{"id":144182,"date":"2026-01-30T15:17:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T15:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/144182\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T15:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T15:17:07","slug":"dow-to-cut-about-4500-jobs-as-emphasis-shifts-to-ai-and-automation-houston-public-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/144182\/","title":{"rendered":"Dow to cut about 4,500 jobs as emphasis shifts to AI and automation \u2013 Houston Public Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"FILE<\/a><\/p>\n

AP Photo\/Pat Sullivan, File<\/p>\n

FILE \u2013 This Dec. 10, 2015, file photo, shows a Dow Chemical plant in La Porte, Texas.<\/p>\n

Dow is planning to cut approximately 4,500 jobs as the chemicals maker puts more emphasis on using artificial intelligence<\/a> and automation in its business.<\/p>\n

The company said Thursday that it anticipates about $600 million to $800 million in severance costs related to the cuts. Those costs are part of a broader plan aimed at simplifying operations and streamlining.<\/p>\n

Shares of Dow Inc., which has about 34,600 employees globally, fell 2% before the market opened. Dow is based in Midland, Michigan, and has multiple facilities in the Houston area, where it is one of the region\u2019s largest employers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In January 2025 Dow executives said the company was seeking $1 billion in cost savings and anticipated cutting about 1,500 jobs worldwide. In July, it announced the closings of three European plants that would eliminate 800 jobs.<\/p>\n

There have been thousands of job cuts announced this week after a frustrating year for U.S. job seekers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Amazon slashed about 16,000 corporate roles<\/a> on Wednesday \u2014 just three months after laying off another 14,000 workers<\/a>. And United Parcel Service said on Tuesday that it plans to cut up to 30,000 operational jobs<\/a> this year.<\/p>\n

And like Dow, Pinterest said this week that it was cutting jobs<\/a> partially due to increased usage of AI.<\/p>\n

Americans<\/a> are feeling increasingly anxious<\/a> about the odds of finding a job, or getting a better one. Economists have said that businesses are largely at a “no-hire, no fire”<\/a> standstill. Hiring has stagnated overall \u2014 with the country adding a meager 50,000 jobs<\/a> last month, down from a revised figure of 56,000 in November.<\/p>\n

Rising operational costs have accompanied layoffs in some sectors, and business leaders cite rising costs, including those from President Donald Trump\u2019s tariffs<\/a>, as well as shifts in spending.<\/p>\n

Consumer expectations for the U.S. economy has plummeted to its lowest level since 2014<\/a>. That is occurring as some businesses reduce their workforces as they redirect<\/a> money toward artificial intelligence<\/a>, often baked into wider corporate restructuring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AP Photo\/Pat Sullivan, File FILE \u2013 This Dec. 10, 2015, file photo, shows a Dow Chemical plant in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[4267,23071,910,60462,60463,56,58,43639,57,60464,66,223,3621],"class_list":{"0":"post-144182","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-automation","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-dow-chemical","12":"tag-dow-layoffs","13":"tag-houston","14":"tag-houston-headlines","15":"tag-houston-jobs","16":"tag-houston-news","17":"tag-job-layoffs","18":"tag-local","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}