Every week earlier than Amazon’s announcement, the world’s greatest social media firm, Meta, stated it will be eradicating round 600 positions in its Superintelligence Labs to make its AI unit extra versatile and responsive.
In July, IT service supplier, Tata Consultancy Services, introduced that whereas the corporate was retraining and redeploying employees in new markets, and investing and deploying new expertise and AI, it will be chopping greater than 12,000 jobs as a part of the method. During the identical month, tech behemoth Microsoft introduced that it will lay off almost 4% of its workforce to curb prices amid investments in AI.
While layoffs have sparked issues about AI displacing jobs, the expertise itself shouldn’t be straight placing folks out of labor. Rather, investments in AI are reshaping enterprise methods, prompting corporations to undertake new applied sciences, restructure workforces, and prioritise hiring staff with AI-related abilities.
Thus, job displacement is an oblique consequence of how companies are integrating AI and never the fast impact of AI expertise alone.
This 12 months, 218 corporations have collectively laid off over 1.12 lakh staff globally. This is decrease than the 1.53 lakh, 2.64 lakh, and 1.65 lakh layoffs reported in 2024, 2023, and 2022, respectively. However, the typical variety of staff laid off per firm has elevated from about 221 in 2023 to just about 517 in 2025.
The chart under reveals the variety of staff laid off globally within the final 4 years (bar), and the variety of corporations concerned (line)
This signifies that though fewer corporations are shedding staff this 12 months, these which are doing so are chopping bigger numbers at one go. Many of those corporations are doubtless tech companies, which generally make use of giant numbers of individuals and sometimes rent and fireplace in bulk. These corporations are additionally deeply concerned in AI transformation, reshaping the {industry}.
An industry-wise evaluation reveals that {hardware} corporations, reminiscent of Intel and Lenovo, accounted for 28% of all layoffs this 12 months. They had been adopted by retail corporations reminiscent of Amazon, eBay, and Wayfair, which accounted for 14% of all layoffs. The gross sales (Salesforce) and shopper tech (Meta, Google) industries accounted for 9% and seven% of the entire layoffs, respectively. The chart under reveals the Industry-wise share of staff laid off in 2025.
Consequently, knowledge present a major rise in AI expertise recruitment in comparison with the general hiring price throughout nations in 2024. The chart under reveals the relative AI hiring price year-over-year ratio by area. India leads on this measure with a relative AI hiring price of over 33%, adopted by Brazil and Saudi Arabia.
Data additionally present that the wages of staff with AI abilities are 56% increased than the typical wage. This is extra pronounced in sectors reminiscent of wholesale and retail commerce, power and knowledge, and communication. The chart under reveals the sector-wise distinction in common earnings between staff with AI abilities and people with out AI abilities
Higher wages for staff with AI abilities don’t essentially replicate the shortage of such staff. Instead, they replicate the excessive worth employers place on these abilities.
Global company funding in AI has additionally been growing in recent times. In 2024, the entire funding grew to $252.3 billion, nearly 13 instances increased than what it was a decade in the past.
The charts above illustrate the broader pattern: pushed by a pointy rise in AI-related hiring and elevated investments in expertise and salaries, corporations are actively restructuring their workforce to adapt to those modifications.
The knowledge for the charts had been sourced from Stanford University’s Al Index 2025, layoffs.fyi and PwC’s 2025 Global Al Jobs Barometer
