US jobless claims fell to 187,000 this week, a decades-low figure that would normally read as good news for anyone worried about the state of the labour market. In the same seven days, Uber cut 10% of its customer service jobs citing AI, British Gas's owner axed 1,300 call centre roles because "customers prefer AI chatbots," and Amazon laid off staff from the exact team working on artificial general intelligence that every major AI lab calls its biggest goal. Two data sets, pointing in opposite directions, both true at the same time. This week is less about which number is right and more about what happens when neither side of the story is willing to update in light of the other.
Your employees know the truth. Does your EVP? At Fathom we measure the "Credibility Gap" between your promise and their reality.
- US jobless claims hit a decades-low of 187,000, even as Uber, British Gas, and Amazon all cite AI while cutting jobs
- Google employees are organising: 4,500 signed a petition demanding layoff protections and severance guarantees
- Barclays says AI isn't boosting productivity, Adecco says it won't trigger an employment collapse, and nobody involved seems to be citing the same data
- Office culture keeps finding new friction: judges rule on webcam etiquette, introverts colonise conference rooms, and Gen Z would rather not be the boss
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