Technological Unemployment News & Discussions

[firestar464]

As much as I hate many of the CEOs there, simply concluding "technology bad" is never going to improve things.

[weatheriscool]

[wjfox]

Fiverr cuts 30% of staff in pivot to being 'an AI-first company'

Tue 16 Sep 2025 // 19:16 UTC

Freelance services marketplace Fiverr has told around 250 staffers that they are back on the market as it pivots to having "a modern, clean, AI-focused infrastructure from the ground up."

The company confirmed on Tuesday to The Register that it would lay off around 30 percent of its workforce. In an extended essay on X, founder and CEO Micha Kaufman said that AI was going to mean a fundamental rethink and that the 15-year-old freelance services bazaar is "going back to startup mode."

"This transformation requires a painful reset, and as we make it, we will be parting ways with approximately 250 team members across the different departments, resulting in a smaller and flatter organization," he lamented.

"We need to go back to a startup mode, with speed and agility, a flatter organizational structure, and an AI-focused infrastructure and methodology."

AI offered staff the chance to "liberate humans from manual and tedious tasks," he opined, and "unlock capabilities that were historically not possible or too expensive." Kaufman promised severance packages and extended health insurance to departing employees.

https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/16/ ... ai_layoff/

[firestar464]

What surprises me is they're doing this mostly the right way. Oh well, they almost always manage to screw this up. We'll see.

[firestar464]

FT- AI is not killing jobs, US study finds

https://archive.ph/54LhN

This may warrant seriously postponing the "mass technological unemployment" prediction to much later this decade, maybe as late as 2030. Clearly there is no jobpocalypse going on.

[wjfox]

Amazon to replace 600,000 US workers by 2033 with robots

Oct 21, 2025

Amazon says the leaked data, reported on by The New York Times, does not reflect the company's full strategy.

Amazon plans to use automation to replace more than 600,000 workers who would otherwise be hired in the United States by 2033, according to internal documents obtained by The New York Times. By that time, the company is expected to sell about twice as many goods as it does today.

Amazon’s robotics team is reportedly working toward the goal of automating 75% of its entire business. By 2027, it is expected to eliminate around 160,000 jobs in the US, saving the company an estimated $12.6 billion — equivalent to around 30 cents per item delivered.

https://www.computerworld.com/article/4 ... obots.html

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

This is why we need to rethink economics. The sad thing is with Trump and maga we're heading in the opposite direction. mass starvation is coming if people don't wake up.

The rethink system could be called technosocialism. A system of a.i+robotics that do the production while giving the basics to the people.

[firestar464]

[weatheriscool]

[caltrek]

Companies Are Quietly Rehiring the Workers They Replaced With AI
November 6, 2025

Introduction:

(Extreme Tech) Following the recent MIT study that showed just 5% of companies that go all-in on AI demonstrate any kind of profitable return, new data suggests that many companies are actually rehiring some of the workers they let go in favor of AI.

People analytics firm Visier has been tracking employment and hiring data for several years and said in its 2025 report that typically, 5.3% of terminated employees are re-hired by their former employers. However, a recent uptick suggests that more workers are being rehired at the end of 2025 than any other time since 2018.

Visier's head of research and value, Andrea Derler, told Axios that this was a clear indicator of AI-driven hiring and firing practices.
"The idea that now AI is coming and replacing absolutely every job is still really not proven," she said.

In fact, this rehiring shows a misguided approach to hiring; according to Derler, there may be "larger strategic or planning gaps" in these organizations.

Read more here: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/career ... c2&ei=73


caltrek’s comment: I am not familiar with Extreme Tech and therefore cannot vouch for it as a source. Also, this may be one of those short term versus long term things. Sure, there may be some back sliding in the short term, but does that mean that workers won’t be displaced in the long term?

[firestar464]

ExtremeTech cites Axios, so all is well. The 5.3% figure is quite measly, and the vast majority are never rehired.

https://archive.ph/4OhIc

Meanwhile: Layoffs soared in October to their highest for the month in 22 years, report says

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/economy-la ... hallenger/

[wjfox]

McKinsey Lays Off 200 Tech Employees as AI Takes Over Roles

Nov 26, 2025

McKinsey & Company just cut 200 tech jobs globally this past week. The firm says that as it increasingly adopts AI tools, it’s shifting more tasks to automated systems, especially non-client-facing or tech-support roles.

The consulting firm warns that more cuts could come over the next 2 years.

McKinsey issued this statement for these reductions:

“AI is enabling unprecedented levels of opportunity and impact for our clients and us. We are continually working to make our professional support functions more efficient and effective, including by taking advantage of AI.”

https://www.finalroundai.com/blog/mckin ... -employees

[weatheriscool]

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

Elon Musk and Bill Gates are Wrong About AI Replacing All Jobs. 'That's Not What We're Seeing,' LinkedIn Exec Says—the Opposite is Happening
By Orianna Rosa Royle
December 5, 2025

Introduction:

(Fortune) The future of work as we know it is hanging by a thread—at least, that’s what many tech leaders consistently say. Elon Musk predicts AI will replace all jobs in less than 20 years. Bill Gates says even those who train to use AI tools may not be safe from its claws. And then there’s Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski, who is warning workers that “tech bros” are sugarcoating just how badly it’s about to impact jobs.

Additional Extract:

With hundreds of millions of workers hunting for jobs and employers posting open roles in real time, LinkedIn acts as one of the clearest barometers of what’s actually happening on the ground—and its managing director for EMEA, Sue Duke, is not buying the AI apocalypse narrative.

“That’s not what we’re seeing,” Duke revealed at the Fortune CEO Forum at The Shard in London. When asked about an AI-induced hiring slowdown she insisted that the opposite is actually true.

“What we’re seeing is that organizations who are adopting and integrating this technology, they’re actually going out and hiring more people to really take advantage of this technology,” Duke explained.

“They’re going out and looking for more business development people, more technologically savvy people, and more salespeople as they realize the business opportunities, the innovation possibilities, and ultimately the growth possibilities of this technology.”

Read more here: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/techno ... 40c&ei=96

[Yuli Ban]

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]