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Two large employers announced cuts this week, and they gave very different reasons.
On Thursday, Barclays said it will cut about 5,000 jobs, roughly 5% of its workforce. CNBC reports the bank tied the move to AI efficiency. About 60% of the cuts fall in support functions, and the CFO said developers are part of that group.
The bank had a decent quarter
The announcement came with third-quarter results. Pretax profit rose 12% to £2.3 billion, though it missed analyst forecasts because fixed-income trading was weak. Barclays says it's "structurally reducing the cost base." About 1,000 of the 5,000 roles were already trimmed in the first half of the year.
I think the word "support" matters here. A bank counts internal engineering as overhead, so a developer who maintains internal tools sits next to the people who run HR systems. If your job lives in that bucket, you're in the group that gets measured on cost.
eBay is doing it for the second time
On Tuesday, eBay CEO Jamie Iannone told staff the company is cutting about 9% of its workforce. That's the second round this year, after about 800 people in February. eBay had around 12,300 employees at the end of 2025, so the math lands near 1,000 to 1,100 people (outlets differ).
The most useful detail comes from a WARN notice for San Jose, reported by Value Added Resource. It lists 229 positions across software engineering, product management, design, and data science. 26 are directors and 48 are managers. Restructuring charges are estimated at $130 million to $150 million, mostly severance.
eBay's spokesperson said the cuts line the company up with its "top strategic priorities." There's no AI claim attached.
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Same direction, different stories
I covered Oracle's cloud cuts and Netflix's 1,000-person round in the last few editions. Now a bank says AI and an online marketplace says priorities. The reasons keep changing, and the headcount keeps dropping. The roles on the list tell me more than the stated reason does.
What I'd do about it
If you work in internal IT or platform engineering at a non-tech company, write down which revenue or customer-facing system your work keeps running. "Support" is a label somebody else picks for you, so give them a reason to pick a different one.
Use AI tools in your daily work and be able to say what they saved. Barclays is betting on AI efficiency and it's cutting the people who build software. The engineers who can show a faster way to ship are in a better spot to argue for themselves.
And look up your state's WARN notice page. These filings are public, they name job titles and counts, and they show up weeks before the news does. 10 minutes of reading tells you which roles a company is cutting in your area.
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