Tech leaders like Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis and Tesla CEO Elon Musk have described AI as a win-win for society; they make ambitious promises that the advanced tech will allow us to turbocharge the labor force, cure cancers, and create new “super well-paid, super interesting jobs” that didn’t exist before.
But instead of feeling empowered, many workers fear their jobs are at risk of being automated—and the flood of layoffs in 2025 confirmed their suspicions.
A staggering 1.2 million job cuts were announced last year, up 58% from the roughly 760,000 layoffs in 2024, according to a recent report from employment consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
In fact, 2025 had the highest level of workforce reductions since 2020, and was neck-and-neck with the 2008 financial crisis, when 1.22 million roles were slashed.
The biggest victims of last year’s headcount reduction bloodbath were federal workers. Extreme cost-cutting efforts from Elon Musk’s DOGE crippled entire agencies, including USAID, the Department of Education, and the Department of Health and Human Services. In total, about 308,000 government jobs were cut last year.
