Global job reductions across various industries, highlighting an economic slowdown and the increasing impact of automation, especially artificial intelligence. Major companies like Amazon, Nestlé, and UPS are cited as making substantial cuts to reduce spending, reflecting dimming consumer confidence. American companies alone announced over 25,000 job cuts in the current month, excluding UPS's large earlier figure, while European cuts topped 20,000, largely due to Nestlé. Investors are closely tracking these anecdotal layoff reports because official, economy-wide job data is unavailable due to a protracted US government shutdown.