Barclays announces 5,000 layoffs; UK union Unite accuses it of using AI as an excuse to abandon employees

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Barclays Announces 5,000 Job Cuts; UK Union Accuses It of Using AI as an Excuse to Abandon Employees

Cailianshe Li Ying, Editor Lin Qi 2026-10-23 00:38

① Barclays Bank announced it will cut 5,000 positions, about 5% of its total workforce; management said the adjustment is related to organizational streamlining and the impact of AI; ② Barclays will invest about £600 million in this restructuring this year, roughly twice its previous estimate, in order to reduce future costs; ③ UK union Unite criticized Barclays for using AI as an excuse to "abandon employees" and said it is in urgent negotiations with the bank.

Cailianshe, October 23 (Editor Li Ying) — With cost pressure mounting and AI applications accelerating, several UK-based banks are successively pushing ahead with workforce reductions. Barclays announced large-scale job cuts on Thursday local time and was immediately met with strong opposition from unions; HSBC and Standard Chartered are also preparing layoffs.

On October 22 local time, Barclays Bank, one of the UK's four largest banks, announced it will cut 5,000 positions, about 5% of its total workforce. The 5,000 positions include 1,000 jobs the bank already cut in the first half of the year.

By structure, about 60% of the cut positions come from support departments, including developers.

Media reports noted that this round of layoffs is an important part of Barclays' effort to control expenses. The bank earlier this year reported higher-than-expected spending, and although it launched a new round of cost-cutting plans in February, investors were still dissatisfied with its expenses in its half-year report.

According to reports, Barclays will invest about £600 million in this restructuring this year, roughly twice its previous estimate, in order to reduce future costs.

Barclays Chief Financial Officer Anna Cross said on Thursday local time at an analyst call that the restructuring adjustments the bank is advancing in the third and fourth quarters of this year are considerable in scale, involving both organizational streamlining and the impact of AI.

However, Chief Executive CS Venkatakrishnan believes AI cannot solve all problems. He said at a press call: "We will apply AI on a large scale, but AI is only the icing on the cake, not the cake itself."

In the third-quarter report released the same day, Barclays kept its performance targets for the coming years unchanged, with third-quarter operating expenses broadly in line with expectations, and announced a £500 million share buyback.

Barclays' layoffs are not an isolated case. According to reports, international bank HSBC Holdings is considering cutting as many as 20,000 positions in the coming years; UK bank Standard Chartered Group, which focuses on emerging markets, plans to cut more than 15% of corporate function positions by 2030.

However, Barclays' layoff plan has also triggered a strong backlash from labor. According to reports, Unite, a major UK union, said after Barclays announced the layoffs that it is holding "urgent and frank negotiations" with the bank.

Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham said in a statement that Barclays is using AI as an excuse to abandon loyal and long-serving employees. She believes employers should focus on upgrading employees' skills so they can keep their jobs as new technologies change the workplace, and that Barclays' approach is short-sighted and reckless.

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Cailianshe Statement: The content of this article is for reference only and does not constitute investment advice. Investors who act on it do so at their own risk.

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