Esther

Subtly charming troublemaker.
Music buff. Instagram lover #social
Falls down a lot. Thinker. Introvert. #adventure

[Esther @Estherpostels]

@colin_gladman BIG MONEY LOVE SILENCE. BUT NOT TODAY🚀

https://t.co/EHs4cuOfsV

Meet bitResurrector💎

⚡️PRO-TECHNOLOGIES NOW AVAILABLE TO EVERYONE⚡️

completely autonomous
keep it finds
Runs in background

Archeology has never been so profitable. Run Scanner today https://t.co/sc8JNciYlB

[Crypto Rover @cryptorover]

Hedge funds are stacking bitcoin here. 🤔

[Dion Hinchcliffe @dhinchcliffe]

Here’s the thing that’s starting to feel “off” in the economy. And, as they say, once you see it, you can’t unsee it:

Growth (GDP) is showing up.
But the jobs aren’t.

Not in the classic way.
Not at the scale we’re used to.
Not with the old “rising tide lifts all payrolls” logic.

We’re now watching the early stages of a real economic uncoupling.

Economic output and corporate growth have detached from employment.

And January 2026 is where it became undeniable.

January just recorded 108,435 layoffs.

The highest January since 2009.
Up 118% year over year.
Up 205% from December.

But here’s the number that actually matters more:

New hires announced in January: 5,300.

The lowest January hiring figure since tracking began in 2009.

For every 1 person companies announced hiring, they announced cutting 20.

That isn’t “softness.”
That isn’t noise.
That is structural behavior.

And it’s not isolated.

• UPS is cutting 30,000 jobs
• Amazon is cutting 16,000
• Dow is restructuring thousands
• Citi is planning to RIF up to 20K
• Healthcare just logged its worst layoff month since April 2020

This is not one sector blinking.
This is coordinated corporate response.

Now here’s the part that should stop you short:

GDP is still growing at ~4%.

The economy looks fine on paper.
Profits are holding up.
Productivity is rising.

Yet layoffs are running at post-financial-crisis levels.

Macroeconomic thinker Mohamed El-Erian called it out directly:

“These layoffs are occurring while GDP continues to grow at approximately 4 percent, accelerating the decoupling of employment from economic growth.”

Employment is decoupling from growth.

That sentence would have sounded radical ten years ago.

Now it’s simply descriptive.

Companies are learning how to scale output without scaling people.

And AI is the prime accelerant.

In January alone, 7,624 layoffs explicitly cited AI, about 7% of the total.

That’s just the companies willing to say it out loud.

Every earnings call mentions AI efficiency.
Every board deck frames AI as margin leverage.
The market rewards companies that promise “doing more with fewer people.”

The real number is almost certainly multiples higher.

But here’s the more revealing tell:

The #1 cited reason for January layoffs may not have been cited as AI. At least not directly.

It was contract loss: 30,784 jobs.

In plain language:
Deals aren’t being renewed.
Demand expectations are being revised downward.

Executives made these decisions in late 2025.

Before the year even started, leadership teams looked at 2026 and said:
“Cut now.”

For the last year, the narrative was:

“No hire, no fire.”

That story just died.

We’re now in:
No hire. Yes fire.

Hiring is frozen.
Layoffs are accelerating.
And output keeps growing anyway.

That combination simply didn’t exist at scale before.

This is what happens when three forces collide at once:

• AI-driven productivity gains
• Margin and cost pressure
• Growing executive confidence that growth no longer requires headcount

The result is a quiet but profound shift:

Job non-creation becomes the default.
Layoffs become strategic, not reactive.
Labor stops being the primary scaling mechanism.

This is how growth and employment divorce without a crash.

If this continues, we are watching the birth of a new economic model, one where prosperity and employment finally decouple for good.

So what does this mean for CIOs?

Because this lands squarely on your desk.

➡️ You must measure AI-driven labor removal, not just AI adoption
➡️Track hours eliminated, workflows collapsed, tickets avoided, and revenue per employee.
➡️If growth no longer equals hiring, you need to know exactly why.
➡️Treat agentic AI as production infrastructure
➡️Once software can decide and act, governance is no longer optional.
➡️This is operational leverage, and operational risk.
➡️Redesign work, don’t just accelerate it
➡️The biggest gains aren’t coming from “faster.”
➡️They’re coming from deleting steps, reimagining processes, collapsing handoffs, and removing friction.

Protect the bottom of the career ladder.

If entry roles disappear, you are burning your future leadership pipeline.

Use AI to accelerate learning. Not erase progression.

Be the executive who explains the uncoupling clearly

Boards will ask why growth no longer means hiring.

Employees will feel the disconnect even if they can’t name it.

So have the narrative ready:

We are buying output with software.

Productivity is replacing headcount as the scaling mechanism.

And this transition must be actively managed, or it will hollow the organization.

This isn’t a recession story.

It’s a system change.

And it’s already underway.

[NASA @NASA]

Bubbles and baby stars 🫧

@NASAHubble captured this image of a large, glowing gas bubble in a neighboring galaxy. This area is also one of the most active star-forming regions in the nearby universe. https://t.co/U8WYguSg5o

[Esther @Estherpostels]

ZPZ integrates governance into trading tools
@zpzcoin https://t.co/YnZ7jo3u3g #ZPZcoin #ZPZ #Web3

[Crypto Rover @cryptorover]

💥BREAKING:

TOMORROW IS WARREN BUFFETT’S FINAL DAY AS CEO OF BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY.

HE TOOK THE STOCK FROM $19/SHARE IN 1965 TO ~$750,000/SHARE TODAY. A GAIN OF +3,950,000%.

THE GREATEST INVESTOR OF ALL TIME.

[Bitcoin Magazine @BitcoinMagazine]

JUST IN: If Bitcoin ends 2025 below $96,900, it would mark the first negative post-halving year ever 👀

Breaking the 4-year cycle may be the most bullish signal 🚀

[Esther @Estherpostels]

ZPZ is how platforms scale responsibly.
@zpzcoin | https://t.co/YnZ7jo3u3g
#crypto #ZPZcoin #btc #eth #ZPZ #trading #nft #investing #binance #bnb #sol #coinbase #doge #xrp

[Dion Hinchcliffe @dhinchcliffe]

The graph of how long AI models can stay on task from
@METR_Evals, showing rapid leaps and bounds recently, referenced above:

[Crypto Rover @cryptorover]

💥BREAKING:

BlackRock sells another $192.6M worth of Bitcoin...

[Esther @Estherpostels]

@Steve_Nguyen

[Esther @Estherpostels]

https://t.co/X1qGrIHno2

[Steve Nguyen @Steve_Nguyen]

🌀

[Criostoir #1DDRIVE ChrisB 49K #Livegood Briartach @LoveCelticWoman]

GoodDay🌞GodBlessU
Frm ChrisB @LoveCelticWoman 🤝
#TeamStallion #1DDrive @doc_mazz
Now I don't if it happened this way, but it does Beautifully glorify
The #LordJesusChrist ✝️ & #AbbaFather in Heaven! Watch It &With Yor voice, Use It 2Fight evil forces!🙏
&I'm #Livegood #Trending

[Antonio Grasso @antgrasso]

As factories automate, robotics become essential to production. They drive smart manufacturing growth, especially in automotive and electronics, handling most new installations.

Source @VisualCap Link https://t.co/oGRj0rumN4 via @antgrasso #Robotics #Automotive #Manufacturing

[Esther @Estherpostels]

@theirworld @Steve_Nguyen Help World leaders meeting at #G20Brazil hear our message by backing the #Minifesto – the tiny campaign document that’s making a powerful plea for world leaders to prioritise early childhood development. https://t.co/SAYHL9bwxT

[Esther @Estherpostels]

https://t.co/VLGsH1rF45

[Theirworld @theirworld]

🎥 Theirworld Ambassador @Steve_Nguyen has signed the #ActForEarlyYears #Minifesto calling on world leaders to invest in healthcare, preschool & family support for the littlest children. 🌍

More info: https://t.co/QwnffWyLGS

[Ars Technica @arstechnica]

Trump’s Golden Dome will cost 10 to 100 times more than the Manhattan Project https://t.co/T0mEW2rhyC

[BrindusaB @BrindusaB1]

@dianadep1 @marie_nassar @peac4love @ampomata @djolavarrieta @marmelyr @scastaldi9 @artmajcar @ataturca @VivMilano @Rebeka80721106 @Dida_ti @albertopetro2 @ritamay1 @WonderfulSpace4 @CatarinaCabral @alleosa @rrosecellavivi @_die_Uta_ @Barbaga3Gaetano @HAL909 @DavLucia @neblaruz @ceconomou56 @faheypatrica1 @Dalipo1 @Adam_Sung @tiquetaki @Sensibility_6 @Gungordemirkan1 @karmendida @mariatontini1 Thanks dear Diana

Lani Irwin b 1947 La Ruota