US layoffs surged to their highest May level since the pandemic in 2020, with employers announcing more than 97,000 job cuts across the country last month and citing artificial intelligence as a key factor in roughly 40% of those decisions, according to data released by Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
The figures, published in June, place fresh scrutiny on how deeply AI is reshaping the labour market, or at least how readily it is being blamed for upheaval that was already under way.
