News Briefing – June 2025:
Employment in Crash Test Mode

The June 2025 employment news briefing paints a picture of a labor market under serious strain: a cascade of layoffs, rising fragility, and shifting career certainties. Behind the numbers are disrupted lives—but also a few leads on how to stay relevant, or at least stay afloat.

The news briefing on the latest figures from the International Labour Organization (ILO) hits hard: fewer jobs created, more lost, with a dramatic flattening of corporate structures. Middle management is vanishing fast—an extinction in progress (Middle managers beware).

Cracks in the Giants: Tech and Finance No Longer Safe Havens

Once seen as untouchable, the tech and finance sectors—pillars of the global economy—are showing surprising signs of vulnerability.

Intel plans to cut over 21,000 jobs, about 20% of its workforce, to refocus on its core engineering activities. (TechCrunch)
Microsoft, despite record profits and a year-on-year workforce increase, has announced 6,000 layoffs (3% of staff), mostly targeting middle managers in an effort to “gain agility.” (The Guardian)
IBM has eliminated around 8,000 positions, primarily in HR, after automating a wide range of human resources tasks using AI—freeing up resources for sales and engineering (Financial express).
Google downsized again in early May 2025, cutting 200 jobs in its global business unit, following earlier layoffs in Android, Pixel, and Chrome teams. All part of a shift toward AI and data centers (Reuters).
Amazon laid off over 100 people in its Devices & Services division, citing a strategic reorganization of product priorities. (CNBC)

In banking, the turbulence continues (People Matters) :

Citigroup aims to eliminate 20,000 positions by 2026.
UBS has already slashed over 10,000 jobs post-Credit Suisse acquisition.
Other major players like HSBC, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Barclays, Lloyds, and DBS are implementing waves of restructuring and workforce reductions.

Strategic Realignment or Euphemism for Mass Dismissal?

These decisions are often couched in terms like “strategic realignment” or “operational efficiency,” but they largely signal an aggressive move toward automation and digitization, rendering many traditional roles obsolete.

Some sectors still cling to public subsidies as a lifeline—but for how long? The real question remains: Are there still future-proof jobs, or is it all smoke and mirrors covering a steady erasure of roles?

The result: uncertainty, a cutthroat management style, and a new norm where versatility is mandatory, not optional. Burnout is no longer a red flag; it’s standard operating procedure.

AI, Health, and Green Jobs: Hope or Illusion?

AI dominates the conversation, promising efficiency and disruption—but it’s already replacing jobs.

According to Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, up to half of all office jobs could disappear within five years (NY Post). A new digital divide is forming—between those who ride the wave and those it drags under.

In Europe, the health sector faces a chronic crisis: despite a 20% increase in doctors and a 10% rise in nurses over the past decade, demand for care is outpacing supply. The result: staff shortages, deteriorating working conditions, and widespread psychological distress among healthcare professionals (Euronews) .

Meanwhile, green jobs seem promising. But their growth is fragile, reliant on consistent policy and substantial investment in training and worker transition. Without a coherent, inclusive strategy, the sector may remain unstable and unequal. (ECB)

Don’t Fall for the Mirage

The real trap? Believing a “booming” sector equals safety. In reality, economic shifts are abrupt and unpredictable. Betting everything on one trend could be a professional dead-end.

What truly matters are transferable skills—the ability to learn, adapt, and stay mentally agile. In this haze, the only true compass is your capacity to change your mind, your job, or even your life.

It’s not what school teaches, but it’s where the future is being built.

Crisis Antidote

Lifelong learning is no longer optional—it’s a sine qua non.
Mobility, flexibility, adaptability: empty buzzwords until they become survival skills.
The human network, even in a hyper-digital age, remains the invisible safety net.
Future jobs aren’t reserved seats—they’re battlegrounds for constant learning and reinvention.

For a Better Tomorrow

Yes, this news briefing confirms that some professions are collapsing, others are morphing at speed, and many are left confused, leaderless, and off-track. The times are shaking everything up—sometimes violently—but they also offer slivers of opportunity.

So, should we give up? Absolutely not.

When I think of the word “crisis,” I think of its Chinese translation (危机): one symbol means danger, the other, opportunity. Every rupture hides a future yet to be imagined.

What’s emerging today doesn’t have a job title or a LinkedIn listing yet. It’s up to us to define its meaning, shape the skills, and maintain enough distance to see it clearly.

It won’t be a return to the past—but a chance to invent work that’s more human, more useful, and maybe, just maybe, genuinely exciting.