The EBN Dispatch

Jobless claims fell. AI adoption climbed. Job applications are up. On paper, this was a good week. Then Nike, Workday and Citi all confirmed job cuts, a lawsuit alleged Ford disguised layoffs as poor performance, and tech-sector layoffs rose 77% in a single month. This week's Paper Cut looks at the gap between what the data says and what the week actually felt like. In this week's Paper Cut: - Nik...

Six companies confirmed job cuts this week, spanning insurance, media, pharmaceuticals, automotive and tech, while new research finds nearly half of CHROs are excluded from AI strategy entirely. Add graduates fighting brutal odds for entry-level roles and experienced women quietly pushed out of promotion and board pipelines, and the pattern holds: the decision gets made first, and the people it af...

Uber's own laid-off staff say AI was already doing their jobs, even though the company's layoff memo never mentioned it. Omnicom, Oracle and KPMG are all cutting too, and none of them are calling it a straightforward layoff either. Barclays staff are revolting against a tighter office mandate, and new evidence says older workers and graduates are both being quietly filtered out of hiring. In this...

One employee says his AI bonus scheme is really proof he's not needed anymore. Meanwhile UK data centres will create a quarter of the jobs the industry promised, managers are being cut in one company and asked back in another, and this week's reckonings over who pays land three different ways. This week on Paper Cut: - The datacentre jobs that aren't materialising, and the robots stepping in anywa...

Uber, Volkswagen and WPP all cut deeper this week, and the people who stayed were asked for more hours or more work, not more pay. Plus new data showing over half of laid-off workers don't believe the AI explanation for their own redundancy. This week on Paper Cut: - Uber's layoffs and the managers left holding a bigger workload - Why over half of laid-off workers suspect AI is a cover story, and...

Fei Zhaojun's boss asked if AI could replace coders. Two weeks later, he and 160 colleagues were laid off in Beijing. But a new HBR analysis, citing Goldman Sachs, argues most layoffs blamed on AI this year aren't actually AI's doing. Plus: Reed Hastings on why companies aren't families, Disney's early retirement memo, and why the graduate job market just hit its lowest point in a decade. This wee...

Diageo, Starbucks, Sanofi and KPMG all cut jobs this week, three of them calling it a turnaround and one unable to even manage the euphemism. UK productivity is finally moving, Dutch unemployment is rising for a third straight month, and a new peer-reviewed study of 7,704 healthcare workers found fully remote staff happier and less likely to quit than colleagues back at their desks. Plus: new rese...

TikTok wants staff back five days a week. Dropbox is doubling down on remote. This episode covers that split, plus Oracle's layoffs against Singapore's AI employment gains, hiring data that can't agree with itself, and who actually gets blamed when the work doesn't get done. This week's Paper Cut covers: TikTok's five-day RTO mandate versus Dropbox's virtual-first commitment, plus ABN Amro's RTO-a...

The Bank of England says AI is lifting productivity and costing jobs, in the same breath. This episode covers that, plus a jobs report that says the market is fine while workers say otherwise, Gen Z's surprising ambition, and pay negotiation getting a new referee. This week's Paper Cut covers: - The Bank of England's dual verdict on AI, productivity and jobs, plus what "botsitting" is costing empl...

Employers are planning pay rises and more hiring this quarter. Visa, Uber, and CBA are cutting roles and citing AI, in the same week. This episode covers the split, plus AI adoption without training, RTO culture, and EBN and EBClub joining forces. This week's Paper Cut covers: - Pay rises and hiring plans at Japanese and Chinese employers, against AI-linked cuts at Visa, and AI substitution at CBA...

US jobless claims just hit a decades-low. In the same week, Uber, British Gas, and Amazon all cut jobs citing AI, and Google employees organised a petition 4,500 signatures deep. This week's Paper Cut covers: the contradiction between decades-low jobless claims and a steady drumbeat of AI-cited layoffs at Uber, Centrica, and Amazon, including the irony of Amazon cutting its own AGI team; Google's...

A lawsuit alleges an algorithm chose who got laid off at Meta, and allegedly targeted staff on protected medical leave. Volkswagen's threatened cuts just became a confirmed number. And a new phrase, the forever layoff, is giving language to something a lot of HR leaders have felt for a while. This week's Paper Cut covers: the Meta AI layoff lawsuit and what it means for algorithmic accountability...

Big Tech stopped hiding behind euphemisms on AI layoffs this week and flip-flopped on its own story, the labour participation drop finally got a number nobody can explain, and Volkswagen is weighing 100,000 job cuts as its old headcount math stops working. This week's Paper Cut covers: Microsoft and Xbox naming AI displacement directly in layoff announcements, and the irony of the Fed appointing a...

An algorithm ended up in court this week, an engineer described his job quietly outgrowing his week, and the labour market lost more people than the unemployment rate admits. Subscribe: https://ebn.to/sub25 Follow EBN on LinkedIn: https://ebn.to/lin25 This week's Paper Cut covers: the Workday age-discrimination case that could set a precedent for AI hiring tools everywhere; what AI is actually doi...

Twenty-one thousand jobs. One government tracker. Two banks that forgot their own RTO policy. Hot enough for you? Subscribe: https://ebn.to/sub25 Follow EBN on LinkedIn: https://ebn.to/lin25 This fortnight's Paper Cut covers four stories that connect in ways nobody is saying out loud. AI is reshaping the workforce faster than governance can follow. RTO mandates are cracking under the weight of the...

AI was meant to reduce work. Instead, employees are spending more time managing the machines. This week’s Paper Cut covers botsitting, broken graduate on-ramps, ghost jobs and regulated trust, white-collar hiring pressure, and The Cut List of layoffs shaped by AI spending and restructuring. 📰 Subscribe: https://ebn.to/sub25 🔗 Follow EBN on LinkedIn: https://ebn.to/lin25 Hashtags #FutureOfWork #A...

Graduates are struggling to break in as hybrid becomes a career filter and AI work shifts into a blame-and-proof culture. We cover the broken on-ramp, token-driven measurement, WFH surveillance, labour market strain, and The Cut List of layoffs and restructures. 📰 Subscribe: https://ebn.to/sub25 🔗 Follow EBN on LinkedIn: https://ebn.to/lin25 ⸻ Sources & Links The early-career on-ramp * https...

AI is being used to justify restructures, expand monitoring, and compress entry-level pathways. This week’s Paper Cut covers the efficiency trap (Jevons Paradox at work), agents moving into HR and finance, the pipeline risk when entry work disappears, the rising control stack, and The Cut List of major job cuts. 📰 Subscribe: https://ebn.to/sub25 🔗 Follow EBN on LinkedIn: https://ebn.to/lin25 ⸻ S...

Pay is louder. Measurement is heavier. Cuts keep arriving. This week’s Paper Cut is about the bargain underneath it all: what employers are taking away, what they’re demanding in return, and why “efficiency” keeps landing as monitoring plus headcount reduction. We cover burnout and compensation pressure, AI turning into policy and proof culture, flexibility being renegotiated, HR’s expanding remit...

Low unemployment can hide a labour crisis. Underemployment is rising, AI is reshaping wages and expectations, monitoring is becoming normal, and engagement is sliding as the employee bargain tightens. Plus The Cut List of major layoffs. 📰 Subscribe: https://ebn.to/sub25 🔗 Follow EBN on LinkedIn: https://ebn.to/lin25 ⸻ Sources & Links Underemployment and insecurity * https://employerbranding....

The workplace bargain is shifting. Benefits tighten, measurement grows, and AI becomes a benchmark for hiring and expectations. This week covers culture as an operating system, AI framing and job design, burnout boundaries returning, hidden risk from shadow IT and workplace comms, plus The Cut List. 📰 Subscribe: https://ebn.to/sub25 🔗 Follow EBN on LinkedIn: https://ebn.to/lin25 ⸻ Sources &...

Benefits are being trimmed, AI adoption is being measured, and HR is stuck managing the fallout. This week: the perks rollback, scorecards and monitoring, the widening career divide for graduates, and The Cut List. 📰 Subscribe: https://ebn.to/sub25 🔗 Follow EBN on LinkedIn: https://ebn.to/lin25 ⸻ Sources & Links Benefits rollback and work design * https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/ap...

Workplace AI is turning into a rework tax. Employees opt out, gains vanish into error-fixing, and leaders respond with dashboards, monitoring, and performance rules. Plus the early-career squeeze, remote work resistance, and this week’s Cut List. 📰 Subscribe: https://ebn.to/sub25 🔗 Follow EBN on LinkedIn: https://ebn.to/lin25 ⸻ Sources & Links AI adoption, trust, and rework * https://indiane...

AI at work is turning into a trust problem. Employees are opting out, productivity gains are being lost to rework, and leaders are tying AI to pay and performance. Plus EU pay transparency rules, identity governance risks, and this week’s Cut List. 📰 Subscribe: https://ebn.to/sub25 🔗 Follow EBN on LinkedIn: https://ebn.to/lin25 ⸻ Sources & Links Adoption, perception, and rework • https://ind...

Gen Z backlash is colliding with flatter orgs and wider spans. Manager engagement is slipping, entry-level routes are tightening, and HR is experimenting with AI in pay decisions while fairness scrutiny rises. The trust gap is the story. 📰 Subscribe: https://ebn.to/sub25 🔗 Follow EBN on LinkedIn: https://ebn.to/lin25 ⸻ Sources & Links Engagement, managers, and motivation • https://www.gallup...