Mass Layoffs Are Worse Than We Thought in 2026 — What This Means for Workers

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:01]Listen to me. I think more layoffs are coming. And here's how I know. It is what? Tuesday and already on my for you page I have seen Lloyd and Flow Rider.

[00:00:14]Yes, Flow Rider performing at two tech events. One was at an office setting.

[00:00:20]The other was like at a conference of some sort. I don't know. However, that is not an indicator.

[00:00:29]So, what I need you to do is I need you to go to your computers and update your resumes and let me know if you need help. They don't need AI to work. The corporate companies laying everybody off and blaming AI and we know that they're not really getting returns on that, right?

[00:00:46]Like they're not actually getting returns on all the AI that they're spending their money on. It doesn't matter that they were never actually replacing you with the AI, right? Like that's not that wasn't the point. The AI was always the scapegoat. It was always the scapegoat. So that's it. That's not the actual reason. The people in power are still the real problem.

[00:01:08]>> Now, I can't believe that we're having mass layoffs in 2026, and we've kind of predicted that on this channel early on in late 2025, but it seems like it's getting worse and worse. We've seen Amazon have mass layoffs. We've seen Meta mass layoffs.

[00:01:26]Oracle, you have USPS, you have FedEx.

[00:01:30]All these big corporations are having mass layoffs. And even though you may not be working at those companies, it's going to affect everyone because it affects the job market. These are now people who are looking for jobs and competing for the same positions that you may be looking for as well. And this gives the power to the corporations. It seems like when corporations have mass layoffs, they all kind of do it at once because now all these corporations have power. They're able to find employees for less pay because people are just more desperate. And it sucks that this economy is really tough. People are just desperate for any source of income to help pay bills because the bills aren't stopping and people just need some sort of way to get some relief. Let me know in the comments below what you think about all this and take a look at the rest of these clips.

[00:02:22]>> I'm telling y'all, if you think layoffs are done, you are already behind what's coming. I'mma say this real slow cuz some people are are still pretending that everything is fine. A shift is happening in the labor market, folks.

[00:02:35]And it's a real shift. And if you don't have the knowledge for it, it's still going to run you over. So, I lost my job last year and all the hoopa, right? And every week I'm talking to somebody that either got laid off and lost their job or they know somebody that got that lost their job. Whether it's government, tech, manufacturing, y'all see all the names. It doesn't really matter, right?

[00:02:57]It's everywhere. Now, some people keep saying it's AI, it's AI, it's AI. I'm like, nope, that's not it. AI is the excuse, but profit is the actual reason why so many layoffs are happening. These companies are not choosing between you and technology. They are choosing between you and their profit margins.

[00:03:17]And every time they're going to step over your unemployed body to make those shareholders happy. And be clear, the government is not stopping it. They're leading the charge because now the mentality is profits and politics over people. And I'm just wondering how much loss America can absorb before it's not sustainable. cuz rent, mortgage, groceries, insurance, all of that [ __ ] is going to collide all at the same time. So, if you've been laid off, I see you. Okay? And if you haven't been laid off yet, be honest. Is it feeling like any day now it could happen to you? Told y'all this is not random. This is exactly how the system is supposed to work to keep the rich rich. Now, the question is, how long are we expected to just take it?

[00:04:03]It is crazy how many people as startups specifically have lost their jobs this year.

[00:04:09]This is crazy.

[00:04:12]I think if this were any other industry, people would like be losing their minds over it. But I think because the all these people worked at startups and more of bigger companies in the world, it's not seen as like as bad as it is. Look at the way this guy describes it, right?

[00:04:27]The metal layoffs are some of the most dystopian I've ever seen. They got told to work from home. They weren't sent.

[00:04:33]They were sent emails at 4:00 a.m. It's It's back. And then Meta is raking in record profits.

[00:04:41]I really like the way he described it of he it's like I'm seeing a lot of these people and being in Seattle. I've talked to some of these people in person and stuff and it's interesting because some of them are like kind of relieved. Could you imagine working a job where you're relieved that you lost the job? How terrible does your job have to be for you to be relieved you don't have it anymore? That that's that's kind of crazy to me. That that's interesting.

[00:05:03]But this is a good perspective as well, right?

[00:05:07]It's the Hunger Games. When you sign up to this job, you get paid really well, but it's going to be a lot of hard work.

[00:05:13]It's going to be chaotic and probably short. Like, so I don't know. Do you feel bad for these people? Do you see their perspective? Um, as a founder, how does this rub you as a founder? I would love to know, bro. Put it in the comments.

[00:05:27]Meta is laying off 10% of their global workforce this week on May 20th. General Motors is closing a plant. Over 100 layoff notices have been filed so far for May 2026.

[00:05:48]Over 100 companies. If you want to know if you're getting laid off, if you work at a company with over 50 employees, by the way, small business makes up 99.9% of the US economy, not medium-sized and not large. If you want to know if you're getting laid off and you have 50 or more employees, go to warttracker.com.

[00:06:19]enter your state and you will see if you have a 60day warn notice, also know known as a layoff notice for your company. 58% of companies announced they will be laying off this year. I'm going to add this is not because of AI. This is because our economy is collapsing every single day.

[00:06:46]All self-inflicted by an 80year-old dementia criminal who has gone bankrupt six times. What did you expect? Gas is skyrocketing. Food is skyrocketing.

[00:07:01]Inflation hit 3.8% but worse PPI hit 6%.

[00:07:08]Please do the best that you can to not spend money to get an emergency fund together. If you have a job and you're doing well, you have those two things, please pay off your debt or consolidate to a 0% loan or credit card. If you found this post disturbing but informative, please like, comment, follow, and share for economic news. Enough people aren't asking why, and I'm saying this to you as a woman in STEM. Not that I have to qualify myself, but I was leading and the evaluator of our district's high school, middle school teched programs.

[00:07:45]Honey believed was that tech was always for the improvement and the flourishing of human beings. Are you following? I need you then to ask yourself now, why would that not be the goal now? Why does it seem like tech's goal is to replace people? I'm just going to read a few companies that have laid off due to workforce tide restructuring and AI investment shifts as Cloudfare, Coinbase, Rustworks, GitLab, General Motors named it. Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle said restructuring. So far in 2026, over 300,000 US layout with tech being almost 100,000. Unaffordable housing is the number one cause in homelessness. Right? A lot of people like to say, "Oh, it's the people on fault. People want to be homeless." But no, it's not. More than 70% of lower income individuals have to pay more than 50% of their salary on rent alone, not including all the extra costs like child care, food, like utilities. This is actually getting ridiculous.

[00:08:59]And the truth is homelessness is only getting worse.

[00:09:03]>> I got laid off a couple weeks ago and it is what it is. It wasn't anything I did wrong. It wasn't performance related. It was actually mass layoffs. It's been weird. One day you're waking up with meetings, Slack notifications, a bunch of noise, and then the next day you wake up and it's silence. So, here's everything I'm doing right now to get back on my feet. And I'm sharing this because one, why not? And two, because I think I'm doing some really unique things that most job hunters are probably not doing. So, take notes.

[00:09:32]First, I'm using AI like crazy. I literally have clawed co-work reading my resume, analyzing all my experience, going through LinkedIn, and finding jobs or opportunities that actually fit me, not just titles that I've had before. I have Claude Co-work answering the question, "What could I actually do based on what I've done in the past?"

[00:09:51]Second, I'm literally having Claude Co-work scroll my LinkedIn feed for me.

[00:09:56]I'm having Claude Co-work find hidden opportunities for me that I probably wouldn't have otherwise found. Three, I started a company a year and a half ago, and while it has scaled to over 6,000 users in over 100 countries, and that is really impressive, it's still not bringing in enough revenue for me to personally live off of. I'm looking for ways to scale it. I'm looking for ways to transition it and pivot it into something more profitable. I'm looking for ways to hack the growth. Number four, I'm moving my body every single day. It is a non-negotiable. I was used to heading to work, seeing people, being somewhat active throughout the day to now waking up whenever I want and having nowhere to be. It's not easy. It's not something I want to do. It's something I force myself to do. Five, I talk to random strangers as much as possible. I literally force myself to go to Starbucks, to coffee shops, when I'm at the grocery store, when I'm taking my daily walks. Just say hi to random people. Face to face human interaction is a must. I didn't realize the toll on it until I had it and then lost it. And finally, number six, nothing is too cringey for me to try right now. I stay curious as hell and I try everything.

[00:11:04]Sales, Tik Tok videos, new business ideas. My eyes and ears are wide open for anything because I genuinely believe that this season of my life is either going to break me or it's going to completely change my future. And honestly, I'm betting on the second one.

[00:11:20]I think that one lesson that we've learned from mass layoffs is that everyone is expendable. It seems like you just wake up one morning, wake up to an email or a phone call, and you're getting told you're laid off. This is the reality for a lot of people in 2026 who are waking up to unemployment emails and it's a huge shock because they thought they were doing a good job. They probably were doing a good job but it doesn't really matter. It's not really up to their boss. It's usually up to bar and also the accounting teams where they're analyzing budgets and they see that there's some employees that they can cut and they cut it just to increase their profits. Now, I hope things turn around and I hope companies stop getting greedy, but we really have to start prioritizing the workingclass employees because it's just not a good time out right now. A little over three years ago, I decided I wasn't going to sign the meta severance and I wanted to keep my integrity and just be able to speak the truth about my experience there. A lot of people thought that I would come to regret this decision. And I can tell you that I have closed on my house today and we're so excited. It's beautiful. I love it.

[00:12:44]Um, it's just very peaceful here and that's what I wanted. I wanted peace in my life and not to feel like I owed a billionaire anything. So, this is your sign if you are thinking about signing a severance with the major tech company.

[00:13:02]You do not need to do that to have a wonderful life.

[00:13:10]This is this is what true beauty looks like.

[00:13:16]>> Last quarter, one tech company laid off 4,000 people. In the same quarter, they announced the CEO's pay at $52 million.

[00:13:25]They had a record-breaking revenue at 15.8 billion, 12% year-over-year growth.

[00:13:31]Tell me that's not a problem. This wasn't a struggling company. It was a record-breaking company. And what they decided to do was transfer from the money from the people that were making that money to the select few in leadership that they want to give bonus to. And this is happening all over corporate America. And this is the biggest problem right now in corporate America. Everyone doing the work, working hard, dedicating their lives is getting left over. So I decided to write a book on it because it's now a playbook. They hire the consultants.

[00:14:03]They promote the fluffers, the assassins, people riding in the slipstream. This is happening all over corporate America. And I think we're at a breaking point where people are fed up. The rich are getting richer. The poor are struggling. Average people who used to not be considered poor are now considered poor. Can't get ahead, can't buy the house. All this right now is because of the cowards in corporate America running things. They the leadership class has been completely replaced. Mediocrity runs corporate America now. And if you don't understand how to navigate through this landscape, you're going to get got. So, I wrote this book. It's now available on Amazon.

[00:14:40]Ebooks available. The print copies are dropping. Read it. It's going to help you understand what the archetypes are that are inside corporate America that you have to now navigate through. You don't want to get got and not understanding what you're up against is going to lead you to a big disappointment. when I was laid off from my last job last November. They couldn't have known or October. They couldn't have known that it was during the worst time of my life, but they did it nonetheless. Uh after I got laid off within 24 hours, my uncle died who I was very close to. So that was fun and surprising. And then a month later after that, like exactly a month, my dog died who like I loved more than anything in this entire world. Like he was my husband. He was the love of my life. I am married, but that dog was the love of my life. And then just like a few months prior to getting laid off, uh we lost my father-in-law. And they really couldn't have foreseen that laying me off would just be like kind of the tip of the iceberg. That like really rounded out 2025 to be such a horrid year. And it's not their fault. But also their timing was horribly impeccable. Life is so much better now. Don't worry. It it does go up and up. Um but wow, that was fun.

[00:15:45]Wasn't that >> I think I just got laid off. I'm like I'm like in shock right now. I was showering and I joined a global PTU all hands like five minutes late and I get slacks from my my entire team. Are we getting laid off? And then it's the CEO explaining to me about how our Q4 performance was poor and how he would like personally make sure that we would we would be fine whatever whatever like you know typical like I'm the CEO I just got laid off speech and then the Zoom ended. Mind you, I was online. I joined for like a minute and then immediately I get logged out of Slack and all my my Google calendar, email, and everything.

[00:16:27]So, I'm like I'm kind of freaking out right now. I I'm pretty sure I just got laid off. I'm trying to sign in.

[00:16:39]All my login aren't working, so I have no way to communicate with anyone on my team, my boss. Let's talk about who's most at risk for 2026 layoffs. This is not about intelligence or effort. It's about how companies are redesigning work. First are middle managers.

[00:16:57]Companies are flattening org charts.

[00:16:59]That means fewer people managing people and more individual contributors carrying broader responsibilities.

[00:17:06]If your role exists mainly to pass information up and down, it's being questioned. And second is roles with repeatable processheavy task. AI and automation are replacing work operations reporting customer support and parts of marketing and finance. It's not about being replaced overnight. It's about being reduced over time. And third is internal support roles that aren't revenue facing. When companies cut costs, they protect revenue first and trim support second.

[00:17:41]This includes HR, recruiting, learning and development, DEI, internal communications roles. Fourth is highly paid roles with a narrow scope.

[00:17:51]Leadership wants fewer specialists and more adaptable skill sets. Versatility is becoming more valuable than title.

[00:17:59]More resilient roles tend to be those that directly drive revenue, solve complex problems, work with AI instead of competing against it, and adapt across all functions. Being at risk doesn't mean you're doomed.

[00:18:15]It means you need to be intentional. Ask yourself, if my role disappeared tomorrow, what skills would I still bring to the table? That answer matters more than your job title. Today is March 27th, 2026 and at around 11ish in the morning, I got a a meeting from HR and that was not good. I got laid off today and it was abrupt. It was unexpected, but it's a bittersweet moment for me.

[00:18:43]I'm actually relieved. I've been with the company for 7 years. I have a lot of skill sets under my belt now. Um, but it's really hard to part ways with amazing people. And this decision came from a lot higher than my boss. He barely knew. He was so shocked. It came from someone even higher than some of the, you know, the upper management in general that this this is a restructuring business decision. And God knows what he does. I was already at my wit's end. It's been seven years. God has always blessed me for seven years.

[00:19:16]There's the cycle that's closing and I'm excited for what's to