I've always been an entrepreneur and have been running my e-commerce business since I was in college, which I graduated in 2018. I came across Prolific in 2023 after seeing it mentioned on a Reddit group called Beer Money.

There were enough people on Reddit who were giving Prolific credit that I decided to go for it. I signed up at the start of 2023, but it was not until 14 months later that I was taken off the waitlist and started getting projects.

I've been active on the platform since May 2024 and have worked on a wide range of projects. Prolific started off as an academic research tool, and most of the surveys were in politics, psychology, or health-related topics. AI training work, which is newer to the platform, involves evaluating or comparing AI responses and doing fact checks.

I've tried other platforms like DataAnnotation, Amazon's Mechanical Turk, Appen, and Telus, which did not have as long a waitlist. But once I started to get work on Prolific, and especially AI tasks, it has become my primary platform. I've also found it to pay a lot better than a lot of the other companies.

I keep my laptop open between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., five days a week, and check Prolific for projects every now and then. Through this work, I made $1,200 in September, $1,100 in August, and about $1,000 in July.

The extra money supplements my income from my e-commerce store and my family's go-karting business. It has helped me pay off student loans faster and will help pay for a new laptop. Last August, I went to the Olympics in Paris and to three other countries. I was able to pay for it because of my income from these platforms.

In July 2023, I received a LinkedIn message from a Scale AI recruiter inviting me to apply as a law domain expert on Remotasks, a Scale AI-owned platform that preceded Outlier.

I was onboarding by early August, but didn't do much work on the platform until March or April of 2024. They were offering daily bonuses for working a set number of hours. Good pay rates with regular bonuses, weekly payments, and not needing to look for clients on a regular basis made the AI work more attractive than the content creation work I'd been doing. I put my travel agency franchise on the back burner.

Since then, AI training has been my main source of income. I typically work around 30 to 35 hours a week, and I supplement that with some online writing.

Though I started as a law domain expert, I rarely ever worked on projects with a legal focus. Instead, I work on a wide variety of general, non-STEM topics that require specialized multimedia prompt engineering and AI response evaluation skills, as well as quality assurance work.

I worked on the Mindrift platform very briefly last year. However, nearly all my AI work was with Remotasks, then Outlier, until this summer. Now, the bulk of my AI training work is with the Mercor AI platform.

Outlier paid me $45 per hour, then $40 per hour. Now my rate with them ranges from $35 to $50, but they have a setup that drops the rate to $21.16 after a set time that is never sufficient for completing the task, so the effective rate is always lower than the starting or stated rate. It's one more reason I generally avoid working there now.

Mercor pay rates vary greatly, but the projects I'm currently working on pay $45 and $45.50 per hour.

Some highs of freelancing on these platforms include the opportunity to work in a cutting-edge industry and being able to attain valuable skills. It's also attractive pay for my experience and skills. Another plus is teamwork with some very smart, funny, and talented co-workers.

There are lows as well. There is no job security, and some projects are short-term, which means I have to continuously apply to new ones. However, project extensions are frequent, and I am often referred to new projects by my project leads for doing good work.

The work can be monotonous, and some of the projects can be run poorly, resulting in chaos and frustration.

A Scale AI spokesperson told Business Insider that Outlier gives contractors pay rates and estimated task times at the start of a project. "When contributors flag that certain tasks regularly take longer than expected, we review those tasks and adjust where appropriate."

I've been tasking on Outlier for about a year and a half now, and I do it alongside my full-time job at a health and environmental nonprofit in Virginia.

I came across Outlier through a simple Google search because I was trying to learn more about AI. I applied to the platform and started receiving projects about three weeks later, after completing some onboarding and training.

I've worked on about 30 projects since, including training video chat models and voice recording projects. I spend about 20 to 25 hours on Outlier each week, and up to 30 hours when there are incentives like bonus pay.

I've been approached by another platform, but chose to work only on Outlier because it's been a good fit for me, and I can't take on more platforms with my full time job.

Per hour, I can make close to what I make in my full time job. I've earned about $31,000 so far, which is about one-third of what I made in my job over the last year and a half.

It's allowed me to invest more and build emergency savings. My credit score is the highest it's ever been, and I'll be able to pay off my car loan by the end of the year. Eighteen months ago, I would not have believed that I could have an AI-related side hustle without working in tech.

I'm a school chemistry and physics teacher. I heard about Outlier after my master's when someone from the platform reached out to me on LinkedIn. They said that my experience in chemistry was something they were specifically looking for.

I applied at the start of 2024, and I started receiving projects within a couple of weeks. I majored in chemistry in college, and a lot of the projects I've taken on centered on chemistry or physics and rating different model responses in terms of accuracy. The platform has a lot of specialists, including people with PhDs from various academic backgrounds.

I try to work on the platform for one to two hours after work and five to 10 hours over the weekend, which gives me about 15 to 20 hours a week. Last year, I was working a lot less than I am now, but I made about $15,000.

I've used the extra income to pay for a down payment, and I've also used it to go on vacation with my girlfriend.

Even as a teacher in the district I work for, they're making a huge push toward using AI and AI tools. For me, it's a good opportunity to not only ensure that AI performs better by working on projects that improve data quality, but also to gain a better understanding of how AI works.

I've recommended it to other teachers because students are using AI. If you're a teacher, it's great to have exposure to these tools and the data that goes into this technology.

I have an extensive educational background in microbiology and immunology, and I earned a Ph.D. in the field. At my day job, I work for a management company, but still get to use my scientific knowledge for our projects.

I've always been involved in research work and was familiar with the kind of academic research platforms like Prolific or Amazon's Mechanical Turk help with. Toward the tail end of the pandemic, when I had some extra time, I revisited Mechanical Turk, which I had used before.

I came across messaging boards and social media platforms that all said that Prolific is the place you should be going to for such work now. They noted several reasons, including better pay and a wider range of projects.

I signed up, was accepted in about two weeks, and have been working on it for about two and a half years. Since I first joined, the work has transitioned from academic studies and surveys into more AI-focused tasks. Much of it is about making the AI more human, such as behaving in ways that a human would anticipate or provide information.

I don't use my scientific background very often in my AI task work — it's mostly using my writing or critical thinking skills. I occasionally will get one or two that ask very specific biology-related questions, and those are fun because they bring me back.

It's better than sitting on social media and scrolling aimlessly. It is a valuable use of my time, and it feels like meaningful work because I know researchers need good data in order to make conclusions about their research. I'm happy to participate in that.

I usually spend about two to three hours a day on the platform, primarily after work hours. I make somewhere between $20 to $100 a day, with the pay being around $20 an hour. I find myself getting enough tasks on Prolific that I haven't spread myself out on other data labeling platforms.

We're approaching Christmas, and this side hustle is paying for gifts. The other thing is vacations and being able to do things with my family a little bit more freely.

Have a tip? Contact Shubhangi Goel via email at sgoel@businessinsider.com or Signal at shuby.85. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

Adidas said in January that it would reduce the size of its workforce at its headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany, affecting up to 500 jobs, CNBC reported.

If fully executed, it amounts to a reduction of nearly 9% at the company headquarters, which employs about 5,800 employees, according to the Adidas website.

The news came shortly after the company announced it had outperformed its profit expectations at the end of 2024, touting "better-than-expected" results in the fourth quarter.

An Adidas spokesperson said the company had grown "too complex because of our current operating model."

"To set adidas up for long-term success, we are now starting to look at how we align our operating model with the reality of how we work. This may have an impact on the organizational structure and number of roles based at our HQ in Herzogenaurach."

The company said it is not a cost-cutting measure and could not confirm concrete numbers.

The digital-financial-services company Ally is laying off roughly 500 of its 11,000 employees, a spokesperson confirmed to BI.

"As we continue to right-size our company, we made the difficult decision to selectively reduce our workforce in some areas, while continuing to hire in our other areas of our business," the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson also said the company was offering severance, outplacement support, and the opportunity to apply for openings at Ally.

Ally made a similar level of cuts in October 2023, the Charlotte Observer reported.

Amazon said in late October it plans to eliminate 14,000 corporate roles, one of the biggest layoffs in its history.

The move is part of CEO Andy Jassy's push to run the company "like the world's largest startup," according to a blog post from Beth Galetti, SVP of People Experience & Technology.

Galetti said rapid advances in AI are changing how Amazon works and enabling faster innovation, prompting the company to get leaner with fewer management layers.

The cuts follow years of belt-tightening since the pandemic.

American Airlines said in November that it is cutting management and support roles to optimize performance and become more efficient.

"We're making a small reduction to our management and support staff team to right-size for the work we do today," American Airlines said in a statement shared with Business Insider.

The job cuts mainly affect positions at the airline's headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. Bloomberg first reported the cuts.

"We remain focused on continuing to invest in areas that support American's long-term business objectives, and these targeted investments will be made thoughtfully to position our airline for continued success," the statement said.

Semiconductor company Applied Materials said in an exchange filing on October 23 that it would be cutting 4% of its global workforce.

Applied Materials has around 36,100 full-time employees, per its earnings release in August, meaning the cuts will affect about 1,444 employees.

The company said it expects to "incur charges of approximately $160 million to $180 million consisting primarily of severance and other one-time employment termination benefits to be paid in cash, and other non-cash related charges."

It added that the cuts would help position it "for continued growth as a more competitive and productive organization."

Automattic, the parent company of Tumblr and WordPress, said in April it is cutting 16% of its staff globally. The company's website said it has nearly 1,500 employees.

Automattic's CEO, Matt Mullenweg, said in a note to employees posted online that the company has reached an "important crossroads."

"While our revenue continues to grow, Automattic operates in a highly competitive market, and technology is evolving at unprecedented levels," the note read.

The company is restructuring to improve its "productivity, profitability, and capacity to invest," it added.

The company said it was offering severance and job placement resources to affected employees.

Best Buy is cutting a small number of workers in the customer care and in-home field teams, with affected workers to receive severance, a spokesperson told Bloomberg in September.

The reductions follow a round of layoffs in the Geek Squad division last year as the company looks to improve efficiency and invest in newer areas of the business.

BlackRock told employees it was planning to cut about 200 people of its 21,000-strong workforce, Bloomberg reported in January.

The reductions were more than offset by some 3,750 workers who were added last year and another 2,000 expected to be added in 2025.

BlackRock's president, Rob Kapito, and its chief operating officer, Rob Goldstein, said the cuts would help realign the firm's resources with its strategy, Bloomberg reported.

Jack Dorsey's fintech company, Block, is laying off nearly 1,000 employees, according to TechCrunch and The Guardian, in its second major workforce reduction in just over a year.

The company, which operates Square, Afterpay, CashApp, and Tidal, is transitioning nearly 200 managers into non-management roles and closing almost 800 open positions, according to an email obtained by TechCrunch.

Dorsey, who co-founded Block in 2009 after previously leading Twitter, announced the layoffs in March in an internal email titled "smaller block."

The restructuring is part of a broader effort to streamline operations, though Block maintains the changes are not driven by financial targets or AI replacements.

Bloomberg is cutting some editorial staff as the company reorganizes its newsroom, according to a memo viewed by BI. The larger strategy aims to have a larger headcount by the end of this year, however.

The newsroom currently employs around 2,700 people, and the changes will merge some smaller teams into larger units, the memo said.

Jeff Bezos's rocket company, Blue Origin, is laying off about 10% of its workforce, a move that could affect more than 1,000 employees.

In a memo sent to staff in February and obtained by Business Insider, David Limp, the CEO of Blue Origin, said the company's priority going forward was "to scale our manufacturing output and launch cadence with speed, decisiveness and efficiency for our customers."

Limp specifically identified roles in engineering, research and development, and management as targets.

"We grew and hired incredibly fast in the last few years, and with that growth came more bureaucracy and less focus than we needed," Limp wrote. "It also became clear that the makeup of our organization must change to ensure our roles are best aligned with executing these priorities."

The news comes after January's debut launch of the company's partially reusable rocket — New Glenn.

Boeing announced on February 8 that it plans to cut 400 roles from its moon rocket program amid delays and rising costs related to NASA's Artemis moon exploration missions.

Artemis 2, a crewed flight to orbit the moon on Boeing's space launch system, has been rescheduled from late 2024 to September 2025. Artemis 3, intended to be the first astronaut moon landing in the program, was delayed from late 2025 and is now planned for September 2026.

"To align with revisions to the Artemis program and cost expectations, we informed our Space Launch Systems team of the potential for approximately 400 fewer positions by April 2025," a Boeing spokesperson told Business Insider. "We are working with our customer and seeking opportunities to redeploy employees across our company to minimize job losses and retain our talented teammates."

The company will issue 60-day notices of involuntary layoff to impacted employees "in coming weeks," the spokesperson said.

Boeing cut 10% of its workforce last year.

BP told Business Insider in January that it planned to cut 4,700 staff and 3,000 contractors, amounting to about 5% of its global workforce.

The cuts were part of a program to "simplify and focus" BP that began last year.

"We are strengthening our competitiveness and building in resilience as we lower our costs, drive performance improvement and play to our distinctive capabilities," the company said.

Bridgewater Associates cut 7% of its staff in January in an effort to stay lean, a person familiar with the matter told Business Insider.

The layoffs at the world's largest hedge fund bring its head count back to where it was in 2023, the person said.

The company's founder, Ray Dalio, said in a 2019 interview that about 30% of new employees were leaving the firm within 18 months.

In a June 23 securities filing, Bumble said it plans to slash 240 roles, about 30% of its workforce. The dating app company said the cuts will result in charges between $13 million and $18 million in its third and fourth quarters.

"We recently made some difficult decisions to adjust our team structure in order to align with our strategic priorities," a Bumble spokesperson said.

They told BI that the decision to lay off over 200 employees wasn't "made lightly."

Burberry announced 1,700 job cuts in May, or about 18% of its global workforce, as part of plans to cut costs by about £100 million ($130 million) by 2027.

It plans to end night shifts at its Yorkshire raincoat factory due to production over-capacity.

The British company sunk to an operating loss of £3 million for the year to the end of March, compared with a £418 million profit for the previous 12 months.

Carter's, a children's retailer, said it will cut about 300 office-based roles, or 15% of those positions, by the end of 2025. The reduction was announced October 27 alongside plans to close 150 stores over the next three years.

The job cuts are expected to incur a $4 million to $5 million charge in the fourth quarter fiscal year 2025 from severance and outplacement services, the company said in October.

"We are pursuing several initiatives, including closing low-margin retail stores, right-sizing our organization, and honing product choices," CEO Douglas Palladini said in a press release.

Online education company Chegg said on October 27 that it would be reducing its workforce by 45%.

Chegg said it was cutting "388 roles globally" and expects to incur "charges of approximately $15-19 million, representing mostly cash severance payments." Chegg had 1,271 employees as of December 31, 2024, per its annual report.

"The new realities of AI and reduced traffic from Google to content publishers have led to a significant decline in Chegg's traffic and revenue," the company said, adding that the cuts would save it about $100 to $110 million in adjusted expenses for 2026.

This is the fourth time Chegg has announced layoffs.

Chegg said in June 2024 that it was cutting 441 roles, or about 23% of its workforce. Later in November, it said announced cuts for 319 roles, or about 21% of its workforce. Most recently, in May, Chegg said it was letting go of 248 employees, or about 22% of its workforce.

Chegg's shares are down nearly 11% year to date.

Oil giant Chevron plans to cull 15% to 20% of its global workforce by the end of 2026, the company said in a statement to Business Insider in February.

Chevron employed 45,600 people as of December 2023, which means the layoff could cut 9,000 jobs.

The move aims to reduce costs and simplify the company's business as it completes its acquisition of oil producer Hess, which is held up in legal limbo. It is expected to save the company $2 billion to $3 billion by the end of 2026, the company said.

"Chevron is taking action to simplify our organizational structure, execute faster and more effectively, and position the company for stronger long-term competitiveness," a Chevron spokesperson said in a statement.

The cuts follow a series of layoffs at other oil and gas companies, including BP and natural gas producer EQT.

Cable news giant CNN cut about 200 television-focused roles as part of a digital pivot. The cuts amounted to about 6% of the company's workforce.

In a memo sent to staff on January 23, CNN's CEO Mark Thompson said he aimed to "shift CNN's gravity towards the platforms and products where the audience themselves are shifting and, by doing that, to secure CNN's future as one of the world's greatest news organizations."

The third-largest oil producer in the US, ConocoPhillips plans to cut 20-25% of its global workforce as part of a broad restructuring, a company spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Reuters on September 3.

The company employed about 11,800 people at the end of 2024, per a regulatory filing, which means up to 2,950 jobs could be cut.

ConocoPhillips' stock fell 4.4% the same day.

Other oil giants, including Chevron and BP, have also slashed headcount this year because of falling oil prices.

Coty, which sells cosmetics and fragrances under brands such as Kylie Cosmetics, Calvin Klein, and Burberry, is cutting about 700 jobs.

The company said on April 24 it aimed to cut costs by $130 million a year. Sue Nabi, the CEO, said it aimed to build a "stronger, more resilient Coty that is well-positioned for sustainable growth."

CrowdStrike, the Texas-headquartered cybersecurity firm, said in May that it would cut about 500 jobs, or 5% of its global workforce, as part of a strategic plan to "yield greater efficiencies."

It expected the layoffs to cost between $36 million and $53 million.

CrowdStrike is aiming to generate $10 billion in annual recurring revenue.

The company reported worse-than-expected annual results in March, signaling that it was yet to fully recover from a widespread tech outage linked to CrowdStrike in July 2024.

Disney confirmed to BI on June 2 that it was laying off several hundred employees globally.

Most of the cuts were to roles in marketing for films and TV under the Disney Entertainment division. Other roles affected included employees in publicity, casting, and development, as well as corporate finance.

In March, the company also cut around 200 people from its ABC News Group and Disney Entertainment Networks. In 2024, the company also had several rounds of layoffs.

Shortly after Bob Iger returned to the company as CEO in 2022, he said 7,000 jobs at Disney would be cut as part of a reorganization.

Cosmetics giant Estée Lauder said in its second-quarter earnings release on February 4 that it will cut between 5,800 and 7,000 jobs as the company restructures over the next two years.

The cuts will focus on "rightsizing" certain teams, and it will look to outsource certain services. The company says it expects annual gross benefits of between $0.8 billion and $1.0 billion before tax.

Energy giant Exxon Mobil plans to cut 2,000 jobs as part of a global restructuring.

CEO Darren Woods said in a memo to employees that roughly half of the cuts will occur in Europe. A spokesperson for Exxon confirmed the memo's existence, which was first reported by Bloomberg.

The cuts represent roughly 3 to 4% of the company's total workforce. Exxon plans to cut roughly 1,200 positions across the European Union and Norway by the end of 2027, of which roughly half will be layoffs.

"We've seen the value of bringing people together in the same location," the spokesperson said in a statement to Business Insider. "It drives innovation, strengthens execution, enhances career development, and improves teamwork. Our global office network was established decades ago under very different circumstances. To support the collaboration so critical to our success, we are aligning our global footprint with our operating model and bringing our teams together."

FedEx is shuttering a third-party supply chain logistics and electronics operation in Coppell, a suburb of Dallas, Texas. 856 jobs will be cut, according to a legally mandated WARN letter the company sent to the Texas Workforce Commission.

The facility will be fully closed by the end of April, with the first phase of layoffs beginning in January and impacting 62 workers.

"All impacted employees will be paid wages and benefits through their last day of employment," the letter stated.

Micha Kaufman, the CEO and founder of the freelancing platform Fiverr, said on September 15 that the company was cutting about 30% of its workforce.

Kaufman said in a letter to employees that the cuts would affect around 250 team members across different departments. Fiverr had 762 full-time employees as of 2024, per its SEC filing in February.

He added that the cuts were needed to help turn Fiverr into a leaner and faster "AI-first company."

Kaufman said in a staff memo in April that AI was "coming for your jobs" and was a "wake-up call." In May, he told Business Insider that Fiverr would only hire people who know how to use AI.

"If you don't ensure that you sharpen your knives, you're going to be left behind. It's that simple," Kaufman said.

Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chair of Insurance Operations Ajit Jain says Geico has reduced its workforce from about 50,000 to about 20,000. Jain revealed the reductions during Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting on May 3 but did not detail over what time frame they took place. Berkshire Hathaway is one of Geico's parent companies.

Warren Buffett's company reported its 2025 first-quarter earnings on during the May 3 meeting, saying Geico earned nearly $2.2 billion in pre-tax underwriting.

Grubhub CEO Howard Migdal announced 500 job cuts on February 28 after selling the company to Wonder Group for $650 million.

With more than 2,200 full time employees, the number of cuts will affect more than 20% of Grubhub's previous workforce.

According to Reuters, Just Eat Takeaway, an Amsterdam-listed company, sold Grubhub at a steep loss compared to the billions it paid a few years prior after grappling with slowing growth and high taxes.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is cutting 2,500 jobs, or 5% of its employee base, CEO Antonio Neri said on an earnings call on March 6. The cuts are expected take to take place over the next 12 to 18 months.

"Doing so will better align our cost structure to our business mix and long-term strategy," Neri said. The company expects to save $350 million by 2027 because of the reduction.

HPE plummeted about 20% after hours on March 6 after it said business would be affected by recent tariffs, slow server and cloud sales, and "execution issues."

IBM said in November that it would be reducing its global workforce by "a low single-digit percentage," an IBM spokesperson told Business Insider.

"We routinely review our workforce through this lens and at times rebalance accordingly," the spokesperson said. "In the past, when we have had rebalancing, we have still met our headcount goals, and we expect to do so again in 2025."

Chipmaker Intel is laying off more than 5,000 employees across four US states, according to a July 16 government filing.

Most of the cuts are happening in California and Oregon, while others are in Texas and Arizona, per updated Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, filings.

Intel began laying off employees in July as part of planned job cuts, the company said in a regulatory filing.

The company told staff on June 14 to expect 15% to 20% of employees in its Foundry division to be laid off this summer, according to a memo reported by The Oregonian. Intel confirmed the authenticity of the memo to BI but declined to comment on its contents.

As of December 2024, Intel employed about 108,900 people. In its annual report, the company told investors that it would reduce its "core Intel workforce" by about 15% in early 2025.

"Removing organizational complexity and empowering our engineers will enable us to better serve the needs of our customers and strengthen our execution," an Intel spokesperson told BI.

Johns Hopkins University will cut over 2,000 jobs after losing $800 million in funding from USAID.

"This is a difficult day for our entire community," a spokesperson told BI. "The termination of more than $800 million in USAID funding is now forcing us to wind down critical work here in Baltimore and internationally."

The news comes after the Trump administration slashed USAID personnel down from over 10,000 to around 300. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently confirmed that 83% of the agency's programs are now dead.

"We can confirm that the elimination of foreign aid funding has led to the loss of 1,975 positions in 44 countries internationally and 247 in the United States in the affected programs," the Johns Hopkins spokesperson said. "An additional 29 international and 78 domestic employees will be furloughed with a reduced schedule."

The layoffs at Johns Hopkins represent the "largest" in the university's history, CNN reported. They'll primarily affect the schools of medicine and public health, along with the Center for Communication Programs and Jhpiego, a nonprofit with a focus on preventing diseases and bolstering women's health, according to the report.

Department store Kohl's announced on January 28 that it reduced about 10% of its corporate roles to "increase efficiencies" and "improve profitability for the long-term health and benefit of the business," a spokesperson told BI.

"Kohl's reduced approximately 10 percent of the roles that report into its corporate offices," the spokesperson said. "More than half of the total reduction will come from closing open positions while the remainder of the positions were currently held by our associates."

Less than 200 existing employees of the company would be impacted, she added.

This follows the company's announcement on January 9 that it would shutter 27 underperforming stores across 15 states by April.

The retailer has been struggling with declining sales, reporting an 8.8% decline in net sales in the third quarter of 2024.

Its previous CEO, Tom Kingsbury, stepped down on January 15. The company's board appointed Ashley Buchanan, a retail veteran who had held top jobs in The Michaels Companies, Macy's, and Walmart, as the new CEO.

Kroger Co. is cutting nearly 1,000 corporate jobs as part of a cost-trimming effort following the collapse of its proposed merger with Albertsons, a spokesperson told BI.

In an internal memo viewed by Business Insider, interim CEO Ron Sargent told employees on August 26 that "thoughtful, yet difficult, choices are necessary" for the organization to continue to succeed.

The grocer also plans to reinvest savings into lowering prices, opening new stores, and creating jobs at the store level.

The shake-up comes as Kroger navigates leadership changes after former CEO Rodney McMullen resigned earlier this year amid a board investigation into his conduct.

As of February, Kroger employed more than 409,000 people, mostly in retail roles. The layoff would not affect workers in stores, manufacturing facilities, or distribution centers.

Microsoft cut an unspecified number of jobs in January based on employees' performance.

Workers were told that they wouldn't receive severance and that their benefits, such as medical insurance, would stop immediately, BI reported.

The company also laid off some employees in January at divisions including gaming and sales. A Microsoft spokesperson declined to say how many jobs were cut on the affected teams.

In May, the company announced layoffs affecting about 6,000 workers.

Another round of layoffs in July will affect less than 4% of its total workforce, or roughly 9,000 employees, based on its head count of around 220,000.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told staff he "decided to raise the bar on performance management" and will act quickly to "move out low-performers," according to an internal memo seen by BI in January.

Those cuts started in February, according to records obtained by BI. Teams overseeing Facebook, the Horizon virtual reality platform, as well as logistics, were among the hardest hit.

In April, Meta also laid off an undisclosed number of employees on the Reality Labs virtual reality division.

In October, the company said it was laying off more than 600 employees in its Meta Superintelligence Labs, its AI division.

"By reducing the size of our team, fewer conversations will be required to make a decision, and each person will be more load-bearing and have more scope and impact," Meta's chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang, wrote in a memo.

Previously, the company had laid off more than 21,000 workers since 2022.

Microchip Technology is cutting its head count across the company by around 2,000 employees, the semiconductor company said on March 3.

The company estimated that it would incur between $30 million and $40 million in costs, including severance, severance benefits, and other restructuring costs.

The cuts would be communicated to employees in the March quarter and fully implemented by the end of the June quarter.

Last year, Microchip announced it was closing its Tempe, Arizona, facility because of slower-than-anticipated orders. The closure begins in May 2025 and is expected to affect 500 jobs.

Microchip's stock had fallen over 33% in the past year.

Morgan Stanley is set to initiate a round of layoffs beginning at the end of March. The firm is eyeing cuts to about 2% to 3% of its global workforce, which would equate to between 1,600 to 2,400 jobs, according to a person familiar with the matter who confirmed the reductions to BI.

The firm's cuts are driven by several imperatives, the person said, pointing to considerations like operational efficiency, evolving business priorities, and individual employees' performance. The person said the cuts are not related to broader market conditions, such as the recent slowdown in mergers and acquisitions that's arrested momentum on Wall Street.

Some MS staffers will be excluded from the cuts, however — namely, the bank's battalion of financial advisors — though some who assist them, such as administrative personnel in its wealth-management unit, could be affected by the layoffs, the person added.

Nestlé, the Swiss parent company of KitKat and Nespresso, said on October 16 that it will cut 16,000 jobs over the next two years.

The world's largest food and drink company announced that 12,000 white-collar positions across various functions and locations will be eliminated, along with 4,000 roles in manufacturing and supply. This is 6% of its global workforce.

Its new CEO, Philipp Navratil, said the company would be "prioritizing the opportunities and businesses with the highest potential returns" and that it "needs to change faster."

Nestlé estimates the job cuts will save it around 1 billion Swiss francs, or $1.26 billion, by the end of 2027.

Neighborhood social networking company Nextdoor is cutting 12% of its staff, or 67 jobs, it said on August 7 in its second-quarter earnings report. The move is part of CEO Nirav Tolia's plan to achieve profitability and reorganize the struggling company.

The layoffs are expected to reduce operating expenses by about $30 million, it said in the earnings report.

The company reported a net loss of $15 million, compared to $43 million year-over-year.

Nike's turnaround plan is in full swing. It's reducing its corporate staff by 1% as part of its efforts, the company confirmed to Business Insider on August 28.

It's unclear how many jobs will be affected, but CNBC reported that Nike sent employees a memo about the change in August.

"As we shared in Q4 earnings, Nike, Inc. is in the midst of a realignment," the company said in a statement. "The moves we're making are about setting ourselves up to win and create the next great chapter for Nike."

Nike said in June, when it reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings, that it would "evaluate corporate cost reduction as appropriate."

CEO Elliott Hill also told analysts at the time that the company would realign its teams as it shifts away from a men's, women's, and kids' structure.

Nike also cut jobs in 2024 amid broader cost cutting.

Japanese car giant Nissan is cutting 20,000 jobs by 2027 and reducing the number of factories it operates from 17 to 10 as it struggles with a dire financial situation.

The job losses include the 9,000 layoffs announced late last year, and come as the automaker faces headwinds from US tariffs on imported vehicles and collapsing sales in China.

Nissan reported a net loss of 671 billion yen ($4.5 billion) for the 2024 financial year, and said it would not issue an operating profit forecast for 2025 because of tariff uncertainty.

Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk said in a statement on September 10 that it was cutting 9,000 jobs, or about 11%, of its workforce. It added that around 5,000 of the cuts would take place in Denmark.

Novo Nordisk's president and CEO, Mike Doustdar, said the cuts were needed because the market for obesity drugs was becoming "more competitive and consumer-driven." Novo Nordisk is the producer of the hit weight loss drugs, Ozempic and Wegovy.

"Our company must evolve as well. This means instilling an increased performance-based culture, deploying our resources ever more effectively, and prioritising investment where it will have the most impact — behind our leading therapy areas," he added.

Oracle is cutting jobs in its cloud unit, Bloomberg reported. The cuts come as the company works to curb costs amid spending on AI infrastructure.

Sources familiar with the cuts told Bloomberg that some of the cuts were related to performance issues.

Oracle did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Panasonic, the Japanese-headquartered multinational electronics manufacturer, plans to cut 10,000 jobs this financial year, which ends in March 2026. The cuts will affect 5,000 roles in Japan and 5,000 overseas.

In a statement on May 9, the company said it planned to "thoroughly review operational efficiency … mainly in sales and indirect departments, and reevaluate the numbers of organisations and personnel actually needed."

"Through these measures, the company will optimize our personnel on a global scale," the statement added.

Paramount told employees it would be laying off 3.5% of US-based staff based in the US, per a memo reported by CNBC on June 10, citing industry-wide declines and a challenging macroeconomic environment.

The move comes after the media company cut 15% of jobs last year to cut costs. Paramount had 18,600 employees at the end of 2024.

It is awaiting regulatory approval of its merger with Skydance Media.

Peloton said in its August earnings report that it would cut its global headcount as part of an effort to find $100 million in run-rate cost savings by the end of the next fiscal year.

"As of today, we will have actioned about roughly half of the run rate savings through the reductions in our workforce and we expect to achieve the remainder throughout the balance of the year," CFO Elizabeth Coddington told investors on the earnings call.

The company employed about 2,900 people last year, and approximately 6% of the workforce will be affected by the reductions, Reuters reported.

Porsche said on March 12 that it plans to cut 3,900 jobs in the coming years.

About 2,000 of the reductions will come with the expiration of fixed-term contractor positions, the German automaker said. The company will make the other 1,900 reductions by 2029 through natural attrition and limiting hiring, it said.

Porsche said it also plans to discuss more potential changes with labor leaders in the second half of the year. "This will also make Porsche even more efficient in the medium and long term," the company said.

The Big Four accounting firm said it's cutting roughly 1,500 jobs in the US because its low attrition rates mean not enough people are leaving by choice.

PwC's layoffs began on May 5 and mostly affect the firm's audit and tax lines, a person familiar with the matter told Business Insider.

"This was a difficult decision, and we made it with care, thoughtfulness, and a deep awareness of its impact on our people, appreciating that historically low levels of attrition over consecutive years have made it necessary to take this step," a PwC spokesperson said.

Rivian said in October it was laying off more than 600 employees, or around 4.5% of its workforce.

"With the changing operating backdrop, we had to rethink how we are scaling our go-to-market functions," CEO RJ Scaringe said in a memo to employees, adding, "These changes are being made to ensure we can deliver on our potential by scaling efficiently towards building a healthy and profitable business."

The electric-vehicle maker has conducted several rounds of layoffs over the past three years.

Bloomberg reported in February that Salesforce, a cloud-based customer management software company, will slash more than 1,000 jobs from its nearly 73,000-strong workforce.

Affected employees will be eligible to apply to open internal roles, the outlet reported. The company is hiring salespeople focused on the company's new AI-powered products.

The cuts come despite Salesforce reporting a strong financial performance during its third-quarter earnings in December.

Salesforce did not respond to a request for comment.

On July 16, Scale AI laid off about 200 full-time employees and 500 contractors, according to the company.

The 200 full-time cuts make up 14% of the data labeling startup's 1,400-person workforce.

The company is restructuring its generative AI group, according to an email from Scale's interim CEO, Jason Droege, obtained by Business Insider.

The cuts follow Meta's $14 billion investment in Scale AI in June as part of a blockbuster deal. The deal included the hiring of Scale's ex-CEO, Alexandr Wang, and the purchase of equity in almost half of the startup.

Sonos, a California-based audio equipment company, said in a February 5 release that it's cutting about 200 roles.

The announcement came nearly a month after Sonos CEO Patrick Spence stepped down following a disastrous app rollout. Interim CEO Tom Conrad said in the statement that the layoffs were part of an effort to create a "simpler organization."

Starbucks said it would lay off 900 non-retail employees in September and close about 1% of company-operated stores in North America.

The cuts come after the company notified 1,100 corporate employees that they had been laid off in February.

CEO Brian Niccol said in a February memo that the layoffs would make Starbucks "operate more efficiently, increase accountability, reduce complexity and drive better integration."

The company is trying to improve results after sales slid last year.

Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan announced in February that the company is laying off 15% of its corporate staff, or about 1,750 employees.

He said affected workers will keep their pay, benefits, and bonuses through late April, when the separations will take effect.

The company told investors the cuts would save about $210 million this year and $300 million in 2026.

The move comes as Southwest tries to cut costs amid profitability problems. Jordan said this is the first significant layoff the company has had in its 53-year history.

An activist hedge fund took a stake in Southwest in June and has since helped restructure its board and change its business model to keep up with a changing industry. For example, it plans to end its long-standing open-seating policy to generate more seating revenue.

In recent months, the company has also reduced flight crew positions in Atlanta to cut costs.

Payments platform Stripe laid off 300 employees, primarily in product, engineering, and operations, according to a January 20 memo obtained by BI.

Chief people officer Rob McIntosh said in the memo that the company still planned on growing its head count to about 10,000 employees by the end of the year.

Target said in October it was cutting 1,800 corporate jobs, including about 1,000 employees and 800 open roles.

The company said the cuts accounted for 8% of the team at its global headquarters, and that leadership roles were affected at three times the rate of individual contributors.

"The truth is, the complexity we've created over time has been holding us back," Michael Fiddelke, Target COO and incoming CEO, said in a memo to staff. "Too many layers and overlapping work have slowed decisions, making it harder to bring ideas to life."

UPS announced on April 29 that it plans to cut 20,000 jobs this year — about 4% of its global workforce — as part of a shift toward automation and a strategic reduction in business with Amazon.

"With our action, we will emerge as an even stronger, more nimble UPS," the company's CEO, Carol Tomé, said in a statement.

The move follows a sharp 16% drop in Amazon package volume in Q4 and is part of a plan to halve its Amazon business by mid-2026. UPS will also close 73 US buildings by June and automate 400 facilities to reduce labor dependency.

The Teamsters union have said they would fight any layoffs affecting its members.

The telecommunications giant said on November 20 that it plans to lay off 13,000 employees in order to make Verizon "faster and more focused," new CEO Dan Schulman said in a message to employees. Verizon had about 100,000 employees at the beginning of 2025.

The Washington Post eliminated fewer than 100 employees in an effort to cut costs, Reuters reported in January.

A spokesperson told the news agency that the cuts wouldn't affect the newsroom: "The Washington Post is continuing its transformation to meet the needs of the industry, build a more sustainable future and reach audiences where they are."

Wayfair announced in an SEC filing on March 7 that it would eliminate its Austin Technology Development Center and lay off around 340 tech workers.

The reorg comes as the technology team has accomplished "significant modernization and replatforming milestones," the company said in the filing. Wayfair said it plans to refocus resources and streamline operations to promote its "next phase of growth."

"With the foundation of this transformation now in place, our technology needs have shifted," the company said.

Wayfair expects to take on $33 to $38 million in costs as a result of the reorganization, consisting of severance, cash employee-related costs, benefits, and transitional costs.

Workday, the human-resources software company, said in February that it is cutting 8.5% of its workforce, or around 1,750 employees. The layoffs came as the company focuses more on artificial intelligence.

In a note to employees, CEO Carl Eschenbach said that Workday will focus on hiring in areas related to artificial intelligence and work to expand its global presence.

"The environment we're operating in today demands a new approach, particularly given our size and scale," Eschenbach wrote. He said that affected employees will get at least 12 weeks of pay.

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