What's truly terrifying isn't the layoffs, but the fact that they aren't hiring anymore.
Seeing Block cut its workforce by 4,000 people out of a group of over 10,000 at the end of February 2026 really shook me. I’ve always worked in financial IT—things like trading pipelines, Hong Kong/US stocks, and system fundamentals. Usually, I’m accustomed to buzzwords like “efficiency improvement,” “automation,” and “cost reduction while increasing efficiency.” But when a fintech company, one so close to money, compliance, and risk control, publicly cites AI as the reason for layoffs, it still hits you hard emotionally.
My current assessment is very direct: the scariest part of AI layoffs isn’t a layoff list in the news one day, but when companies start assuming that “smaller teams can do more work.” This means no backfilling for departures, fewer entry-level positions, and much tighter headcount management. From April 2025 to April 2026, this wind is still blowing in the US; while China hasn’t seen a high-profile, public wave of mass layoffs yet, the quiet squeeze has already begun.