AI was linked to 50,000 job cuts in 2025, report reveals
This past year has been pretty rough for layoffs — and you can thank AI for that, at least in part.
According to a report by CNBC citing consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, AI was responsible for nearly 55,000 layoffs in the U.S. in 2025. This comes during a year that had the highest number of layoffs since the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, with 1.17 million job cuts across the country, the consulting firm also reported.
In November alone 71,000 jobs were cut — and 6,000 of those, or about 9 percent, were due to AI.
You May Also Like
While AI-focused layoffs hit workers across a wide range of employment statuses and ages at companies like Amazon and Walmart, Inc reported that AI has led to a hiring hiring freeze that has hit workers at the entry level particularly hard.
"The rise in youth unemployment might actually be a symptom of the rise in AI," Stephanie Roth, chief economist at Wolfe Research, told Inc. "It’s not even that AI is doing the job for these people, but companies have uncertainty about the direction of travel and they want to preserve optionality [by not hiring young people]."
All the while, Fortune reported that AI-fueled finance jobs taking over human jobs is predominately "smoke and mirrors" for now.
No matter how you look at it, this was a tough year for U.S. workers — and AI reportedly played a role.
Topics Artificial Intelligence
Christianna Silva is a senior culture reporter covering social platforms and the creator economy, with a focus on the intersection of social media, politics, and the economic systems that govern us. Since joining Mashable in 2021, they have reported extensively on meme creators, content moderation, and the nature of online creation under capitalism.
Before joining Mashable, they worked as an editor at NPR and MTV News, a reporter at Teen Vogue and VICE News, and as a stablehand at a mini-horse farm. You can follow her on Bluesky @christiannaj.bsky.social and Instagram @christianna_j.
