'Corporate America is convinced: Fewer employees means faster growth.
U.S. public companies have reduced their white-collar workforces by a collective 3.5% over the past three years, according to employment data-provider Live Data Technologies. Over the past decade, one in five companies in the S&P 500 have shrunk.
The cuts go beyond typical cost-trimming and speak to a broader shift in philosophy. Adding talent, once a sign of surging sales and confidence in the future, now means leaders must be doing something wrong.
New technologies like generative artificial intelligence are allowing companies to do more with less. But there’s more to this movement. From Amazon in Seattle to Bank of America in Charlotte, N.C., and at companies big and small everywhere in between, there’s a growing belief that having too many employees is itself an impediment. The message from many bosses: Anyone still on the payroll could be working harder.
In a note to employees on Tuesday, Amazon Chief Executive Andy Jassy wrote that the “once-in-a-lifetime” rise of AI will eliminate the need for certain jobs in the next few years. And earlier this year, he told his staff that not every new project requires 50 people to do it. The best leaders, he added in his annual letter to shareholders, “get the most done with the least number of resources required to do the job.”'
msgodel•5h ago
Hopefully you don't have any big loans. The next few years could be very rough.
jleyank•4h ago
Whack (or piss off) too many people and sales go down. AI don’t buy nuthin. The pissed off find alternatives.
drweevil•2h ago
Today's capitalists are playing with fire. Sure, companies can do "more with less". Sure, "Fewer employees means faster growth." But to what end? One gets the distinct impression that the "more" and the "growth" are only "more" and "growth" from the point of view of investors. But for everyone else? An economy that does not meet the needs of the majority will eventually be replaced by one that does.
Bostonian•5h ago
'Corporate America is convinced: Fewer employees means faster growth. U.S. public companies have reduced their white-collar workforces by a collective 3.5% over the past three years, according to employment data-provider Live Data Technologies. Over the past decade, one in five companies in the S&P 500 have shrunk.
The cuts go beyond typical cost-trimming and speak to a broader shift in philosophy. Adding talent, once a sign of surging sales and confidence in the future, now means leaders must be doing something wrong.
New technologies like generative artificial intelligence are allowing companies to do more with less. But there’s more to this movement. From Amazon in Seattle to Bank of America in Charlotte, N.C., and at companies big and small everywhere in between, there’s a growing belief that having too many employees is itself an impediment. The message from many bosses: Anyone still on the payroll could be working harder. In a note to employees on Tuesday, Amazon Chief Executive Andy Jassy wrote that the “once-in-a-lifetime” rise of AI will eliminate the need for certain jobs in the next few years. And earlier this year, he told his staff that not every new project requires 50 people to do it. The best leaders, he added in his annual letter to shareholders, “get the most done with the least number of resources required to do the job.”'