificial intelligence in manufacturing to make workers more productive, rather than to replace them. Here’s how that’s going.

Rep. Steve Cohen filed six articles of impeachment against Chief Justice Roberts.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez carried two jars of brown water into a House hearing room and forced the Trump EPA on record.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed worker protections Trump would never consider.
And a federal judge threw out every charge in the regime’s vindictive prosecution of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
That was one week.
After a decade of fighting, we aren’t waiting to be rescued…

First-Ever Impeachment Articles Filed Against A Chief Justice, AOC Forces Trump’s EPA On Record, and A Judge Dismisses All Charges Over Regime’s Retaliation
Plus, California steps up to protect workers over AI layoffs

The AP confirms it is laying off an unspecified number of US-based journalists today; News Media Guild: of 120 journalists offered buyouts, around 40 took them (Jocelyn Noveck/Associated Press)
https://apnews.com/article/news-industry-ap-layoffs-3906d6f2c…

AP lays off small group of US-based journalists, part of restructuring plan
The Associated Press has confirmed it is laying off an unspecified number of U.S.-based journalists. The layoffs are part of a restructuring that would turn the news organization’s focus away from print journalism and newspapers to visual journalism and other revenue sources. The AP would not say how many employees were affected. The News Media Guild, which represents AP journalists, said 20 journalists had been laid off by midafternoon Friday. AP said the layoffs were in Iine with a restruct…

Memo: the BBC says it will cut 550 jobs including in its news and content divisions by the start of FY 2027-2028 in the first phase of a plan to save $670M (Ellise Shafer/Variety)
https://variety.com/2026/digital/global/bbc-layoffs-redu…

BBC to Make Layoffs, Reduce Commissioning Spend in Savings Plan
New BBC director general Matt Brittin has outlined his savings plan, which includes cutting 550 jobs and reducing commissioning spend by $107 million.

RE: https://toot.majorshouse.com/@majorlinux/116575701754339002
We keep hearing this. Company after company.
Don't you dare tell me layoffs are necessary. Don't you dare tell me it's because of AI. Both of those are outright lies.…

I'm curious whether the media, intensely deep diving the 3,000 layoffs at Xbox, has looked at the 15,000 other positions that got cut last year outside of "gaming".
"List the titles that Compulsion Studios, Arkane Studios, Undead Labs, Double Fine & Ninja Theory have made since being acquired by Microsoft. List when they were acquired and when they shipped the game."

Microsoft Studio Acquisitions and Games
Shared via Copilot

As Meta prepares to lay off ~10% of its staff on May 20, sources say morale is low, and Meta forcibly moved 1,000 engineers to an AI unit to build GenAI models (Wired)
https://www.wired.com/story/meta-layoffs-bad-vibes-mark-zuckerberg-ai/

Meta’s New Reality: Record High Profits. Record Low Morale
Next week, Meta is cutting about 10 percent of its staff. WIRED spoke with more than a dozen current and former employees about what it's like inside a company where "everyone is unhappy."

Cuts at ESPN are part of larger Disney layoffs; sources: some corporate functions, film studios, and Disney Entertainment Television are expected to be impacted (Alex Weprin/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business

Disney Cutting Hundreds More Jobs in New Round of Corporate Streamlining
Pixar and Nat Geo are said to be hit particularly hard in the latest round of cuts, with some high-profile talent also being let go at ESPN.

Sources: Bungie plans a significant number of layoffs as it ends development on Destiny 2 and has no new project lined up for the game's development team (Jason Schreier/Bloomberg)

Sources: NPR lays off 10 journalists, including some veteran reporters, and gives buyouts to at least 18 news staffers to save $8M amid federal funding cuts (David Folkenflik/NPR)
https://www.npr.org/2026/05/27/nx-s1-5836624/npr-layoffs-job-cuts

Microsoft said on Monday it was eliminating about 4,800 jobs
– roughly 2% of its global workforce
– in a cost-cutting move that will deliver a sweeping restructuring of its struggling Xbox gaming division.
The cuts include the deepest overhaul in Xbox’s history,
with approximately 3,200 gaming jobs to be shed over the coming fiscal year,
four game studios being spun off or sold,
and a fifth entering a review process that could lead to closure, the company …

Microsoft cuts 4,800 jobs as it revamps Xbox in latest wave of mass layoffs
Thousands of gaming jobs will be shed over the coming fiscal year as Microsoft continues to invest heavily in AI

Journalists say Ubisoft embargoed outlets reporting on its latest round of layoffs; Insider Gaming first broke the news based on details from sources (Nathan Grayson/Aftermath)
https://aftermath.site/ubisoft-layoffs-winnipeg-belgrade-barcelona-press-embargo/…

Ubisoft Embargoes Journalists Reporting On Latest Round Of Layoffs
This is not typically what embargoes are for

Internal memo: Mark Zuckerberg told employees that he does not expect more company-wide layoffs this year (Katie Paul/Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/world/meta-ceo-tells-employees-he-does-not-expect-more-company-wide…

Memo: HuffPost EIC informs staff that ~15 editorial jobs will be cut, the first layoffs under new owner Byron Allen, and executive editor Kate Palmer is leaving (Natalie Korach/@nataliekorach)
https://x.com/nataliekorach/status/2080449563249234184

Natalie Korach (@NatalieKorach) on X
Scoop: Byron Allen has begun his first round of layoffs since acquiring the BuzzFeed properties, with HuffPost staffers being notified of 15 editorial cuts Thursday

Source: Mistral AI and TML's founding member Devendra Chaplot, who was considered a marquee hire when he joined xAI in March, exited xAI after roughly a month (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/cursor-staff-meet-xai-emplo…

Cursor Staff Meet With xAI Employees as Layoffs, Exits Mount
Cursor is already starting to make its presence known at SpaceX’s AI unit, just weeks after Elon Musk’s firm got an option to buy the coding startup for $60 billion. Cursor staffers have been visiting xAI offices to meet with employees and discuss their work, according to two people with direct ...

They built AI.
Now Silicon Valley workers protest its threat to jobs and humanity
In the heart of Silicon Valley,
tech workers are turning against the AI boom they helped create,
staging protests over job losses,
runaway algorithms
and fears that powerful systems could imperil humanity.
Across San Francisco Bay Area campuses and offices,
employees describe mounting pressure to embrace AI tools
even as layoffs spread,
early-career c…

They built AI. Now Silicon Valley workers protest its threat to jobs and humanity
Activists, tech workers and more are sounding the alarm about AI's risks and proposing various solutions to curb technology's risks that include job displacement.

Analysis: the top 18 Hollywood executives received $746M in combined compensation in 2025, a 51% YoY increase, as their pay gap with employees remains massive (Lucas Manfredi/The Wrap)
https://www.thewrap.com/industry-news/business/hollywood-executive-pa…

Hollywood's Top Execs Got a 51% Pay Hike in 2025 as Layoffs Erased 17,000 Jobs | Analysis
As the pay gap between media executives and their employees remains massive, one Los Angeles nonprofit is pushing for an "Overpaid CEO" tax

Memo: Microsoft is laying off ~4,800 employees, or ~2.1% of its workforce; most layoffs are in Xbox, where ~8% are being cut, rising to 15% in this fiscal year (Tom Warren/The Verge)

Microsoft is laying off 4,800 employees
Most of the job losses are in Microsoft’s Xbox and commercial sales organizations.

Analysis: US tech companies have cut ~140K jobs YTD, or more than 33% of announced US layoffs in 2026, with ~50K cuts from Amazon, Oracle, Meta, and Microsoft (Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/96a33881-27fd-42cf-8cff-4cbc87fc835f

Sources: ESPN cuts ties with NFL analyst Ryan Clark, as part of wider layoffs at ESPN's Bristol, Connecticut campus and at NFL Network expected on Tuesday (Andrew Marchand/The Athletic)
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7459503/2026/07/20/ryan-clark-espn-layoff…

ESPN cuts ties with NFL analyst Ryan Clark, wider layoffs expected Tuesday: Sources
ESPN has cut ties with one of its most prominent NFL analysts, sources briefed on the move told The Athletic.

Meta is sued by 26 current and former employees, who allege its use of AI in May layoffs unfairly targeted workers with disabilities or on protected leave (Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/meta-workers…

Sources: 50 researchers and engineers have left xAI since the SpaceX acquisition via layoffs, firings, and voluntary departures; many have joined Meta and TML (Theo Wayt/The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/spacex…

The SpaceXAI Exodus: More Than 50 Recent Exits as Meta, Thinking Machines Hire Staff
Call it the SpaceXAI exodus. More than 50 researchers and engineers working on xAI’s Grok models have left the AI lab since SpaceX acquired it in February, through layoffs, firings and voluntary departures, according to several people with knowledge of the moves. These departures come on top of ...

Sources: CBS staff at 60 Minutes expect "massive changes" and layoffs after the current season ends, but say there's no plan to overhaul its format or mission (Jeremy Barr/The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/may/16/cbs-bari-weiss-60-minu…

National Nurses United (NNU),
the parent union of NYSNA,
has been raising the alarm about the effects AI will have on nurses.
Shuler’s case would be one of the first AI-related layoffs handled by the union.
The union developed an AI bill of rights for patients and nurses,
has been pushing for protections and guardrails in contracts and through legislation,
and protested against employers using untested AI in patient care settings.
“NNU nurses, like …

The New York nurses replaced by AI: ‘It should concern every patient who cares about quality of care’
The union for 12 nurses laid off by Montefiore hospital say company broke contract they recently won through a strike

The New York Sun Publisher Dovid Efune revives The Washington Star on Substack and plans a custom website and a weekend print edition by the end of the year (Katie Robertson/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/28/busines

Two Papers Named ‘Star’ Will Duel in D.C. to Win Readers From The Washington Post
First, The Star was born. Now, The Washington Star is reborn. Both are hoping to win readers ceded by recent layoffs at The Washington Post.

Sources: Microsoft's Xbox division is planning major layoffs next month and significant budget cuts for marketing and some other areas (Jason Schreier/Bloomberg)

Chinese companies are implementing "quiet" AI-driven layoffs to avoid labor laws that require government approval for job cuts exceeding 10% of a workforce (Laurie Chen/Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-

Memo: NPR is restructuring its newsroom and offers buyouts to ~300 staffers, mostly in newsgathering desks, expecting to earn $15M less in station fees in 2026 (David Folkenflik/NPR)
https://www.npr.org/2026/05/18/nx-s1-5821622/npr-buyouts-layoffs-reorganizati…

Sources: Sonos' layoffs include some top design and product executives, like VP of Design Dana Krieger; CEO Tom Conrad says the move reduces management layers (Chris Welch/Bloomberg)

Filing: Oracle's global workforce fell by 21,000 employees in the past 12 months to 141,000 as of May 31; the company says AI adoption has led to reductions (Brody Ford/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-2…

Three precedent-setting court rulings in China have said that employers replacing workers with AI is voluntary cost-cutting that does not justify mass layoffs (Catie Edmondson/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/19/busines

China Wants A.I. to Flourish, but Not at the Expense of Jobs
A series of precedent-setting rulings signals that Chinese courts are being enlisted to shield workers from displacement by artificial intelligence.

Source: Xbox Game Pass currently has about 30M subscriptions; document: Microsoft had projected Game Pass subscriptions would reach around 77M this year (Ben Fritz/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/tech/microsoft-layoffs-xbox-59…

How The Daily Wire's relevance to the right may have irrevocably collapsed, as it faces intense competition, falling traffic, layoffs, and ideological battles (Drew Harwell/Washington Post)

Inside Ben Shapiro’s MAGA meltdown
The Daily Wire was once ascendant in right-wing media. Now, the “anti-woke” company faces contentious layoffs, ideological battles and dwindling relevance online.

Q&A with Google SVP James Manyika on AI's ability to automate tasks versus occupations, his optimism about the labor market despite AI-driven layoffs, and more (Casey Newton/Platformer)
https://www.platformer.news/james-manyika-google-ai-jobs-io-2026/

Google's James Manyika is betting that doomers are wrong about AI and jobs
Tasks are getting easier to automate — jobs aren't. What now?

A Q&A with Mike Richards, the Daily Wire's new CEO following the abrupt departure of Caleb Robinson, on the Daily Wire's continued entertainment push and more (Seth Abramovitch/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/b…

The “Canceled” Man in Charge: Mike Richards Takes the Wheel at The Daily Wire
Four years after a scandal ended his 'Jeopardy!' career, the former game show wunderkind has rebuilt himself inside the conservative media company — and is now its CEO. In his first interview since the promotion, he talks layoffs, Ben Shapiro's numbers, Jonathan Majors' action-hero rebirth ... and why the exile economy has become a business model.

Robinhood plans to shutter the Sherwood News site in favor of newsletters and the Robinhood app; at least three reporters were cut in company layoffs this week (Andrew Cohen/InvestmentNews)
https://www.investmentnews.com/fintech/exc

Exclusive: Robinhood cuts Sherwood News staff in app content push
The fintech giant shifts its media strategy despite reporting record trading volumes this month amid its 10% staff reduction.

GitLab announces layoffs, saying they are "not an AI optimization or cost cutting exercise", and plans to cut the number of countries it operates in (Sarah Frier/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-0…

Layoffs hit Altice USA's News 12 operations around NYC; source: at least three dozen employees across the Bronx, Brooklyn, Westchester, and Connecticut were cut (Ariel Zilber/New York Post)
https://nypost.com/2026/07/15/media/ne

News 12 axes scores of journos from Bronx, Brooklyn, Westchester and Connecticut newsrooms: 'Dire'
One laid off employee said restructuring effectively dismantles News 12’s standalone operations in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Westchester and Connecticut.

A US NLRB judge rules that Atlassian had illegally fired an employee in 2023 for pushing back against manager layoffs, and orders reinstatement and compensation (Noam Scheiber/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/business/atlassian-te…

Atlassian Illegally Fired Worker in Rare Legal Victory for Tech Worker
A federal labor law judge determined last week that the software maker Atlassian had illegally fired an employee who questioned company policy changes.

NetBlocks: Iran's 70 day internet blackout is "the longest recorded national internet shutdown in a connected society", as businesses warn of layoffs, closures (Golnar Motevalli/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

An analysis of US DOL data: the IT sector's unemployment rate rose from 3.6% in March to 3.8% in April, as the sector shed 13,000 jobs amid AI uncertainty (Belle Lin/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/cio-j…

Sources detail Xbox's big reset after its Game Pass strategy failed; Xbox spent nearly $80B on content deals, but gamers prefer to stick with a handful of games (Cecilia D'Anastasio/Bloomberg)