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Most companies firing people because of AI at least try to be subtle about it. Oracle didn’t bother. Their annual SEC filing — dropped this week — flat-out says AI caused the cuts. Twenty-one thousand of them. The same year they spent $55.7 billion on AI infrastructure. That ratio deserves your full attention. Meanwhile, Bungie is gutting the Destiny 2 team, Lucid Motors just made its new CEO’s first act a mass layoff, and EY is herding its tax professionals back to desks starting July 1. It’s a lot.
Today: The week’s single most important labor market signal, plus who’s cutting, who’s hiring, and what the Federal Reserve just revealed about remote work that nobody seems to be talking about.
In This Issue:
- 🔥 The Big Story: Oracle’s own SEC filing says AI killed 21,000 jobs
- ⚡ Quick Hits: 4 major market movements (Lucid, Bungie, EY, Papa Johns)
- 🏢 Companies Hiring: 5 remote-first companies actively building right now
- 🎯 Career Signal: Remote work is quietly blocking entry-level hires — the Fed’s data is striking
- ✅ Quick Win: The one line your resume is probably missing
🔥 The Big Story
Oracle’s Annual Filing Confirms What Companies Have Been Dancing Around: AI Is Cutting Headcount
A record company doesn’t just admit this kind of thing. Oracle’s fiscal year 2026 annual report, filed with the SEC on June 22, disclosed that the software giant eliminated approximately 21,000 employees over the past twelve months — reducing its global workforce from 162,000 to 141,000, a drop of nearly 13%. The filing didn’t bury the lead: Oracle stated that “the adoption and deployment of AI technologies across our operations have resulted, and may continue to result, in reductions to our workforce.”
The number that reframes everything. At the same time Oracle was cutting 21,000 people, it spent $55.7 billion on capital expenditures — almost entirely tied to AI cloud infrastructure and data center buildout. The company signed major contracts with OpenAI and Meta to supply computing capacity. It spent $1.8 billion on restructuring costs alone. This isn’t a company that’s struggling. It’s a company making a deliberate trade: human labor for AI capacity, at scale, and saying so explicitly in a regulatory document.
Why this matters: When a company the size of Oracle puts “AI made us do it” into an SEC filing, it stops being an excuse and starts being a template. Every company’s finance and strategy teams read annual reports. This one just gave them a roadmap — and a legal framing — for workforce reductions tied to AI adoption.
Source: Oracle Investor Relations — FY2026 Annual Report
📊 Stat of the Week
$55.7 billion → Oracle’s capital expenditure in FY2026, almost entirely on AI infrastructure — the same year it cut 21,000 employees from its payroll (Oracle SEC Annual Filing, June 22, 2026)
⚡ Quick Hits
Lucid Motors: New CEO, First Act — Cut 18% of the Workforce
Lucid Motors announced on June 22 that it’s cutting approximately 18% of its U.S. workforce — roughly 1,500 full-time employees, contractors, and hourly production workers. This is the company’s second major layoff of 2026, and it’s the first major decision by new CEO Silvio Napoli, who formally took the role on June 1. The cuts hit service and support operations as Lucid tries to reach profitability on its EV lineup. Bottom line: when you see a new executive take over in an EV company, expect a restructuring within 90 days. See the regulatory filing →
Bungie Lays Off Most of the Destiny 2 Team
On June 25, Bungie — owned by Sony — confirmed a massive reduction in force affecting “most of the Destiny team and some Marathon team members.” Reports indicate 400+ developers were included in the cut. Bungie’s own statement acknowledged that “Destiny 2 fell short of expectations these past several years.” Studio lead Justin Truman is stepping down. This comes after Sony recorded a $765 million impairment loss on Bungie’s asset value across FY2025. Bottom line: in live-service gaming, when the flagship underperforms, the studio absorbs the cost. Read the official statement →
EY Tax Teams Go Full-Time Office Starting July 1
EY is requiring its U.S. tax professionals to work from an office or client site for 12 days per month — effectively full-time — starting July 1, 2026. That’s next week. The directive covers tax teams specifically, with broader hybrid arrangements remaining elsewhere. In April, Fidelity announced it’s requiring 21,000 employees across Boston, New Hampshire, Kentucky, and New Mexico to return five days a week starting September 2026. The RTO pressure in financial services is not letting up. Bottom line: if your “remote-friendly” role is at a financial institution, check the fine print before July. EY Careers →
Papa Johns: 300 Store Closures and 7% Corporate Layoffs
Papa Johns is closing 300 underperforming locations — most by end of year — while cutting 7% of its corporate workforce as part of a turnaround plan. The closures primarily target older franchise-owned restaurants generating under $600,000 annually. This is a non-tech story with a very tech-adjacent pattern: margin pressure, efficiency narrative, headcount reduction. Bottom line: the cost-cutting playbook has spread well beyond Silicon Valley — every sector is running the same math right now. Papa Johns Investor Relations →
🏢 Companies Hiring Right Now
The layoff headlines make it easy to forget there’s another side to this market. These five companies are actively building distributed teams right now.
GitLab — 61+ open roles, 100% remote, 65+ countries
The world’s largest all-remote company has no offices — just team members across 65+ countries. Open roles span engineering, product, security, and sales, with senior positions ranging from $203k–$345k. Explore open roles →
HubSpot — Remote-first by design, @flex policy
HubSpot has been remote-first since 2023, with its “@flex” policy letting employees choose between office, hybrid, or fully remote. Remote employees get the same advancement opportunities as in-office staff. Roles span sales, engineering, marketing, and customer success. Explore open roles →
Atlassian — Team Anywhere, fully distributed
Atlassian’s “Team Anywhere” model means you can work from home, an office, or wherever you’re most effective. Engineering and product roles are available fully remote, with salaries ranging from $100k–$220k. Explore open roles →
Stripe — Remote colleagues across 20+ office locations globally
Stripe operates across offices in Amsterdam, New York, Dublin, Tokyo, and 20+ other cities — and explicitly supports remote colleagues through its “Remote Hub” model. Open roles in engineering, product, operations, and risk management. Explore open roles →
Automattic — 100% distributed, parent of WordPress.com and WooCommerce
Automattic has been fully distributed since its founding and employs ~1,450 people across 82 countries. They literally invented the all-remote playbook. Open roles include engineering, product, customer support, and marketing — no office required, ever. Explore open roles →
Know someone between jobs? Forward this section — it might be exactly what they need.
🎯 Career Signal
The Federal Reserve Found the Real Reason Entry-Level Hiring Collapsed — and It’s Not What You Think
Most people assumed AI was behind the slowdown in hiring for recent college graduates. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York ran the data. Their June 2026 research found that remote work — not AI — explains 64% of the recent increase in unemployment among young college graduates. The unemployment rate for young grads has swelled from 3.6% in March 2019 to 5.6% in March 2026, and the surge is concentrated in occupations that can be done remotely.
The mechanism is counterintuitive: remote work makes it harder for managers to train and mentor inexperienced workers, so companies respond by not hiring them. One Fortune 500 tech company in the study showed a clear pattern — when offices closed, they stopped hiring junior employees and shifted to experienced hires. When offices reopened, junior hiring recovered. The takeaway for job seekers: if you’re early in your career and targeting remote roles, you may need to signal mentorability and independence more aggressively than candidates who are willing to go onsite.
Source: Liberty Street Economics — Remote Work Leaves Younger Workers Sidelined
🧠 Skill-Building Reads
Remote-first hiring isn’t going away, but the bar is rising. Here are three resources to help you clear it.
Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals — Free Certification
Microsoft’s entry-level AI certification covers machine learning, computer vision, NLP, and Azure AI services. No experience required. Self-paced. Getting this on your LinkedIn profile puts a recognizable credential next to your name — exactly what employers scanning for AI fluency are looking for. Read it →
AWS Skill Builder — Free AI and ML Courses
Amazon’s official learning platform offers hundreds of free courses on AI, machine learning, data, and cloud — taught directly by the engineers who built these systems. The free tier covers more than enough to get you started, including a dedicated AI learning plan for beginners. If you’re targeting cloud-adjacent or technical roles, this is the most direct path to signaling cloud + AI competency. Check the numbers →
Google Grow with Google — Digital Skills and Certificates
Google’s free skills platform covers AI tools, data analytics, project management, UX design, and more. Certificates are recognized by employers, the programs are self-paced, and the AI fundamentals track was redesigned for 2026. If you want to add a Google credential without paying Coursera fees, this is the direct path. Dive deeper →
✅ Quick Win
Add a single bullet to your resume that names every AI tool you use in your actual work.
Not a list at the top. Not a skills section footnote. A bullet, in a real job entry, that says something like: “Used Claude and ChatGPT to cut first-draft research time by 60%.” Specificity wins here. Oracle just told the world that AI is replacing workers — which means every hiring manager is now looking for candidates who use AI tools fluently, not just candidates who claim they’re “AI-friendly.” Ten minutes. Open your resume. Add the bullet.
What We’re Watching
What we’re watching: EY’s July 1 full-time mandate taking effect, Q2 2026 earnings season beginning in mid-July, the June jobs report (BLS, scheduled July 2)
🎯 Bottom Line
Oracle’s filing is the most honest thing a company has put into an SEC document in years. They didn’t say “we’re optimizing our workforce” or “we’re realigning resources.” They said AI is why 21,000 people no longer have jobs there — and they signaled more cuts may come. The market isn’t broken. It’s sorting. Companies are trading headcount for compute at a pace that would have seemed science fiction in 2020.
But here’s the other side of that trade: the companies that are hiring are building real, distributed teams with genuine remote infrastructure. GitLab, HubSpot, Atlassian, Stripe, Automattic — these aren’t posting jobs out of desperation. They’re building for a world where the best people work from wherever they work best. The question isn’t whether jobs exist. It’s whether you’re positioned to compete for them.
RemoteHunter.com has verified remote openings and AI tools for your resume and cover letter — built for the market you’re actually in, not the one from three years ago.
Until next week — keep building.
— The RH Team 🤙
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