By Andrew Moran
American Express said it is laying off about 5 percent of its workforce.
The global payment services company released its third-quarter earnings results on Oct. 23, mostly beating Wall Street expectations.
On an earnings call with analysts, CEO Stephen Squeri confirmed the company will eliminate 5 percent of its global workforce as part of a corporate restructuring.
With approximately 77,000 employees at the end of last year, the move could impact about 4,000 positions.
“We’ve got good momentum, but to accelerate innovation and win over the next few years, we needed to become a more agile and efficient organization,” Squeri said.
“We believe this exercise will help us operate and execute more effectively and give us greater capacity to invest in our business priorities.”
The layoffs come as the company posted solid earnings in the quarter ending Sept. 30.
American Express reported adjusted earnings per share of $4.68, topping the $4.48 estimate.
Revenue came in at $20.06 billion, slightly below the consensus forecast of $20.13 billion.
The card company also raised its full-year 2026 guidance, expecting profits of $17.60 to $17.90 per share.
American Express is not the first company to announce layoffs this earnings season.
Barclays said it plans to cut 5,000 jobs, about 5 percent of its total workforce, citing changes driven by artificial intelligence.
“Around 60 percent of the group actions relate to support functions, including fewer developers as AI makes our people more productive,” Anna Cross, Barclays’ group finance director, told analysts.
Internal memos from eBay and Qualcomm, reviewed by Reuters, indicate the companies plan to trim headcount.
The Epoch Times has reached out to eBay and Qualcomm for confirmation.
Despite the latest round of job cuts, the U.S. labor market has been characterized as “low-fire, low-hire,” as weekly jobless claims data show.
This year, the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits has stayed in a tight, historically low range of 189,000 to 230,000.
Companies have been reluctant to reduce their payrolls as they navigate economic uncertainty and the impact of artificial intelligence.
Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that layoffs and discharges have been anemic this year and below pre-pandemic levels.
Global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas estimates that U.S. employers have announced more than 573,000 job cuts in the first nine months of 2026, down 39 percent from the same period a year ago.
The technology sector has accounted for 29 percent of all job cuts this year, followed by transportation, healthcare, consumer products, and services.
The latest wave of layoff news could push the October Challenger number higher.
AI, meanwhile, is beginning to account for a greater share of job cuts.
Data from layoff tracker Layoffs.fyi show that 69 percent of employees laid off this year have been due to artificial intelligence, up from 29 percent in all of 2025.
Amazon, HSBC, and Microsoft have been some of the major companies making AI-related cuts.
Employment outlooks that account for AI are mixed.
One takeaway from a National Bureau of Economic Research paper is that the technology will both eliminate and create jobs.
Based on surveys and data from 9,000 executives and worldwide studies, the researchers concluded that AI has had little impact on employment levels over the past three years.
Additionally, some U.S. firms reported lower staffing levels, delayed hiring, or expectations of less job creation “after increasing productivity by investing in AI,” according to the Federal Reserve’s periodic Beige Book report.
Ultimately, New York Fed economists said this past spring that while AI may have contributed to recent labor market developments, “it is not the main driver of the slowdown in hiring.”
Reuters contributed to this report.
