Latest news with #ProcterGamble
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Layoffs sweep America as AI leads job cut 'bloodbath'
Elon Musk and hundreds of other tech mavens wrote an open letter two years ago warning AI would 'automate away all the jobs' and upend society. And it seems as if we should have listened to them. Layoffs are sweeping America, nixing thousands of roles at Microsoft, Walmart, and other titans, with the newly unemployed speaking of a'bloodbath' on the scale of the pandemic. This time it's not blue-collar and factory workers facing the ax - it's college grads with white-collar roles in tech, finance, law, and consulting. Entry-level jobs are vanishing the fastest, stoking fears of recession and a generation of disillusioned graduates left stranded with CVs no one wants. Graduates are now more likely to be unemployed than others, data has shown. Chatbots have already taken over data entry and customer service posts. Next-generation 'agentic' AI can solve problems, adapt, and work independently. These 'smartbots' are already spotting market trends, running logistics operations, writing legal contracts, and diagnosing patients. The markets have seen the future: AI investment funds are growing by as much as 60 per cent a year. 'The AI layoffs have begun, and they're not stopping,' says tech entrepreneur Alex Finn. Luddites who don't embrace the tech 'will be completely irrelevant in the next five years,' he posted on X. Procter & Gamble, which makes diapers, laundry detergent, and other household items, this week said it would cut 7,000 jobs, or about 15 per cent of non-manufacturing roles. Its two-year restructuring plan involves shedding managers who can be automated away. Microsoft last month announced a cull of 6,000 staff - about three per cent of its workforce - targeting managerial flab, after a smaller round of performance-related cuts in January. LA-based tech entrepreneur Jason Shafton said the software giant's layoffs spotlight a trend 'redefining' the job market. 'If AI saves each person 10 per cent of their time (and let's be real, it's probably more), what does that mean for a company of 200,000?' he wrote. Retail titan Walmart, America's biggest private employer, is slashing 1,500 tech, sales, and advertising jobs in a streamlining effort. Citigroup, cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, Disney, online education firm Chegg, Amazon, and Warner Bros. Discovery have culled dozens or even hundreds of their workers in recent weeks. Musk himself led a federal sacking spree during his 130-day stint at the Department of Government Efficiency, which ended on May 30. Federal agencies lost some 135,000 to firings and voluntary resignation under his watch, and 150,000 more roles are set to be mothballed. Employers had already announced 220,000 job cuts by the end of February, the highest layoff rate seen since 2009. In announcing cuts, executives often talk about restructuring and tough economic headwinds. Many are spooked by President Donald Trump's on-and-off tariffs, which sent stock markets into free-fall and prompted CEOs to second-guess their long-term plans. Others say something deeper is happening, as companies embrace the next-generation models of chatbots and AI. Robots and machines have for decades usurped factory workers. AI chatbots have more recently replaced routine, repetitive, data entry, and customer service roles. A new and more sophisticated technology - called Agentic AI - now operates more independently: perceiving the environment, setting goals, making plans, and executing them. AI-powered software now writes reports, analyzes spreadsheets, creates legal contracts, designs logos, and even drafts press releases, all in seconds. Banks are axing graduate recruitment schemes. Law firms are replacing paralegals with AI-driven tools. Even tech startups, the birthplace of innovation, are swapping junior developers for code-writing bots. Managers increasingly seek to become 'AI first' and test whether tasks can be done by AI before hiring a human. That's now company policy at Shopify and is how fintech firm Klarna shrank its headcount by 40 per cent, CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski told CNBC last month. Experienced workers are encouraged to automate tasks and get more work done; recent graduates are struggling to get their foot in the door. From a distance, the job market looks relatively buoyant, with unemployment holding steady at 4.2 per cent for the third consecutive month, the Labor Department reported on Friday. But it's unusually high - close to 6 per cent - among recent graduates. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York recently said job prospects for these workers had 'deteriorated noticeably'. That spells trouble not just for young workers, but for the long-term health of businesses - and the economy. Economists warn of an AI-induced downturn, as millions lose jobs, spending plummets, and social unrest festers. It's been dubbed an industrial revolution for the modern era, but one that's measured in years, not decades. Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, one of the world's most powerful AI firms, says we're at the start of a storm. AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs - and spike unemployment to 10-20 per cent in the next one to five years, he told Axios. Lawmakers have their heads in the sand and must stop 'sugar-coating' the grim reality of the late 2020s, Amodei said. 'Most of them are unaware that this is about to happen,' he said. 'It sounds crazy, and people just don't believe it.' Frustrations: Sacked workers have taken to social media to vent their frustrations about the new tech crunch Young people who've been culled are taking to social media to vent their anger as the door to a middle-class lifestyle closes on them. Patrick Lyons calls it 'jarring and unexpected' how he lost his Austin-based program managing job in an 'emotionless business decision' by Microsoft. 'There's nothing the 6,000 of us could have done to prevent this,' he posted. A young woman coder, known by her TikTok handle dotisinfluencing, posts a daily video diary about the 'f***ing massacre' of layoffs at her tech company as 'AI is taking over'. Her job search is going badly. She claims one recruiter appeared more interested in taking her out for drinks than offering a paycheck. 'I feel like s***,' she added. Ben Wolfson, a young Meta software engineer, says entry-level software jobs dried up in 2023. 'Big tech doesn't want you, bro,' he said. Critics say universities are churning out graduates into a market that simply doesn't need them. A growing number of young professionals say they feel betrayed - promised opportunity, but handed a future of 'AI-enhanced' redundancy. Others are eyeing an opportunity for a payout to try something different. Donald King posted a recording of the meeting in which he was unceremoniously laid off from his data science job at consulting firm PwC. 'RIP my AI factory job,' he said. 'I built the thing that destroyed me.' He now posts from Porto, in Portugal - a popular spot for digital nomads - where he's founded a marketing startup. Industry insiders say it won't be long before another generation of AI arrives to automate new sectors. As AI improves, the difference between 'safe' and 'automatable' work gets blurrier by the day. Human workers are advised to stay one step ahead and build AI into their own jobs to increase productivity. Optimists point to such careers as radiology - where humans initially looked set to be outmoded by machines that could speedily read medical scans and pinpoint tumors. But the layoffs didn't happen. The technology has been adopted - but radiologists adapted, using AI to sharpen images and automate some tasks, and boost productivity. Some radiology units even expanded their increasingly efficient human workforce. Others say AI is a scapegoat for 2025's job cuts - that executives are downsizing for economic reasons, and blaming technology so as not to panic shareholders. But for those who have lost their jobs, the future looks bleak.
Daily Mail
21 hours ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
The silent bloodbath that's tearing through the middle-class and rapidly flipping the US economy on its head
Elon Musk and hundreds of other tech mavens wrote an open letter two years ago about how AI was coming to 'automate away all the jobs' and upend society. It looks like we should have listened to them. Layoffs are sweeping America, nixing hundreds of thousands of jobs at Microsoft, Walmart, and other titans. The newly jobless speak of a 'bloodbath' on the scale of the pandemic. This time, it's not blue-collar and factory workers getting whacked — it's college graduates with white-collar jobs in tech, finance, law, and consulting. Entry-level jobs are vanishing the fastest — stoking fears of recession and a generation of disillusioned graduates left stranded with CVs no one wants. College grads are now much more likely to be unemployed than others, official data show. Chatbots have already taken over data entry and customer service jobs. Next-generation 'agentic' AI can solve problems, adapt, and work independently. These 'smartbots' are already spotting market trends, running logistics operations, writing legal contracts, and diagnosing patients. The markets have seen the future: AI investment funds are growing by as much as 60 percent a year. 'The AI layoffs have begun, and they're not stopping,' says tech entrepreneur Alex Finn. Luddites who don't embrace the tech 'will be completely irrelevant in the next five years,' he posted on X. Procter & Gamble, which makes diapers, laundry detergent, and other household items, this week said it would cut 7,000 jobs, or about 15 percent of non-manufacturing roles. Its two-year restructuring plan involves shedding managers who can be automated away. Microsoft last month announced a cull of 6,000 staff — about 3 percent of its workforce — targeting managerial flab, after a smaller round of performance-related cuts in January. LA-based tech entrepreneur Jason Shafton said the software giant's layoffs spotlight a trend 'redefining' the job market. 'If AI saves each person 10 percent of their time (and let's be real, it's probably more), what does that mean for a company of 200,000?' he wrote. Retail titan Walmart, America's biggest private employer, is slashing 1,500 tech, sales, and advertising jobs in a streamlining effort. Citigroup, cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, Disney, online education firm Chegg, Amazon, and Warner Bros. Discovery have culled dozens or even hundreds of their workers in recent weeks. Musk himself led a federal sacking spree during his 130-day stint at the Department of Government Efficiency, which ended on May 30. Federal agencies lost some 135,000 to firings and voluntary resignation under his watch, and 150,000 more roles are set to be mothballed. Memes like this being shared on social media reveal how badly white-collar jobs have been hit Employers had already announced 220,000 job cuts by the end of February, the highest layoff rate seen since 2009. In announcing cuts, executives often talk about restructuring and tough economic headwinds. Many are spooked by US President Donald Trump's on-and-off tariffs, which sent stock markets into free-fall and prompted CEOs to second-guess their long-term plans. Others say something deeper is happening, as companies embrace the next-generation models of chatbots and AI. Robots and machines have for decades usurped factory workers. AI chatbots have more recently replaced routine, repetitive, data entry and customer service roles. A new and more sophisticated technology — called Agentic AI — now operates more independently: perceiving the environment, setting goals, making plans, and executing them. AI-powered software now writes reports, analyses spreadsheets, creates legal contracts, designs logos, and even drafts press releases, all in seconds. Banks are axing graduate recruitment schemes. Law firms are replacing paralegals with AI-driven tools. Even tech startups, the birthplace of innovation, are swapping junior developers for code-writing bots. Managers increasingly seek to become 'AI first' and test whether tasks can be done by AI before hiring a human. That's now company policy at Shopify. It's how fintech firm Klarna shrank its headcount by 40 percent, CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski told CNBC last month. Experienced workers are encouraged to automate tasks and get more work done; recent graduates are struggling to get their foot in the door. From a distance, the job market looks relatively buoyant, with unemployment holding steady at 4.2 percent for the third consecutive month, the Labor Department reported on Friday. But it's unusually high — close to 6 percent — among recent graduates. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York recently said job prospects for these workers had 'deteriorated noticeably.' That spells trouble not just for young workers, but for the long-term health of businesses — and the economy. Economists warn of an AI-induced downturn, as millions lose jobs, spending plummets, and social unrest festers. It's been dubbed an industrial revolution for the modern era, but one that's measured in years, not decades. Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, one of the world's most powerful AI firms, says we're at the start of a storm. AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs — and spike unemployment to 10-20 percent in the next one to five years, he told Axios. Lawmakers have their heads in the sand and must stop 'sugar-coating' the grim reality of the late 2020s, Amodei said. 'Most of them are unaware that this is about to happen,' he said. Sacked workers have taken to social media to vent their frustrations about the new tech crunch 'It sounds crazy, and people just don't believe it.' Young people who've been culled are taking to social media to vent their anger as the door to a middle-class lifestyle closes on them. Patrick Lyons calls it 'jarring and unexpected' how he lost his Austin-based program managing job in an 'emotionless business decision' by Microsoft. 'There's nothing the 6,000 of us could have done to prevent this,' he posted. A young woman coder, known by her TikTok handle dotisinfluencing, posts a daily video diary about the 'f*****g massacre' of layoffs at her tech company as 'AI is taking over,' she says. Her job search is going badly — one recruiter appeared more interested in taking her out for drinks than offering a paycheck, she said. 'I feel like s**t,' she added. Ben Wolfson, a young Meta software engineer, says entry-level software jobs dried up in 2023. 'Big tech doesn't want you, bro,' he says. Critics say universities are churning out graduates into a market that simply doesn't need them. A growing number of young professionals say they feel betrayed — promised opportunity, but handed a future of 'AI-enhanced' redundancy. Others are eyeing an opportunity for a payout to try something different. Donald King posted a recording of the meeting in which he was unceremoniously laid off from his data science job at consulting firm PwC. 'RIP my AI factory job,' he said. 'I built the thing that destroyed me.' He now posts from Porto, in Portugal — a popular spot for digital nomads — where he's founded a marketing startup. Industry insiders say it won't be long before another generation of AI arrives to automate new sectors. As AI improves, the difference between 'safe' and 'automatable' work gets blurrier by the day. Human workers are advised to stay one step ahead and build AI into their own jobs to increase productivity. Optimists point to such careers as radiology — where humans initially looked set to be outmoded by machines that could speedily read medical scans and pinpoint tumors. But the layoffs didn't happen. The technology has been adopted — but radiologists adapted, using AI to sharpen images and automate some tasks, and boost productivity. Some radiology units even expanded their increasingly efficient human workforce. Others say AI is a scapegoat for 2025's job cuts — that executives are downsizing for economic reasons, and blaming technology so as not to panic shareholders. But for those who have lost their jobs, the future looks bleak.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Procter & Gamble to cut 7,000 jobs, exit brands
STORY: Procter & Gamble announced on Thursday that it will cut 7,000 jobs over the next two years, fueled in part by U.S. tariffs that have roiled numerous consumer companies. The job cuts at Procter & Gamble, the world's largest consumer goods company, amount to about 6% of its workforce. Executives characterized the layoffs as part of the company's ongoing strategy. Procter & Gamble also plans to exit some product categories and brands in certain markets as part of a broader two-year restructuring plan. President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs on trading partners have shaken global markets and sparked concerns of a recession in the United States. Procter & Gamble on Thursday estimated it would take a tariff hit of $600 million, before taxes, in its fiscal year 2026, based on current tariff rates. Overall, the trade war has cost companies at least $34 billion in lost sales and higher costs, according to a Reuters analysis. P&G has said it would raise prices on some products, adding it's prepared to "pull every lever" in its arsenal to mitigate the impact of tariffs, primarily through higher prices and cost-cutting. Shares of Proctor & Gamble fell about 2% on Thursday. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
US giant behind Gillette and Pampers nappies plans to cut up to 7,000 jobs in two years
The company behind Gillette and Pampers is to axe up to 7,000 jobs. US multinational Procter & Gamble is reducing its non-manufacturing workforce by about 15 per cent in two years, as it pursues 'efficiencies, faster innovation and cost reduction'. P&G said it was not currently specifying which regions or roles would be affected. It had about 108,000 employees at the end of June last year. Around half were in manufacturing, and more than a quarter were in the US. It makes a range of brands such as Ariel, Tampax and Head & Shoulders. It has said that it is exposed to risks in the global economic environment, including new and increased tariffs.
Forbes
3 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Procter & Gamble To Layoff Up To 7,000 Amid Slow Growth In USA
Changes at P&G as consumer spending slows. Procter & Gamble (P&G), the owner of consumer brands like Tide, Pampers and Swiffer, has announced plans to layoff up to 7,000 workers over the next two years. The plans are part of a larger restructuring announced by the company's CFO, Andre Schulten, at a Deutsche Bank consumer conference in Paris on Thursday. The company announced plans to possibly exit some of its lower-performing brands, citing slow growth in the U.S. as part of the reason for the restructuring. MarketWatch reports that Schulten said, 'The point of volatility impacting our business [has] P&G employs over 30,000 workers in the U.S., with a global workforce of approximately 108,000. The company earns 48% of its total revenues from the domestic American market, which is its largest, according to reports in the Cincinnati Enquirer. The company says the the job cuts will affect "nonmanufacturing" workers (so, white collar jobs). The company's 52,000 employees in factories (including 24 manufacturing plants in the U.S. and 78 plants in 33 other countries) won't be targeted. CNBC reports that North American organic sales for the consumer giant rose just 1%, in the company's fiscal third quarter. Last month, the company proclaimed that the U.S. consumer had 'hit pause', due to economic uncertainty. The company's plan will cut approximately 6.5% of its total workforce over the next 24 months. As mentioned previously, white collar workers will be targeted disproportionately, and will be cut by 15%. In previous remarks, reported by Marketwatch, Schulen shared that, "The consumer has been hit with a lot, and that's a lot to process. So what we're seeing, I think, is a logical response from the consumer, to pause.' Schulten noted that consumer consumption has slowed to about 1% in February and March, from about 3% over the past 12 months. 'This restructuring program is an important step toward ensuring our ability to deliver our long-term algorithm over the coming two to three years,' Schulten told CNBC, who reports that the restructuting program will include layoffs and brand exits. The total pricetag is estimated to be $1-1.6 billion for the company's plans. 'It does not, however, remove the near-term challenges that we currently face.' For leaders today, especially those focused on consumer brands, the message from P&G follows the announcement of other brands like Microsoft, IBM, the Walt Disney Company and Walmart - just a few of the companies announcing layoffs recently. However, the P&G announcement is an adjustment, not an alarm. The company's CFO told investors in Paris that the company is taking an even-handed approach to the layoffs, over the next two years, with an eye on adjusting the company's portfolio of brands to meet consumer demand - something that P&G has been doing since its inception in 1837. That's right: the company is almost 200 years old. With a portfolio of 300 brands, including Dawn, Downy, Crest, Head & Shoulders and lots of other things in your pantry, kitchen and bathroom. As a multi-billion dollar international conglomerate, P&G is responding to market forces, including tariffs, to prepare for the future. However, that preparation is not a hard shift or massive course-correction for the consumer giant. What's often missing from the headlines is the understanding of just how resilient large companies can be, under wise leadership and guidance. Nevertheless, these layoffs are an important trend to watch, as consumer spending contracts in the USA.
