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The October 2025 announcements from Target and UPS—1,800 corporate reductions and disclosure of 34,000 year-to-date layoffs respectively—collectively eliminated over 36,000 positions during a single month. These aren’t pandemic corrections or recession responses. Both companies maintain strong financial performance while systematically reducing human capital investment, signaling what economists increasingly call a “white-collar AI recession” where technology displaces professional workers even as corporate revenues grow.
Target’s restructuring reflects mounting pressures but doesn’t stem from financial collapse. According to CNBC’s analysis of October job market data, Target’s 1,800 corporate cuts represent the retailer’s first major layoffs in a decade, driven by flat or declining sales over nine of the past eleven quarters. Yet Chief Operating Officer Michael Fiddelke framed reductions as addressing “too many layers and overlapping work” that “slowed decisions”—language remarkably similar to Amazon’s bureaucracy-reduction rationale. The workforce grew faster than sales, and AI-enabled efficiency gains provide justification for correction.
UPS disclosed the most substantial absolute numbers: 34,000 job losses since January 2025, significantly exceeding the 20,000 cuts initially projected. These reductions accompanied closure of 93 facilities as the company restructures for automated operations. By Q4, 66 percent of UPS volume will flow through automated facilities, up from 63 percent the prior year. CEO Carol Tomé has indicated AI and automation will continue reshaping future hiring needs even more dramatically than current workforce reductions suggest.
The financial context makes these decisions particularly striking. As Fortune’s analysis of middle management displacement notes, Gartner estimates that by 2026, one in five organizations will use AI to eliminate at least half of their management layers. Both Target and UPS appear to be positioning for that threshold.
Understanding 1.1 Million Jobs Cut in 2025: October Posts Highest Layoffs in 22 Years as AI Reshapes American Workforce provides essential context for these individual corporate decisions within aggregate labor market trends.
The pattern extends beyond these two giants. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon told employees the Wall Street lender would “constrain headcount growth through the end of the year” due to AI efficiencies. Paramount announced 1,000 cuts following its Skydance merger. Each example reinforces the pattern: AI excels at precisely the customer-facing, information-processing roles that once seemed secure professional employment.
What distinguishes this economic moment from previous downturns is simultaneous collapse in hiring alongside elevated layoffs. Workers displaced from Target and UPS face not only job loss but contracted opportunities as employers across sectors adopt similar efficiency-driven approaches to workforce management.
Examining Meta’s 3,600 “Low Performer” Layoffs Mask Zuckerberg’s Plan to Replace Mid-Level Engineers with AI reveals the speed at which companies can implement workforce-reducing technologies once deployment begins.
For workers in middle management, corporate support functions, or customer-facing roles, the implications are sobering. The combination of strong corporate earnings, elevated layoffs, suppressed hiring, and explicit AI attribution suggests structural rather than cyclical workforce transformation.
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About the Author
Jim Toppe is the founder of Toppe Consulting, a digital marketing agency specializing in law firms. He holds a Master of Science in Management from Clemson University and teaches Business Law and Marketing at Greenville Technical College. Jim also serves as publisher and editor for South Carolina Manufacturing, a digital magazine. His unique background combines legal knowledge with digital marketing expertise to help attorneys grow their practices through compliant, results-driven strategies.
Works Cited
Pitt, Jeff. “Job cuts in October hit highest level for the month in 22 years, Challenger says.” CNBC, 6 Nov. 2025, www.cnbc.com/2025/11/06/job-cuts-in-october-hit-highest-level-for-the-month-in-22-years-challenger-says.html. Accessed 14 Nov. 2025.
Roytburg, Eva. “Everyone thinks AI is replacing factory workers, but Amazon’s layoffs show it’s coming for middle management first.” Fortune, 29 Oct. 2025, fortune.com/2025/10/29/amazon-layoffs-ai-middle-managers-robots-factory-workers/. Accessed 14 Nov. 2025.
