Worried About Job Cuts? Here’s a Game Plan

It’s been an unsettling week for workers across the tech and finance industries. As Bloomberg reported Tuesday, PayPal plans to cut about 20% of its workforce in the next two to three years. Coinbase will cut about 14% of its workforce, mostly in the second quarter of this year. All the while, a new Bureau of Labor Statistics report showed that available positions in the US fell slightly, the layoffs rate edged higher and the number of unemployed people continued to exceed job openings.

Some of the cuts were attributed to, or blamed on, artificial intelligence. That has opened up a fascinating debate about “AI washing” — using a trendy term that suggests layoffs are the result of forward thinking by companies, when less glamorous business issues may be at play. It’s also increasing uncertainty about the employment landscape at a time when a related phenomenon, “AI catastrophizing,” may be adding to perceptions that chatbots are both more powerful and more destructive to the labor market than they truly are.