PinkSlipped.

            Issue No. 01 · July 2026
          

The Layoff Wire · Monthly

The month AI became
the reason.

US data only · Free to cite with attribution

For three years, "AI layoffs" were mostly a headline in search of a number. This quarter the number arrived. AI was cited in 13% of US job cuts so far this year — and in March, for the first time on record, it was the number-one cause. Up from 4.5% in all of 2025. From 0.6% the year before.

Here's the part the headlines keep missing: total layoffs are falling — Q1 was down 56% from a year ago. AI isn't driving a spiral. It's quietly taking a bigger share of a smaller number. That distinction matters to economists. It matters differently to the 4,800 people at Microsoft, the 1,395 on Meta's King County notice, and everyone else who learned this month which economy their layoff belongs to.

— The PinkSlipped Newsroom

01 · The Signal

25%

AI's share of March cuts — first month at #1

217,362

Total US cuts, Q1 — down 56% year over year

5,178

WARN filings since 2024 · 295K+ workers

99,470

Cumulative AI-cited cuts, 2023–Q1 2026

PinkSlipped reads it

Two stories are true at once. The pie is shrinking, and AI's slice is compounding. When the reason on the notice changes, what a worker should do in their first 72 hours changes with it.

02 · On the Wire

What moved this month.

● AI-Adjacent · Jul 6 · 4,800 workers

Microsoft cuts 4,800 as sales overhaul and Xbox reset land in the same AI budget year

Microsoft never said "AI took these jobs." It didn't have to — the money moving toward datacenters is the same money moving out of sales and gaming payroll. The cause is in the budget, not the press release. A 605-worker Redmond WARN notice takes effect September 4, into a metro absorbing Meta, Bungie, and Expeditors filings at the same time.

"When the same quarter funds a datacenter and empties a sales floor, the filing doesn't need the word 'AI' in it. Workers deserve to know which economy their layoff belongs to."

— PinkSlipped Newsroom · attributable

● Business Cycle · WARN eff. Jul 22 · 1,395 workers

Meta files WARN for 1,395 in King County — the largest single filing on the ledger

Five household names — Meta, Microsoft, Bungie, Starbucks, Expeditors — put notices into one metro in one summer. Concentration is the story: severance leverage, COBRA windows, and re-hire timelines all tighten exactly where filings cluster.

Also on the wire

Baker Hughes — 174, Houston plant closure · Robinhood — ~10% of workforce · Morris County pharma, NJ — 300+ · Cape Fear Valley Health — ~200 · JPMorgan Chase — 244, Plano call center

03 · The Read

The quietest layoff is the job that never gets posted.

The most important displacement story of 2026 isn't in any WARN filing. Stanford's analysis of ADP payroll data found that companies aren't firing their way into AI — they're not backfilling. Workers aged 22–25 in AI-exposed roles saw a 16% relative employment decline while their 35-and-over colleagues in the same jobs held steady or grew. No announcement, no notice, no severance.

And the road back is measurably harder: workers displaced from automated roles take about a month longer to find work and accept roughly 3% less pay on re-entry. Meanwhile, 55% of companies that made AI-driven cuts now say they regret them. The correction is real. It just doesn't un-ring the phone call.

Stanford DEL / ADP · Goldman Sachs · Forrester

If one of these filings is yours

The data is the map. You're the point on it.

Behind every number in this issue is a 60-day clock that's already running. Start with what actually moves outcomes in the first three days:

The First 72 Hours kit — free download
Find your pack — alumni networks
Talk it through with a person