Synopsis: Something strange is happening inside big American companies. Jobs keep disappearing, new ones barely appear, and the numbers look like something is turning the system upside down. People talk about the economy, but there is another shadow moving behind it. Quiet machines. Silent software. Decisions made in rooms nobody enters. Companies are shrinking at the top and growing somewhere invisible. The shift feels slow from outside, but inside it is fast, sharp, almost cold. A kind of future that walks in without asking. Nobody knows which part is normal business and which part is something completely different. The clues sit inside warehouses, glowing screens, and plans that do not wait for human hands. And suddenly the question arises. If this continues, what shape will work have, or will it even have one at all?
The Mystery Behind America’s Record Layoffs. Economy or Something Else?
Alas! The U.S companies are cutting jobs. They are laying off more people, and they are hiring fewer people. The figure for October is 1,53,074 people. This is the highest monthly layoff figure since 2003, three times that of October last year. Such a level of layoffs has only been seen during recessions.
The U.S. government is at a standstill. Therefore, official figures have not been available for two months. This is the figure prepared by the private consultancy Challenger, Gray and Christmas. According to this report, layoffs in the first 10 months of this year have exceeded 1.1 million.
As people lose jobs, the hiring side keeps falling too. In the year 2025, reportedly only 4,88,100 got hired, almost 35% less than in 2024. The whole count of workers is slipping low, and the workforce keeps getting thinner. Therefore, the number of employees is decreasing. Here are some layoff announcements:
United Parcel Service (UPS) 48,000; Amazon 30,000; Intel 24,000; Nestle 16,000; Accenture 11,000; Ford Motor 11,000; Novo Nordisk 9,000; etc. Many American companies have offices and plants in India. The reductions will apply here as well.
Companies are currently cutting people to increase profitability. This is not what will happen only when artificial intelligence (AI) arrives. Amazon gives a small preview. They have a large distribution center in Denver, Colorado, in the United States. It is 1 million square feet in area. Goods are placed in millions of boxes. The computer system knows everything. The system instructs employees on which box to pack and where to send it according to the order. The system also suggests rest, exercise, and other activities. There are 3,100 employees there.
This distribution center will be completely robotized. Then one hundred employees will be enough. All of the company’s distribution centers will be changed in this way. Amazon, which currently employs 1.5 million people, will reduce 500,000 people through this. It does not stop there.
In addition to parcel movement, Amazon’s goal is for AI robots to do 75 percent of the work, including office work, accounting, and testing. Nobel laureate economist Daron Acemoglu says that a time is coming when the second-largest employer in the United States will eliminate jobs. It is not only about reducing the number of jobs, but about eliminating them entirely. In other words, the time is approaching when many jobs will no longer require human effort or humans.
