, Columnist
Companies Are Getting Worse at Laying People Off
Businesses sometimes need to shed staff. But that doesn’t mean those cuts need to be sloppy or cruel.
Perhaps AI could help Microsoft do a better job planning its job cuts.
Photographer: Dimas Ardian/Bloomberg
Last week’s jobs numbers may have shown a drop in the number of pink slips hitting workers’ desks in May, but don’t be fooled: Layoffs are alive and well in 2025.
In the first half of the year, US employers let go of nearly 745,000 people, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That’s the second-highest number for the period since 2009 — surpassed only by the first six months of 2020, when COVID essentially shut down the global economy.