Dennis Hendrickson
Jobs & Work · October 23, 2026

Tech Layoffs Surge as Companies Blame AI for Job Cuts

Oracle, Uber, American Express, Barclays, eBay and Netflix all announced cuts this week, and several of them are saying AI is why.

Tech layoffs are surging, and this time companies are saying flat out that AI is the reason. On Friday morning American Express said it is cutting 5% of its jobs, about 3,500 employees. That followed Barclays announcing 5,000 job cuts this week, which it tied directly to AI creating efficiency. eBay confirmed cuts of about 9% of its workforce. And the Wall Street Journal reported Netflix will lay off 6% of its global staff, roughly 1,000 jobs, the company's biggest round since 2022.

Those four headlines landed within days of each other.

Bloomberg's own data shows stories using the words job cuts, layoffs and firings jumped Thursday to their highest level since early May. The job tracker TrueUp puts the tech sector's total cuts this year above 190,000, on top of 245,000 cuts across tech last year. Oracle alone has cut 21,000 jobs over the past year, about 13% of its workforce, and said directly in a filing that deployment of AI technologies across its operations has resulted in reductions to its workforce.

Oracle and Uber Show How Companies Are Using AI to Cut Headcount

Oracle's language is the clearest. The company told investors that AI adoption has resulted, and may continue to result, in reductions to its workforce. That is not a company apologizing for layoffs, it is a company explaining its operating model going forward.

Uber took a different route to the same place. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi announced 3,300 job cuts, about 10% of the workforce, as part of what he called removing layers and simplifying team structures. The memo didn't name AI as the direct cause, but Khosrowshahi said the restructuring would let Uber build what he called the autonomous future, and the company plans to cut the number of employees sitting seven or more layers from the CEO by 20%, while cutting micro teams by almost half.

Microsoft cut 4,800 jobs, mostly in its Xbox gaming division, on top of 1,600 cuts in July and another 1,600 still to come. EA is eliminating 400 jobs, about 3% of its staff, shutting down BioWare and canceling the next Mass Effect game, part of a plan to save up to 700 million dollars in research and development costs. Workday is cutting about 140 Bay Area jobs as part of a 2.5% global workforce reduction.

These Layoffs Are Hitting White Collar Jobs, Not the Usual Targets

What stands out here is who is losing the job. Netflix said the bulk of its cuts will hit product, tech, legal and human resources teams, the office functions that used to be considered safe. Uber is specifically targeting management layers, not just frontline headcount. Apple's cuts have reportedly hit its Vision Pro team and its Intelligent Systems Experience group, the people working on AI itself.

That matters for the job market because this isn't the factory or retail layoff cycle people are used to. It's college educated, white collar, often well paid work being cut in the name of efficiency, and it's happening at profitable companies, not just struggling ones. If you work in product, project management, HR, or a layer of middle management at a large company, this is the group getting thinned out right now.

What Leaving a Salaried Job Costs You in Insurance and Benefits

Here's where my insurance agency work is relevant. When you lose a job like these, you don't just lose a paycheck, you lose employer group health coverage, and COBRA to replace it is expensive, often several hundred dollars a month more than people expect. If severance includes a short bridge of benefits, read the end date closely, because that's the date you need other coverage lined up by, not the date you start looking.

If any of these laid off workers go start something of their own, which a lot of them will, the insurance picture changes again. A salaried job came with coverage you never had to think about. Running your own thing means pricing in your own health coverage, and if you're doing any client work, general liability and errors and omissions coverage too, before you take the first dollar, not after something goes wrong.

More Laid-Off Workers Means More Competition for the Self-Employed

There's no loyalty left from companies to employees, and this is what it looks like in practice: profitable companies cutting headcount anyway because AI lets them. A chunk of these laid off workers, especially the ones with marketing, tech and operations skills, are going to go start something of their own instead of waiting for the next corporate job that may not be more secure.

I see the other side of that through my marketing company, which builds websites and runs marketing for home service contractors. More people starting consulting shops, agencies and small service businesses is more competition for existing small business owners, not less. If you already run a small business, expect more people chasing the same customers over the next year, with tech and marketing skills you may not have.

What to Do if Your Job Is in the Next Round of Cuts

This isn't slowing down. Bloomberg's layoff language is at a five month high, and the pattern across Oracle, Uber, American Express, Barclays, eBay and Netflix all points the same direction.

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