US Job Market Softens as Layoffs Peak Without AI or Robots to Blame

KEY POINTS

•Goldman Sachs reported the highest WARN layoff notices since 2016, signaling growing instability in the job market.
•Challenger, Gray & Christmas data showed October layoffs reaching levels usually only seen during recessions.
•Amazon announced plans in fall 2025 to cut about 14,000 corporate jobs as part of cost-saving and AI integration.
•AI is being considered in workforce decisions, but Goldman found limited evidence it is directly causing layoffs yet.

Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street oracle, just waved a big red flag about the U.S. job market, noting WARN layoff notices have exploded to the highest levels since 2016 — and that’s without the pandemic’s cameo. Challenger, Gray & Christmas threw in data showing October layoffs rocketed beyond any non-recession level, slicing through tech, industrial goods, and food and beverage like a hot knife through a very jobless butter. Even Jeff Bezos’ puppet company, Amazon, decided to pull 14,000 corporate jobs into the AI-powered trimming frenzy. Economists Manuel Abecasis and Pierfrancesco Mei gloomily noted it’s now harder than usual to bounce back after losing a paycheck, as the hiring rate for new workers stubbornly refuses to follow. Meanwhile, AI lurks in the background, getting guilt-tripped for layoffs but so far only nudging HR decisions rather than kicking jobcuts into overdrive. Befuddled in the mix? Weekly jobless claims seem low, but experts warn the government data’s just fashionably late, lagging private trackers by about two months. So buckle up, winter might deliver a snowball of bad news.