Verdict: The AI layoffs dominating the news are half the story. When you look at firm-level data instead of press releases, the companies spending the most aggressively on AI actually grew their workforces by about 10% in the two years after adoption, including entry-level roles. The pattern behind both the cuts and the rehiring is the same: AI collapses the value of pure task execution and raises the value of judgment and ownership. Your job is safer than the headlines suggest, but only if you...