The past two years have been remarkable for layoffs in various sectors including technology, finance, manufacturing, media, and retail. as per the latest analysis, it looks like in 2025 layoffs would be common with companies like Microsoft, BlackRock, and Ally Financial all looking to downsize their companies this year. A recent report on Business Insider by Veronica Ordonez showcases how these companies are moving towards a cost-cutting approach to cope with the surging technological changes influenced by AI.

In a recent World Economy Forum report on Future Jobs, it was suggested that 41% of companies were willing to let go due to the Artificial Intelligence automisation process. With reports suggesting that AI will cost over 92 million people jobs by the year of 2030, it is also predicted that at the same time it will instate 170 million new positions.

Remarkably, firms like Dropbox, Google, and IBM even publicly professed that AI is the cause of their layoffs. Here are the firms which are presumed to layoff employees in 2025:

BlackRock

As per reports by Bloomberg, BlackRock Woldwide is on a course to slash its in-house workforce (from total of 21,000) by at least 200 employees, which is strategically motivated to align the resources towards repositioning the target objectives of the company. In addition to this, these plans will also be complemented with robust recruitment drives, new employees in 2024 and another 2,000 in 2025 On this Rob Kapito, president of Blackrock, and its COO, Rob Goldstein together stressed the need for the repositioning of the organization’s emphasis on strategic objectives.

Bridgewater Associates

In a particular case, one of the last hedge funds to manage significant investments, Bridgewater Associates has laid its employees by 7% in a particular case, to streamline its operations. Business Insider had also more or less reported that the cuts had returned the total number of positions to those present in 2023. The specific ratio of inseparables has already been explained in the context of the company’s historical context. In 2019 the founder Ray Dalio related the fact that almost 30% of the newly recruited left the company within 18 months after starting.

‘The Washington Post’ article.

According to the Washington post, around 100 positions are likely to be cut in order to help manage training costs. As stated by a representative from the company, they made it clear that it would not involve any cuts to the newsroom and is aimed to assist the company with its processes restructuring and sustainability goals. The organization focuses on catering to the industry and reaching people using contemporary sources, as reported by Reuters.

‘Microsoft’

Microsoft is set to take steps that would see them cutting the workforce, with the plan being targeting employees that do not meet the desired performance bar. They have not provided specific figures yet but did mention priorities on the cultivation of high talents within the organization. According to Business Insider, a company spokesperson pointed out that Microsoft is keen on developing the employees and that being non-performance based demonstrates in other forms which are then taken care of.  

‘Ally Financial’

Ally Financial has established that it will be looking to cut approximately 500 jobs which is about 4.5 percent of their total labor force which stands shoulder to shoulder with 11,000 employees Ally has confirmed. They have however said that the cutbacks are just part of long term strategies in place to control the staff levels and headcount to be able to continue business recruiting into new high growth areas. According to the Charlotte Observer, Ally made similar cutbacks in October 2023.

According to Layoffs.fyi tracker statistics for 2024, around 545 tech firms have dismissed around 1,52,074 employees. Around 1,193 firms let go of around 2,64,220 employees in the year 2023.

The changes made in employment levels mirror the modern technology as well as economic challenges that the entire industry is going through. The changes further explain the harsh realities of automation but also illustrate the chances of growth and adjustment in the diverse and transforming labour market.