US companies cut more than 1m jobs a month. When did workers stop mattering?

Even when the economy is healthy, companies lay off hundreds of thousands of people a week, and up to 1 million a month. The problem: they still see workers as an obstacle to higher profits

Suzanne McGee

IBM will reportedly announce this week the largest corporate layoff ever, at a reported 118,000 jobs. If it does, it is hardly the first time IBM or any other big company will have sacrificed its workers to appease the gods of Wall Street.

At American Express, spending by the company’s cardmembers is growing, and so are revenues and profits. But not payroll: American Express just surprised financial markets by announcing plans to slash 4,000 jobs, cutting the number of employees by 6%.