Breaking Job News: Amazon’s 14K Layoffs, ADP’s New Jobs Tracker, and the Rise of AI in Job Posts

When 14,000 jobs disappear overnight, it’s more than a headline; it’s a turning point. Amazon’s massive layoffs mark one of the year's most significant corporate contractions, driven by a bold bet on AI and automation. Host Pete Newsome breaks down what this move means for tech workers, the job market, and the speed of AI adoption inside major companies.

Pete starts with the human side: severance concerns, healthcare coverage, and growing political pressure on big tech to balance innovation with responsibility. Then he turns to fresh labor insights from ADP’s new weekly jobs tracker, a first-of-its-kind dataset offering near real-time payroll trends. Is faster data enough to steady hiring confidence or just more noise in a volatile market?

From there, he dives into Indeed’s analysis of AI job postings, revealing just how deeply artificial intelligence is reshaping hiring. Mentions of AI have surged, especially in development, recruiting, and logistics, but many employers still don’t explain how it’s actually used. For job seekers, Pete shares practical ways to highlight genuine AI fluency, even if your current role isn’t tech-focused.

This episode connects the dots between layoffs, automation, and opportunity, showing how AI is rewriting the rules of work in real time.

News Articles:
1. Amazon to Cut About 14,000 Corporate Jobs in AI Push: https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/amazon-lay-off-about-14000-roles-2025-10-28/
2. ADP Announces National Employment Report: https://mediacenter.adp.com/2025-10-28-ADP-Announces-National-Employment-Report-Preliminary-Estimate-Publicly-Available-on-a-Weekly-Cadence
3. Gartner Says CHROs Must Become an Enterprise Leader of How Work Should Change in the AI Era: https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2025-10-27-gartner-says-chros-must-become-an-enterprise-leader-of-how-work-should-change-in-the-ai-era
4. How Employers Are Talking About AI in Job Postings: https://www.hiringlab.org/2025/10/28/how-employers-are-talking-about-ai-in-job-postings/

💬 What do you think: Are Amazon’s layoffs the start of a new AI labor era, or a warning sign for the workforce ahead?

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Episode Transcript

Pete Newsome (00:00):
Today's job market headlines include ADP's new
weekly payroll data, three wayscompanies are reinventing work,
and how AI is showing up in jobpostings.
But first, Amazon justannounced another 14,000
corporate job cuts, calling itpart of a broader restructuring
to reduce bureaucracy and shiftresources toward its biggest
bets, artificial intelligenceand automation.

(00:22):
Amazon expects to spend about$118 billion this year on
capital investments, much of ittied to those technologies.
It's an announcement that'scatching a lot of attention.
Senator Bernie Sanders hasalready sent a letter to Amazon
founder Jeff Bezos, writing thatthe company's massive
automation plan could costhundreds of thousands of
blue-collar jobs.
Sanders asked Bezos whetherAmazon plans to provide laid-off

(00:46):
workers with fair severance andcontinued healthcare coverage,
noting that many of thecompany's workers already rely
on federal assistance programs.
He wrote, What are Amazon'splans to provide help and
support for the many hundreds ofthousands of workers you'll be
replacing with robots and AI?
Now, just last week, Sandersasked a similar question in
response to an ex post from ElonMusk where Elon stated, robots

(01:09):
will replace all jobs.
No one is.
No one knows the answer towhat's going to be on the other

(01:29):
side of this, but make nomistake, companies are moving
forward with implementing AI.
And for anyone who believes AIisn't going to take jobs, you're
just fooling yourself on thisat this point.
It's happening right now.
Amazon's decision is a clearsignal that automation and AI
have gone from theoretical tooperational.
And this should just be awake-up call for anyone who's

(01:52):
still on the sidelines herebecause we see stories of this
nature almost every day lately.
So we'll continue to monitorthese.
I'll continue to report on it,but it is happening as we speak.
In the next headline, ADPResearch just launched a weekly
version of its nationalemployment report.
It's intended to give employersand analysts near real-time

(02:13):
insights into private sector jobgrowth.
Today's preliminary releaseshowed an increase of 14,250
jobs in the four weeks endingOctober 11th.
That's good news, but ADP hasto show that this data is
reliable and can be consistent.
They just did their best Bureauof Labor Statistics impression
on the last monthly employmentreport where they revised

(02:36):
numbers from the month prior.
I'll call it a glitch.
They just called it a revision.
So they didn't clarify whyexactly that happened.

(02:58):
And it is coming at a good timesince we aren't seeing any
numbers from the Department ofLabor or BLS right now during
the shutdown.
So we're kind of operating inthe dark as far as tracking
what's happening in the jobmarket.
And I do like this privatepayroll data above anything that
the government reports.
So look, this is a small stepin the right direction.
We did see uh growth in thatfour-week period, so we'll take

(03:21):
it as a win, even if it's asmall one.
In other news, AI isn't justchanging jobs, it's changing
work itself.
Yesterday, Gardner saidcompanies that redesign how work
gets done, not just deploy AI,are twice as likely to beat
revenue goals.
They outlined three ways workis evolving: augmenting existing
tasks to make them faster andmore accurate, re-engineering

(03:43):
workflows and functions to driveefficiency, and inventing
entirely new AI-based ways ofworking that improve scale and
disrupt markets.
Alright, that all makes sense.
I mean it's kind of stating theobvious to a degree, but I have
come to realize thatimplementing AI solutions are
much easier said than done.
And so the challenge forleaders is to help employees and

(04:03):
their organizations as a wholeuse AI effectively, not just
adopt it.
And speaking of adoption,Gardner predicts that by 2028,
15% of daily work decisions willbe made autonomously by agentic
AI.
I believe that's an incrediblylow forecast.
And what's even more surprisingto me is their estimation that

(04:25):
less than 1% of US jobs will belost to AI through 2028.
And when I see numbers likethat, I think they're either
delusional for reporting that ordeliberately misleading us.
And coincidentally, next weekwill mark two years since Chat

(04:47):
GPT was first published, wasfirst introduced.
That didn't exist three yearsago as of right now.
And so it's impossible for meto fathom the developments that
we will see over the next threeyears.
We have all of 26, 27, and allof 28, and we're only gonna see
1% of U.S.
jobs displaced by AI.

(05:08):
I'm not buying that at all.
That seems, again, almostirresponsible to report.
So when you hear statementslike that, please don't take
that as gospel and assume thatthis disruption by AI is not
going to be as significant as Ibelieve it is.
I say it every time it comesup.
I hope I'm wrong, but I believethis is going to be the most

(05:28):
significant thing to happen inour lifetime.
And it's gonna happen a lotfaster than many sources,
including Gartner, arereporting.
And in the final headlinetoday, everyone is saying AI,
but many companies can't explainwhat they mean by it.
A new hiring lab report fromIndeed looked at hundreds of
thousands of job postings thatreferenced AI and found that

(05:50):
while mentions are rising fast,one in four postings gives
little or no context about howAI will actually be used.
I'm not shocked to see that.
I mean, since many companiesare making up their AI
strategies as they go right now,and they're changing
constantly.
We know that that's happening.
But in AI-related job posts, themost commonly used phrase is no

(06:14):
surprise, AI, followed byartificial intelligence,
generative AI, gen AI, and deeplearning.
Now Indeed created fivecategories to try to apply
context to the use of thesephrases.
And they are core AIdevelopment and use, which
accounted for 52% of the use ofAI in job postings.

(06:34):
AI recruiting tools come insecond at 13.6%.
So it's very clear that a lotof companies right now are
interested in using AI in theirrecruiting, systems design,
AI-powered services and tools,and transportation load
matching.
That was a bit of a surprise tome, seemed like an outlier in
this in this group, but it tellsme that tells all of us that AI

(06:58):
is being used heavily intrucking and logistics.
And despite their effort tofind logical groupings, indeed
discovered that 25% of jobdescriptions lacked a clear
theme and seemed to useAI-related words generically.
Doesn't surprise me at all,right?
I mean, that's kind of what'shappening right now.
Everyone wants to be in on theAI party, but not everyone

(07:22):
really understands what thatmeans, how to apply it, how to
use it effectively, as we talkabout all the time.
So it's clear that AI hasbecome the new buzzword in job
descriptions and on resumes, butit's still a lot like the Wild
West to me.
And as I say often, the trainhas definitely left the station
and it's going to only pick upspeed from here.

(07:43):
But I expect it will continueto be messy as we figure out
exactly where it's heading.
It's a fascinating time to saythe least.
But if you are a job seeker,just know that many companies,
most companies even, are lookingfor AI skills and knowledge.
It comes up in so manyinterviews.
So even if you're applying fora job where you don't think AI

(08:06):
is part of it, go ahead andfigure out how to reference that
experience on your resume.
And when asked in an interview,and you should make sure you're
taking these steps so you cananswer it honestly, let your
employer know that you are aheadof the AI curve, that you are
paying attention, you're usingit in your personal life, even
if you haven't yet had theopportunity to do so in your in
your professional life.

(08:26):
It will make a difference interms of how the interviewer
will perceive you.
So on that note, we will wrapup for the day.
But before we do, here's a funfact: many companies are now
hiring chief happiness officers.
Yes, that's a real title.
They're doing it to improveemployee morale, well-being, and

(08:47):
engagement.
I think that's a luxury tohave, personally.
Yes, we know that happyemployees stay longer, they
perform better, but do we reallyneed a chief happiness officer?
Maybe we do.
I'm old school.
So if you want a chief happinessofficer, if that makes you
happy and you can afford it, byall means have one in place.

(09:07):
So thank you for listeningtoday.
I appreciate it as always.
Please like and subscribe,share with anyone you think
might be interested, and Iappreciate your feedback.
So talk to you tomorrow.