SCIENCE -ERA LAB- SCHEME : MEGA LAYOFFS

SNAP is laying off 16% of its staff. Block lopped off 40% of workforce.

Oracle, meanwhile, is shedding thousands of employees, after Amazon.com cut about 30,000 in a matter of months.

Welcome to the era of the mega-layoffs.

Instead of laying off people in more incremental - and less disruptive - waves, employers are seizing on the potential financial upsides of severing swaths of their workforces at once.

That is a departure from not too long ago, when mass layoffs registered as a sign of trouble or mismanagement. Now such a company is more likely to get a big stock bump and praise from investors for acting boldly.

So far, the rationale for the cuts appears to be driven by less AI's abilities to replace workers outright than by the soaring costs of building the technology, according to executives.

And many companies, particularly in tech, continue to course-correct after overhiring during the pandemic.

The World Students Society thanks Dawn.