Prime number: Worst January for layoffs since 2009

Adobe Stock

Not since the year the Black Eyed Peas released “Boom Boom Pow” has a January been this rough. According to data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, US companies cut 108,435 jobs last month—the most in any January since the global financial crisis: That’s an 118% increase from the year before. Amazon and UPS axed about 16,000 and 30,000 roles, respectively, in January. While a lot of companies have blamed AI for recent layoffs, some observers are beginning to wonder if execs are using the technology as an excuse to mask other internal issues in a phenomenon known as “AI-washing.”