WSJ What’s News - How AI is Tearing Through The White-Collar Workforce

Episode Date: October 29, 2025

A.M. Edition for Oct. 29. It has been a tough month for the white-collar workforce, as companies including Amazon, United Parcel Service and Target all announced layoffs. WSJ’s Chip Cutter explains how a new normal is emerging for a leaner workforce, driven in part by artificial intelligence. Plus, the Federal Reserve will announce its latest policy decision today. WSJ’s Nick Timiraos explains what central bankers are weighing amid a government shutdown that is leaving a gap in the official data. And, with over three thousand billionaires on the planet, Americans are dominating their collective wealth. Caitlin McCabe hosts. Sign up for the WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's Fed Day, but a bit of an unusual one, as the government shutdown leaves officials without their typical data. Plus why white-collar jobs in the U.S. are vanishing. And America leads with the most billionaires worldwide, but no one is safe. The thing is that if you have a billion or two billion, next year you might not have a billion at all. It's Wednesday, October 29th. I'm Caitlin McCabe for the Wall Street Journal, and here is the AM edition of What's News. The top headlines and business stories moving your world today. All eyes are on the Federal Reserve today, which will announce its latest policy decision at 2 p.m. Eastern. Investors widely expect the central bank to cut rates by a quarter percentage

point, lowering the target range for the federal funds rate to 3.75% to 4%. The journal's chief economics correspondent Nick Timmeros joins me now to discuss what we might expect from today's meeting. Nick, thanks for being here. We mentioned that a rate cut today seems widely expected. Can you walk us through what the Fed is weighing as it makes this decision today? The big question really for this meeting is where does it leave everybody on the rate setting committee in thinking about another interest rate cut in December? Because if we go back to their previous meeting in September, they released quarterly economic projections then. And you had a narrow majority of the 19 people who fill out these projections who thought they would cut rates three times before the end of the year.

And there were only three meetings left back in September. So that would imply a cut this week and another cut in December. But you had a significant minority of officials who didn't think any more rate cuts were going to be needed. Now, normally, when there's this kind of a divide, the economic data come along and they kind of reconcile the debate. They help the people who were not comfortable with cutting, get more comfortable with a cut, or vice versa. But, Caitlin, because of the government shutdown, the Fed has been robbed, really, of the information that would help reconcile this debate. And so that's why this is a weird situation where it's going to be harder for the Fed to have a view about what you're going to do in December because you won't have had the data that sort of guide you towards wherever that consensus is forming. Yeah, Nick, you make a great point.

Obviously, most notably, we haven't had the September jobs report, which the Fed usually pays close attention to. We did have an inflation reading last week via CPI. Is the Fed looking at these more informal indicators or estimates that have been released in the absence of official macroeconomic data due to the shutdown? Or what are they studying as they make this decision? The Fed has a view as to how the economy is performing. And you're using whatever data you have, whether it's the higher quality government data or sort of second and third tier private statistics or just anecdote. You're using that to sort of gut-check your hypothesis about what's happening in the economy.

What signals might we get or can we expect about the December meeting and even next year? The answer for December is really, there's inertia built into these processes. So once the Fed starts cutting, they need to see a reason to not cut. And certainly the markets are expecting another rate. cut in December. So if that's not how the Fed sees it, then Wednesday's press conference and the likely avalanche of Fed speak next week and after this meeting, that's where you would hear that the Fed just doesn't share the market's view right now about the need to keep cutting interest rates. That's Journal Chief Economics correspondent Nick Timrose. Nick, thanks so much for joining us.

Thanks for having me. After weeks of speculation among some of his allies about whether he would seek a third term, President Trump acknowledged that the Constitution prohibits him from doing so. While en route to South Korea amid his swing through Asia, Trump told reporters that, quote, if you read it, it's pretty clear, I'm not allowed to run, adding that, quote, it's too bad. Trump's comments follow moves by some of his supporters, who have promoted the idea of him running in 2028. Former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has previously said there is a plan in place for Trump to secure a third term.

And Andy Ogles, a Republican representative from Tennessee, has introduced a bill that seeks a constitutional amendment, which would allow Trump to run again. Meanwhile, the White House has fired all members of the Commission of Fine Arts, an independent federal agency that would be tasked with reviewing some of President Trump's construction projects. A White House official said it is preparing to appoint a new slate of members that are, quote, more aligned with Trump's America First policies. The board members who were fired yesterday were appointed by former President Joe Biden. The commission, which was established by Congress, is charged with giving advice on matters of design that involve federal interests and help maintain the dignity of the nation's capital. Although changes to the White House would be

exempt from review processes, Trump has plans for other construction projects as well. The number of billionaires in the world increased last year with the U.S. sitting in the top spot, boasting more billionaires than any other country. That's according to wealth intelligence firm Altrata, who found that surging stock markets have left a record world billionaire class of 3,508 individuals, up 10.3% from a year earlier. Now, about a third of the world's billionaires can be found in the U.S., with their fortunes making up 43% of the collective $13.4 trillion in wealth. Journal Data reporter Inti Pacheco explains why Americans are stacking up so well compared to the rest of the world.

From Altratus analysis, it appears that the technology sector is the one that keeps growing in multiples, and that's been boosted by the recent AI boom, which means more people are becoming billioners, and other billionaires, their wealth just keeps increasing because they're in that sector. And a lot of those companies are based in the U.S., which kind of explains what's going on. However, Inti added that hitting the billionaire mark doesn't mean the world's wealthiest can rest easy. Europe became the second largest region in terms of the billionaire count just this year. It used to be Asia, but apparently some people have fallen off the list.

The thing is that if you have a billion or two billion, next year you might not have a billion at all. I'll try to say that the way to be sure that you stay a billionaire is, you need at least $4.5 billion because market volatility, companies get sold. Things change very quickly. So from one year to another, you might not be a billionaire anymore. To find out more, we've left a link to Intes reporting at WSJ.com in our show notes. Coming up, we explore what some of America's biggest companies are saying about hiring in the age of AI or rather why they're choosing to not hire at all.

That story and more after the break. It's been a tough month for the white-collar workforce, with layoffs announced at a range of companies, including Amazon, United Parcel Service, Target, and Booz Allen Hamilton. At least in some cases, part of the layoffs are being driven by companies' embrace of AI, which executives hope can handle more of the work that well-compensated corporate workers have been doing. The journal's chip cutter covers workplace and management issues. He says that companies are increasingly calculating that they can keep the size of their teams flat

or shrink them through layoffs without harming their businesses. This is an interesting moment in corporate America where many big executives, are looking to increase sales, they want to increase profits, but they actually don't want to add any people. And there's this experiment of sorts underway at the moment to see whether that's going to be possible. And what's behind this is a belief that artificial intelligence, that AI will be able to fill a lot of the gaps, even if more people aren't added inside of an organization. And you hear this from just a number of comments from large company executives. So it was J.P. Morgan Chase's CFO telling investors recently the bank now has, quote, a very strong bias against having the reflective response to hire more people for any given need. The Aerospace and Defense Company RTX boasted last week that its sales rose even without adding employees. Goldman Sachs sent a memo to people inside the firm saying that it will continue to constrain headcount. And then you have Walmart, which is the nation's largest private employer, saying that it plans to keep its headcount flat over the next three years.

even as it grows. And so there's this mood right now across corporate America to just essentially do anything but higher. Chip added that some companies say leaner workforces will make them more efficient by cutting down on bureaucracy. Some actually say that they think they'll do better with smaller organizations. There was a memo sent last week inside meta, where the company's AI chief actually said that by reducing the size of our team, fewer conversations will be required. required to make decisions, and that each person will be, quote, more load-bearing and have more scope. So this feeling that actually bureaucracy is getting in the way of progress, that bigger teams are getting in the way of companies advancing is out there too.

But Chip says, while executives say the changes are good for their companies, employees aren't necessarily feeling the same way. For employees, this is a really difficult labor market to navigate. If you're out of work and looking for a job, it's oftentimes difficult to get people to respond to you to find one. Many big companies are not hiring right now. At the same time, those people who have a job are really just looking to hold on. They might be taking on the roles of multiple employees at this point. They may not be being promoted. They may just sort of feel stuck in place with more responsibilities put on them. And that's leading many to feel a little bit miserable

in the workplace right now. We go now to the Middle East where the Israeli military military, said today it would return to upholding a ceasefire in Gaza after launching dozens of air strikes in what it said was retaliation for Hamas violations of the peace deal. Yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered forceful strikes on the Gaza Strip in retaliation for what the military said was a Hamas attack on troops stationed in Israeli-controlled territory in southern Gaza. The military said one person was killed in the shooting. Israel said it targeted 30 combatants. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said they received

nine dead and treated dozens of people for injuries. And Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Cuba early this morning with meteorologists calling it extremely dangerous despite slowing to a Category 3 storm. It comes a day after the hurricane hit Jamaica as one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record. Jamaican officials said that, The storm has trapped families in homes, damaged hospitals, and cut power for three quarters of the island. Jamaica's government had reported at least three storm-related deaths on Monday before the hurricane's direct hit on the country. Before we go, heads up, we made a correction to last night's episode. OpenAI's nonprofit parent owns a stake in its for-profit subsidiary, which has become a public benefit corporation.

An earlier version of that episode incorrectly said OpenAI had become a for-profit company. And that's it for What's News for this Wednesday morning. Today's show is produced by Kate Bullivant. Our supervising producer was Michael Cosmites. And I'm Caitlin McCabe for The Wall Street Journal. We'll be back tonight with the new show. Until then, thanks for listening. Thank you.