Some of the biggest tech Companies have started to slash job, with even toy and food companies moving to slash jobs in Australia due in part to the introduction of AI systems and the need for capital to invest in their AI future, the move is set to impact retail sales.

The shrinking white-collar workforce will most likely create ripple effects across the broader Australian economy—particularly in the retail sector, where discretionary spending is already under pressure claim analysts.

This week Microsoft, Intel, Amazon and even toy maker Hasbro announced job cuts in the tens of thousands with Australia among the Countries that will be affected.

Intel is slashing up to 20% of its global workforce next month.

Microsoft starts laying up to 10,000 staff primarily in sales roles as the company spends heavily on artificial intelligence.

Microsoft started by laying off 6,000 workers on Tuesday, nearly 3% of its entire workforce, marking its largest job cuts in more than two years.

Amazon is also planning to cut 14,000 managerial positions by early 2025 as part of its efforts to cut costs and improve efficiency, according to a report.

The move, which accounts for a 13% reduction in its global management workforce, is expected to help the company save millions annually as they increase their investment in robotics and artificial intelligence.

Analysts claim there is a lot more layoffs to come in Australia as service businesses move to lift revenues by using AI instead of people.

In the UK retailers are also moving to slash jobs with Curry’s the equivalent of JB Hi earlier this month slashing 80 core management at the business.

ChannelNews is also aware that in the retail market brands such as Nike, Proctor and Gamble and Nestle are slashing jobs or not hiring replacements when people leave.

At this stage the impact of AI related job cuts in Australia are not known nor is the impact on retail sales.

In a speech delivered to the National Press Club in Canberra yesterday Treasurer Jim Chalmers said Labor was willing to overhaul the tax system to reduce its growing reliance on income tax while ensuring the government can raise enough money to plug the budget deficit.

The speech was the strongest indication to date that the Albanese government intends to use its parliamentary majority to enact tax changes that were not taken to the election.

It also appears that the Government were aware of potential job cuts coming for Australian businesses ahead of the election with Treasurer moving to find new ways to generate taxes.

In a note to employees this week Amazon Chief Executive Andy Jassy wrote that the “once-in-a-lifetime” rise of AI will eliminate the need for certain jobs in the next few years.

Previously he had told employees that not every new project requires 50 people to do it.

The best leaders, he added in his annual letter to shareholders, “get the most done with the least number of resources required to do the job.”

Procter & Gamble said this month that it would cut 7,000 jobs—or 15% of its nonmanufacturing workforce—to create “broader roles and smaller teams.”

Estée Lauder recently said they had each jettisoned around 20% of their managers.

“Flatter is faster,” Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s finance chief, Marie Myers, told investors this month as she discussed recent staff cuts.

With fewer than 59,000 employees, HPE is at its smallest size since it became an independent company a decade ago, she pointed out.

Ironically the recent workforce cuts in recent years coincide with a surge in sales and profits and increased profits for CEO’s running these Companies as bigger profits flow to the bottom line due to cuts which analysts claim will have an impact on the amount of money that consumers will spend at retailers.

In Australia research shows that workers left in Companies are also having to contend with bigger workloads, more responsibilities and a nagging fear that they could be the next to get the chop.