Employers cite AI for 120,136 US job cuts this year, double last year's figure, as it becomes a mainstream layoff reason

According to the available data, US employers cited artificial intelligence as the reason for 120,136 job cuts between January and September of this year. That is double the figure for the same period a year earlier. The headline describes AI as the leading cause of layoffs. The note does not give a breakdown by sector or name who compiled the data.

The figure comes in the same week Microsoft offered buyouts to about 60,000 employees while reporting profits of more than $36bn. Taken together, the pattern is consistent. Companies are openly giving AI as a reason for job cuts, not just quietly cutting.

**Our reading.** Two things are true at once. The impact is real and growing fast, and doubling in a year is no anomaly. But "cited AI" is not the same as "AI replaced": some companies use AI as a convenient label for cuts driven by cost or by moving money into compute. Either way, the burden falls on the same people, mostly in back-office and administrative roles. We remain optimistic about the long-term destination, abundance and work chosen by vocation. The transition is happening now, though, and it calls for retraining and social safety nets now, not once the curve has already steepened.