ai-pocalypse A bipartisan pair of US Senators has introduced a bill that would require companies and government agencies to report AI-related layoffs, and it couldn't come at a better time. October jobs data suggests AI is driving the largest wave of layoffs headed into the end of the year that we've seen since 2003.
Senators Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Mark Warner (D-VA) on Wednesday announced plans to introduce the AI-Related Job Impacts Clarity Act. If passed, the law requires public companies and pretty much every single federal government agency to hand quarterly layoff data over to the Department of Labor, indicating how many jobs they cut due to automation.
The act would also require employers to report on a quarterly basis how many people they hired related to AI and automation, how many jobs they decided not to fill thanks to AI, and numbers on retraining due to artificial intelligence. The end goal, said Warner, is to help Congress understand how the labor market is changing and how to prepare for the future.
"This bipartisan legislation will finally give us a clear picture of AI's impact on the workforce – what jobs are being eliminated, which workers are being retrained, and where new opportunities are emerging," Warner said. "Armed with this information, we can make sure AI drives opportunity instead of leaving workers behind."
The bill, introduced yesterday and handed to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, only requires publicly-traded companies to report that data to the Labor Department, but includes a provision that would require officials to determine how privately-held companies should be included in the reporting requirements, meaning that they're unlikely to skate around the rule forever.
"Artificial intelligence is already replacing American workers, and experts project AI could drive unemployment up to 10-20% in the next five years," Hawley said in a canned statement. "The American people need to have an accurate understanding of how AI is affecting our workforce, so we can ensure that AI works for the people, not the other way around."
His concerns are palpable as layoff rhetoric has accelerated in 2025 - especially the latter part of the year. Whereas prior years were rife with experts claiming AI wouldn't cause job losses, companies are now admitting that their workforces are rapidly shrinking thanks to the payroll expense-reducing miracle of AI.
As a case in point, job cut numbers published by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas on Thursday showed that October layoffs have been the worst in more than 20 years.
According to the firm, 153,074 jobs were cut by US-based employers last month, a year-over-year increase of 175 percent, and month-on-month increase of 183 percent. Year-to-date numbers don't bode well either, as Challenger reported a 65 percent year-to-date increase in job cuts compared to 2024, making the first 10 months of 2025 the worst since 2020, which was marked by the beginning of the Covid pandemic.
Warehousing and technology have been the hardest hit sectors, Challenger said, thanks in large part to AI and automation technology being introduced in those areas.
"This is the highest total for October in over 20 years, and the highest total for a single month in the fourth quarter since 2008," the firm said. "Like in 2003, a disruptive technology is changing the landscape."
In 2003 it was wide adoption of cellular technology, says Challenger; this time around it's AI.
Revealera hiring trends researcher Henley Wing Chiu also reported some disheartening jobs data on Thursday. His analysis of 180 million global job postings over the last few years shows an eight percent decline in overall jobs postings in 2025 compared to the year prior. Most of the lost postings were in the creative space, with computer graphics artists the hardest hit, though photography and writing jobs have declined considerably as well, with each career field notching at least 28 percent fewer postings this year.
What job is growing the fastest? Machine learning engineers, and it's not even a contest. That said, Chiu isn't ready to place all the blame on declining jobs on AI, as he noted the tech's influence on jobs is "nearly impossible to separate from macro factors."
The influence of macroeconomic factors was cited by Challenger too - cost-cutting was actually the most-cited reason for sending employees packing. "Softening consumer and corporate spending, and rising costs drive belt-tightening and hiring freezes," Challenger said.
With the difficulty of separating one layoff cause from the other, Hawley and Warner's bill may become essential. ®
Source: The register