Hey there,
Here’s something that should stop you mid-scroll: five of America’s biggest banks just reported their best trading quarters in years — and then quietly cut more than 10,000 workers. Not laid off because they were struggling. Laid off because AI made those positions unnecessary even when business was booming.
That’s the story this week. And it matters for every job seeker who’s been told “just wait for the economy to improve.”
Today: Record bank profits + mass layoffs, fresh cuts at Intel and KPMG Australia, California’s RTO battle heats up, and five companies that actually want to hire you right now.
In This Issue:
- 🔥 The Big Story: Wall Street’s Profitability Paradox — record quarter, 10,000 cuts
- ⚡ Quick Hits: 4 major market movements from the week
- 🏢 Companies Hiring: 5 remote-ready companies actively building teams
- 🎯 Career Signal: The #1 fastest-growing job in America right now
- ✅ Quick Win: The “AI translator” skill set that pays as well as building AI
🔥 The Big Story: Wall Street Had Its Best Quarter in Years. Then Cut 10,000 Workers.
Record profits couldn’t save 10,000 banking jobs this quarter.
Five of the biggest names in American finance — Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley — posted blowout second-quarter results driven by a trading frenzy. Markets were up. Revenue was up. Profits were up. And according to Bloomberg’s analysis of their Q2 workforce data, combined headcount at these five firms fell by more than 10,000 employees — the steepest quarterly drop in at least six years.
The bigger picture. This isn’t a story about companies in trouble. This is a story about what happens when AI-driven efficiency makes whole categories of roles redundant during a good quarter, not just a bad one. Goldman Sachs has quietly shifted from big one-time layoff announcements to smaller, rolling cuts spread throughout the year — a model that creates less noise but more consistent pressure on staff. Citigroup is mid-way through a 20,000-person workforce reduction that’s been running for over a year. Wells Fargo has been expanding AI use across operations and flagging further headcount reduction as a strategic goal.
Why this matters to you: The old rule — “if your company is profitable, your job is probably safe” — needs an update. What’s being eliminated isn’t underperforming work. It’s work that AI can now replicate at a fraction of the cost, regardless of what the quarterly earnings look like. The workers who are surviving inside these institutions are the ones doing high-judgment, relationship-dependent, or cross-functional work that doesn’t compress neatly into an algorithm. That’s the version of yourself worth building toward.
Source: Bloomberg, July 17, 2026
📊 Stat of the Week
57,000 → Jobs added to the US economy in June 2026, well below what economists had forecast. Unemployment held at 4.2%. Average hourly wages rose 3.5% year-over-year.
The labor market isn’t collapsing — it’s cooling, and doing so quietly. Fewer new jobs, steadier wages, more competition per opening. If you’ve been waiting for the market to “bounce back” before making your move, this is the signal that waiting isn’t a strategy.
Source: BLS Employment Situation Summary, July 2026
⚡ Quick Hits
Intel’s Data Center Division Is Profitable — and Still Cutting Jobs
Intel’s Data Center and AI Group — the division responsible for server chips and custom AI hardware — grew revenue 22% year-over-year in Q1 2026, hitting $5.05 billion. Then Intel quietly started laying off employees inside that same growing division ahead of Q2 earnings (scheduled July 23). CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who has led a dramatic turnaround that sent Intel’s stock up more than 317% over the past year, is targeting a 15% global workforce reduction as part of his efficiency overhaul. That’s meant eliminating more than 5,000 US roles since 2025 — in California, Oregon, Arizona, and Texas. The takeaway: revenue growth and headcount growth are no longer the same thing.
KPMG Australia: Up to 1,000 Jobs, Partner Pay Down 20%
KPMG Australia — caught in a whistleblower scandal over misuse of confidential client data — is preparing to cut hundreds to potentially over 1,000 of its roughly 9,000 employees. Partner distributions, which averaged $717,000 annually, could drop by 20% or more. The Big Four firm’s CEO and board chair have already exited following the scandal, and the federal government temporarily barred new contract engagements with the firm. Formal announcements are expected once a permanent CEO is named. The signal: even the most elite, high-earning professional services firms are not recession-proof — or scandal-proof.
California’s 4-Day RTO Mandate Is Getting a Pushback You Should Know About
Governor Gavin Newsom’s order requiring 108,000 California state workers to show up four days a week — up from two — officially kicked in July 1. On July 15, SEIU Local 1000 members staged an informational picket in front of the California Department of Transportation building in Oakland. The union has been without a contract since July 1, when negotiations over pay raises, telework rights, and healthcare benefits stalled. They’ve also filed an unfair labor practice complaint. The takeaway: the RTO debate isn’t settling — it’s intensifying, and workers who don’t organize around it are losing ground quietly.
Verizon Cut 3,000 More Jobs Last Week — and That’s Just the Latest Chapter
On July 16, Verizon announced it’s cutting 3,000 retail positions and handing 274 company-owned stores to franchise operators. It sounds like a routine restructuring move until you zoom out: under new CEO Dan Schulman (the former PayPal CEO who took over in October 2025), Verizon has now eliminated more than 16,600 jobs in nine months. Schulman said he wants the company’s AI tech stack “substantially complete” by July — and this store sell-off is part of that efficiency overhaul. The pattern is clear: even legacy telecoms are treating AI readiness as more valuable than headcount.
🏢 Companies Hiring Remote-Friendly Roles Right Now
The market is cutting — but it’s also building. Five companies actively hiring with genuine remote options this week:
Automattic — 25+ open roles across engineering, sales, customer success, and product
The company behind WordPress.com, WooCommerce, and Beeper has been 100% distributed since its founding — no offices, no headquarters, team members in 96 countries. Current openings span everything from software engineers to senior product designers to account executives. If you want a remote culture that isn’t a policy — it’s the company’s actual DNA — Automattic is worth a close look.
👉 View open roles at Automattic
GitLab — 100% remote globally, hiring across engineering, sales, product, and marketing
GitLab is one of the largest fully remote companies in the world, with team members across 60+ countries. They published a 2,000-page handbook on how to run a remote company, and they actually run it that way. Their fiscal year 2026 showed 29% revenue growth — a company expanding, not contracting. If you want a remote role at a company where every process was built for distributed work from day one, start here.
Airbnb — 200+ open roles, remote-eligible with “Live and Work Anywhere” policy
Airbnb lets employees work from anywhere in their home country, plus up to 90 days per year from 170+ countries — with no pay adjustment. They have 200+ open roles across engineering, design, product, marketing, and operations. For job seekers who want flexibility without taking a pay cut for it, Airbnb has set one of the most generous remote work policies of any company at their scale.
HubSpot — 173 open positions, many remote across the US
HubSpot’s current job board has 173 open roles, a significant portion of which are remote-eligible across the United States. Openings span sales, marketing, engineering, and customer success. The company’s HYBRIDWORK+ model gives teams genuine flexibility, and HubSpot consistently ranks among the top employers for career development. If you’re in B2B software or SaaS and want a brand name with strong remote options, HubSpot belongs on your shortlist.
Twilio — 149 open positions, remote-first Open Work model
Twilio powers the communications infrastructure for thousands of companies — SMS, voice, email, identity — and their hiring reflects continued investment in that platform. They operate under an Open Work model that lets employees choose where they work, with 149 active openings spanning engineering, product, customer success, and marketing. No office mandate, clear product demand, and compensation that reflects senior expectations.
Know someone between jobs? Forward this section — it might be exactly what they need.
🎯 Career Signal: The #1 Fastest-Growing Job in America Is What You’d Expect — But #2 Is a Surprise
LinkedIn’s 2026 Jobs on the Rise report is out, and AI Engineer topped the list of fastest-growing US roles for the second year running — up 143% year-over-year in job postings. That’s not surprising. What is surprising: right behind it are roles like HR business partner, communications director, and field marketing representative. The signal isn’t that you need to become an AI builder — it’s that the market is equally hungry for people who can translate AI outputs into human decisions, manage AI-affected teams, and connect products to customers in a world where attention is scarce. If you’re in people, communications, or revenue, your skills are appreciating too. You just need to be the version of that role who isn’t afraid of the tools.
Source: LinkedIn 2026 Jobs on the Rise
🧠 Skill-Building Reads This Week
If you want to understand where the job market is actually heading — not where Twitter says it’s heading — these three sources are worth your time.
PwC 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer — The Two-Track Labour Market
PwC analyzed close to a billion job ads across six continents to map how AI is splitting the market into two paths: “professionalised” roles (where AI handles routine tasks so human judgment becomes more critical) and “democratised” roles (where AI makes formerly expert tasks easier for anyone). Professionalised roles are seeing 2x the job growth and 42% faster salary growth. If you want data on which direction to move your career — not vibes, actual data — this report is the most rigorous free resource currently available.
👉 Read the PwC 2026 AI Jobs Barometer →
LinkedIn 2026 Jobs on the Rise — 25 Fastest-Growing Roles in the US
Straight from LinkedIn’s own data: the 25 job titles growing fastest in the United States right now, along with where hiring is concentrated and what the top skills look like. This is the clearest current snapshot of where employer demand is actually heading. Use it to benchmark your own skills, find adjacent roles you haven’t considered, or make the case for a pivot.
👉 See the full 2026 Jobs on the Rise list →
BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook — The Unglamorous Career Tool That Actually Works
Everyone knows about LinkedIn and Glassdoor. Fewer people use the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook, which is updated annually by the US government and covers every major job category in the country: typical duties, required education, median pay, and ten-year outlook. It’s free, has no algorithm, and won’t try to sell you a premium subscription. If you’re evaluating a career pivot or want to know what a field actually looks like from a data perspective, start here before starting anywhere else.
👉 Explore the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook →
✅ Quick Win This Week
Build your “AI translator” skill set — it pays nearly as well as building AI itself.
Right now, companies aren’t just struggling to find people who can code AI models. They’re struggling to find people who can explain AI outputs to executives, catch errors before they become problems, and adapt AI tools to fit how a team actually works. That’s not a technical skill — it’s a judgment + communication skill that most AI builders don’t have. Start small: pick one AI tool you already use, and the next time it gives you an output, write down exactly what was right about it, what was wrong, and what you’d change. Do that consistently for 30 days and you’ll have a portfolio of critical AI evaluation that almost no one else can demonstrate in an interview.
👀 What We’re Watching
Intel’s Q2 earnings on July 23, further CEO commentary on AI headcount across Q2 bank earnings calls still rolling in, and whether other Big Four accounting firms follow KPMG Australia’s pattern as consulting revenue softens globally.
💬 Bottom Line
The big theme this week is one that job seekers should take seriously: profitability no longer protects headcount. Wall Street’s best trading quarter in years didn’t stop 10,000 cuts. Intel’s data center division grew 22% and still started trimming. Verizon is eliminating jobs not because it’s failing — but because its new CEO is building a leaner, AI-native version of a company that used to need a lot more people to run.
This isn’t a reason to panic. It’s a reason to get specific. The workers who are staying inside these institutions are the ones doing work that compounds — relationships, judgment calls, creative synthesis, and the kind of coordination that AI can assist but can’t replace. The question worth sitting with this week: which column does most of your work fall into?
RemoteHunter.com has AI tools to help you build your resume, craft cover letters, and find verified remote roles at companies that are actually expanding. If the job market feels opaque right now, that’s a good place to cut through it.
Until next week — keep building.
— The RH Team 🤙
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