As AI adoption by companies accelerates, tech layoffs continue
ECONOMY – EMPLOYMENT
3 NOVEMBER 2025
- Online retail giant Amazon, recently announced that it would reduce its global corporate workforce by about 14,000 people.
- Amazon CEO Andy Jassy had already flagged the possibility of job cuts in June 2026, saying the increased use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and agents would lead to more corporate job cuts.
- A week before Amazon’s announcement, the world’s biggest social media company, Meta, said it would be removing around 600 positions in its Superintelligence Labs to make its AI unit more flexible and responsive.
- In July 2025, IT service provider, Tata Consultancy Services, announced that while the company was retraining and redeploying staff in new markets, and investing and deploying new technology and AI, it would be cutting more than 12,000 jobs as part of the process.
- During the same month, tech behemoth Microsoft announced that it would lay off nearly 4% of its workforce to curb costs amid investments in AI.
- This year, 218 companies have collectively laid off over 1.12 lakh employees globally. This is lower than the 1.53 lakh, 2.64 lakh, and 1.65 lakh layoffs reported in 2024, 2023, and 2022, respectively. However, the average number of employees laid off per company has increased from about 221 in 2023 to nearly 517 in 2025. (Chart 1).
- This indicates that although fewer companies are laying off employees this year, those that are doing so are cutting larger numbers at one go.
- Consequently, data show a significant rise in AI talent recruitment compared to the overall hiring rate across countries in 2024. Chart 3 shows the relative AI hiring rate year-over-year ratio by region (see note in graphic).
- India leads in this measure with a relative AI hiring rate of over 33%, followed by Brazil and Saudi Arabia.
- Data also show that the wages of workers with AI skills are 56% higher than the average salary. This is more pronounced in sectors such as wholesale and retail trade, energy and information, and communication (Chart 4).
- Global corporate investment in AI has also been increasing in recent years. In 2024, the total investment grew to $252.3 billion, almost 13 times higher that what it was a decade ago (Chart 5).
