AI will not trigger employment collapse despite job cut fears, says Adecco Group study

AI will not trigger employment collapse, staffing company Adecco Group says

ZURICH, July 23 (Reuters) - AI will not trigger a collapse in employment despite concerns the technology will displace large numbers of workers, a study by staffing company Adecco Group (ADEN.S), opens new tab showed on Thursday . Employers have cited AI as responsible for nearly a quarter of job cuts in the United States this year, global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said. Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab said this month it was ⁠cutting about 2.1% of its workforce, joining HSBC Holdings (HSBA.L), opens new tab, Amazon (AMZN.O), opens new tab and Standard Chartered (STAN.L), opens new tab in a wave of layoffs as they shift investment toward AI. But Denis Machuel, CEO of Zurich-based Adecco, the world's largest staffing company, told Reuters some companies were using AI as a cover for cuts caused by weaker performance, restructuring or other problems. "AI is bringing a massive evolution in the world of work, but a job apocalypse is not on the horizon," he said. "It's more about changing roles and ⁠tasks than eliminating jobs." Three and a half years after the release of OpenAI's AI chatbot ChatGPT, employment rates are at record highs and unemployment near historic lows, Adecco said, citing data from the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development about its 38 member ⁠countries. Previous industrial revolutions from the advent of steam, electricity, information technology and the internet have transformed work without causing mass job destruction, Machuel said. "With the data we have so far, ⁠there's no evidence we will have a different scenario with AI," he added. Some entry-level jobs were disappearing but employers could not simply cut junior positions without ⁠damaging talent pipelines, Machuel said. Companies needed to reinvent such jobs so AI can complement them, Machuel said, noting upskilling, reskilling, and closer collaboration among companies, governments and education systems was essential. Reporting by John Revill Editing by Rod Nickel Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Adecco's CEO says AI is changing jobs, not destroying them

Adecco's Denis Machuel argues the labour data still refuses to crack, even as employers pin a quarter of US layoffs on artificial intelligence. Denis Machuel runs the world's largest staffing company, which makes his read on the labour market worth pausing over. This week the Adecco Group chief executive offered it plainly: artificial intelligence is remaking work, but it is not about to empty the offices. "AI is bringing a massive evolution in the world of work, but a job apocalypse is not on the horizon," Machuel told Reuters. The reassurance lands in a year that has felt anything but calm, with tech layoffs mounting and a lengthening list of employers naming AI as the culprit. His case rests less on optimism than on a shortage of evidence that anything catastrophic is happening. Nearly three and a half years after ChatGPT arrived, employment rates across the OECD's 38 member countries sit near record highs and joblessness remains close to historic lows, according to the group's own figures. Even as AI reshapes desk work, the aggregate numbers have refused to buckle. Previous upheavals, Machuel noted, followed a similar pattern. Steam, electricity, computing, and the internet each rewired work without producing the mass unemployment their critics forecast. "It's more about changing roles and tasks than eliminating jobs," he said. "With the data we have so far, there's no evidence we will have a different scenario with AI." The burden, in his telling, falls on employers to redesign roles so the technology augments people rather than displaces them, which is a slower and less headline-friendly project than a round of cuts. The claim is not that nothing is changing. Machuel acknowledged that some entry-level positions are disappearing even as new AI-native roles surface elsewhere, and he warned employers that hollowing out junior jobs to save money now will starve the talent pipeline later. Companies that stop hiring and training graduates, on his reading, are borrowing against their own future supply of managers and specialists. There is a quieter accusation folded into his remarks, too. Some companies, he suggested, are using AI as a convenient cover for cuts driven by weaker performance or ordinary restructuring, dressing up plain belt-tightening as technological inevitability. That framing matters most for the graduates arriving into a market where the bottom rungs are thinning. The numbers give both sides something to hold. Employers blamed AI for nearly 25% of US job cuts this year, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which has flagged the technology as a leading stated reason for redundancies for months. By its count, AI has already been cited in more American layoffs in 2026 than in all of 2025. Microsoft has trimmed around 2.1% of its workforce, and HSBC, Amazon, and Standard Chartered have all made reductions of their own. What that tally does not settle is cause. A job cut attributed to AI in a press release is not the same as a job destroyed by AI, and Machuel's point is that the staffing market, where Adecco places hundreds of thousands of workers across dozens of countries, has not yet cracked the way the apocalyptic framing implies. The redundancies are real, in other words, but so far they read as churn and restructuring rather than a structural break in the demand for people. A degree of self-interest is worth naming. Adecco sells human labour for a living, and its own strategy leans hard on the technology it is playing down, with the company aiming for agentic AI to cover more than half of revenues by the end of 2026. Investors have not been fully soothed either; the shares fell sharply last November on questions about that roadmap and the dividend. For now, the labour data is on Machuel's side, even where the layoff headlines are not. The open question is not whether AI changes work, which it plainly is doing, but whether the executives writing the redundancy memos are describing the future or simply blaming it.

AI will not trigger employment collapse, staffing company Adecco Group says

AI will transform work by changing roles and tasks, not eliminating jobs. Employment rates remain high and unemployment is near historic lows globally. Companies must redesign junior roles to integrate AI and protect talent. Upskilling and reskilling are essential for this evolving work landscape. Collaboration between companies, governments, and education systems is vital. AI will not trigger a collapse in employment despite concerns the technology will displace large numbers of workers, a study by staffing company ⁠Adecco Group showed ⁠on Thursday . Employers have cited AI as responsible for nearly a quarter of job cuts in the United States this year, global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said. Microsoft said this month it was cutting about 2.1% of its workforce, joining HSBC Holdings, Amazon and Standard Chartered in a wave of layoffs as they shift investment toward AI. But Denis Machuel, CEO ⁠of Zurich-based Adecco, the world's largest staffing company, told Reuters some companies were using AI as a cover for cuts caused by ⁠weaker performance, restructuring or other problems. "AI is bringing a massive evolution in the world of work, but a job apocalypse is not on the horizon," he said. "It's more about changing roles and tasks than eliminating jobs." Three and a half years after the release of OpenAI's AI chatbot ChatGPT, employment rates are at record highs and unemployment near historic lows, Adecco said, citing data from the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development about its 38 member countries. Previous industrial revolutions from the advent of steam, electricity, information technology and the ⁠internet have transformed work without causing mass job destruction, Machuel said. "With the data we have so far, there's no evidence we will have a different scenario with AI," he added. Some entry-level jobs were disappearing but employers could not simply cut junior positions without damaging talent pipelines, Machuel said. Companies needed to reinvent such jobs so AI can complement them, Machuel said, noting upskilling, reskilling, and closer collaboration among companies, governments and education systems was essential.

AI not expected to trigger an employment collapse, says new study

Staffing company Adecco instead believes companies are using AI as a cover for cuts caused by weak performance and other issues. One of the main fears people have around AI these days is its effect on the job market. If an AI can do your job, why do you need to be there to do it? However, staffing company Adecco has revealed in a new study that it doesn't believe AI will lead to an employment collapse, and the CEO of the Zurich-based firm believes that companies using AI as a cover for cuts are actually using it as an excuse to dodge other issues. Employers have cited AI as a main reason for nearly a quarter of job cuts made in the US this year, according to Reuters. But, even if Microsoft, Google, and more are making big investments in the tech, Adecco's Denis Machuel thinks that this isn't to replace jobs. "AI is bringing a massive evolution in the world of work, but a job apocalypse is not on the horizon. It's more about changing roles and ⁠tasks than eliminating jobs. With the data we have so far, ⁠there's no evidence we will have a different scenario with AI," he said. Previous technological advancements, from the use of steam power to the internet, have not caused mass job eliminations, but have instead changed the way people have worked, according to Machuel. AI will only create a similar environment, by his thinking.