The EBN Dispatch

Barclays is cutting about 5,000 jobs and calls AI the icing on the cake, not the cake. More than 100 people queued for one cafe job in Manchester. Volkswagen's works council says management plans a pay freeze to 2030. This week's Paper Cut asks who is blaming AI, and who is paying. Four themes: who is blaming AI for job cuts, the first job for young people, AI at the manager's desk, and pay and accountability. Then the Cut List, with eight employers confirming or detailing cuts this week, and the next EBClub events in Madrid, Paris, Rotterdam and London. Subscribe: https://ebn.to/sub25 Follow EBN on LinkedIn: https://ebn.to/lin25 Employer Branding News: https://employerbranding.news

Nine in ten US CEOs expect to hire. Kroger, Netflix, TomTom and Airtable are cutting. Singapore's president says the first graduate job is losing demand. This week's Paper Cut asks how much of it is really AI. Four themes: the cuts and the reasons given for them, the squeeze on the first job against CEO optimism, the hidden cost of AI at work, and trust, pay and monitoring. Then the Cut List, with seven employers confirming cuts or exits this week, and a look inside EBClub. Subscribe: https://ebn.to/sub25 Follow EBN on LinkedIn: https://ebn.to/lin25 Employer Branding News: https://employerbranding.news

Goldman's new hires manage AI agents, Citi shortens the ladder, Bayer cuts 70% of managers. This week's Paper Cut covers the org chart being redrawn. Four themes: hiring that has frozen while the bottom rungs of the ladder shrink, AI rollouts with no clear owner for the people side, how companies are delivering their cuts, and the office argument reaching the courts. Then the Cut List, with seven employers confirming job reductions this week, and a look inside EBClub. Subscribe: https://ebn.to/sub25 Follow EBN on LinkedIn: https://ebn.to/lin25 Subscribe to Paper Cut: https://employerbranding.news/tag/paper-cut/ Employer Branding News: https://employerbranding.news

Jobless claims fell. AI adoption climbed. Job applications are up. On paper, this was a good week. Then Nike, Workday and Citi all confirmed job cuts, a lawsuit alleged Ford disguised layoffs as poor performance, and tech-sector layoffs rose 77% in a single month. This week's Paper Cut looks at the gap between what the data says and what the week actually felt like. In this week's Paper Cut: - Nike, Workday and Citi all cutting jobs, even as layoff data eases - Why AI adoption keeps climbing while AI transformation stalls - A lawsuit alleging Ford used performance reviews to disguise layoffs - LinkedIn's CEO on a hiring market drowning in AI-written applications - The "two-job job": 61% of workers now doing more than one role Subscribe to the newsletter: https://ebn.to/sub25 Follow EBN on LinkedIn: https://ebn.to/lin25 Join EBClub: https://ebclub.io/ytjoin #employerbranding #hrnews #talentacquisition

Six companies confirmed job cuts this week, spanning insurance, media, pharmaceuticals, automotive and tech, while new research finds nearly half of CHROs are excluded from AI strategy entirely. Add graduates fighting brutal odds for entry-level roles and experienced women quietly pushed out of promotion and board pipelines, and the pattern holds: the decision gets made first, and the people it affects find out after. In this week's Paper Cut: - Legal & General, Admiral, BBC Sport, Novo Nordisk, Porsche and Microsoft all cutting jobs in the same week - Why nearly half of CHROs are shut out of AI strategy decisions entirely - Executives promising a shorter working week while graduates fight for a shrinking number of entry-level roles - The quiet removal of experienced women from promotion and board pipelines Subscribe to the newsletter: https://ebn.to/sub25 Follow EBN on LinkedIn: https://ebn.to/lin25 Join EBClub: https://ebclub.io/ytjoin #employerbranding #hrnews #talentacquisition