workers

The ERE of 750 workers confirms the profitability crisis of delivery in Spain

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Glovo has opened the consultation period for an Employment Regulation File that will affect a maximum of 750 delivery workers in more than 60 locations throughout Spain: The official reason is that the distribution model with employees is not profitable in a large part of the territory. However, unions like CCOO had months denouncing that the company was already carrying out a “covert ERE” through a continuous trickle of disciplinary dismissals under questionable justifications. Why is it important. This decision comes just eight months after Glovo will complete its adaptation to the Rider Lawregularizing the delivery drivers who until then worked as self-employed. This adjustment shows the platform’s difficulties in sustaining a profitable logistics model once forced to abandon the self-employed scheme and assume the labor costs of the Workers’ Statute. The background. Glovo was the last major platform to comply with the Rider Law, which was approved in 2021, but its effective application was in fits and starts, between fines and institutional pressure. In July 2025, The company regularized its delivery drivers (more than 13,000 throughout Spain) in the face of the imminent threat of criminal proceedings, which opened the door to prison sentences for its leadership for widespread fraud. What Glovo had to give up then is cutting now. Between the lines. The company does not directly blame the Rider Law. It points out that its direct logistics management model, the so-called Gen2, “has proven to be inefficient” in small and medium-sized municipalities, and that it is necessary to move to the Gen1 model, in which Glovo does not assume the delivery operation. Translated: where the volume of orders is not sufficient to cover the costs of having permanent employees, the platform transitions to a model of marketplace (Gen1). That is, Glovo continues to operate the application and collect commissions, but the logistics of delivery are now assumed by the restaurants themselves or subcontracted companies. In figures: 750 delivery workers affected by the ERE. More than 60 locations where service will be reduced or eliminated. And more than 800 cities where Glovo operations continue normally. The big question. Now the underlying debate is not whether Glovo complies with the law or not (now, without a doubt, it complies with it), but whether the delivery whose model he proposes can be sustainable with a workforce of employees in markets where orders do not have the volume that exists in large cities. In addition, COVID triggered home delivery consumption to levels that have since normalized, and platforms have been searching for years for the balance point that allows them to make money without resorting to questionable working conditions. In many corners of Spain, that point has not yet appeared. Yes, but. Yolanda Díaz has responded to the announcement by rejecting any “blackmail” and promising that the Labor Inspection will ensure compliance with the law. You are right that the law must be followed. But the ERE that Glovo has announced does not breach it: reducing activity where there is no business is a legitimate decision. The underlying problem lies in the structural change of the sector: the delivery was born and based its profitability on a model of self-employed workers, a formula that Glovo defended to the end, arguing for the flexibility of the service. Now, the real challenge is to demonstrate whether the business remains economically viable when platforms must assume the structural costs of a salaried workforce, as required by current legislation. Featured image | Nursultan Abakirov In Xataka | The death of cooking at home: inviting to “dinner” is increasingly becoming inviting to order by Glovo

Spain has broken employment records. It has also broken a record of workers who need two payrolls

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The Spanish labor market closed 2025 with a record that no one would want to celebrate: never before have so many people needed to juggle two jobs at the same time. While the data highlighted in bold reveals record in memberships and a unemployment downthere is a figure that tells another equally revealing story about how the reality of employment in Spain is changing. Low salaries and the imposition of part-time work hours are the main triggers for the need to have several jobs to make ends meet. The data collected by a study of Randstad reveals that the number of employed people with more than one job In Spain they have already exceeded 630,000, which is a historic figure. The highest number ever recorded. At the end of 2025, a total of 632,800 employed people in Spain had a secondary job (or several), which is 50,000 more people than last year. In it last data Collected by the INE in 2022, the number of multi-employed people stood at 520,500 people. That of 2025 is the highest figure and represents an increase of 8.6% in just twelve months. The phenomenon continues to be a minority in relative terms since it affects around 2.8% of the total number of employed people, but its growth reveals that something is happening in the labor market. However, this growth is also included in the logic of growth of the labor market: there are more employees with jobs, so the probability that these employees have more than one job also increases. Precariousness is one of the keys. One of the keys to understanding this increase is not so much to look at the number of people with more than one job, but rather at the number of people with part-time work. According to EPA data From the last quarter of 2024, full-time employment decreased by 115,600 people, while part-time employment increased by 191,800. This information is relevant because a worker who wants to work full-time will look for a way to combine two (or more) part-time jobs to complete (or exceed) the time and salary that he or she would obtain with a full-time job. More women, but just barely. Although the difference is small, women slightly outnumber men in moonlighting. According to INE data corresponding to the end of 2025, a total of 317,200 women had more than one job, which is equivalent to 3% of the total number of employed women, compared to 315,400 men, which represented 2.6% of the total number of men. Once again, we find ourselves in a scenario in which, due to the need to reconcile childcare and precariousness, women are more likely to occupy positions with part-time hours. According to official dataIn 2025, part-time contracts for women increased by 62,311. A few hours in hospitality. The sector where the majority of those who chain two jobs are concentrated is the services sector, which brings together 87.5% of all multi-employed workers in the country. As and how I collected Investedof the more than 632,000 workers with double occupation, some 553,300 carried out their activity in this hospitality sector and services. The industrial and productive sectors reduce the presence of multi-employment workers due to the high demand for full-time labor that is registered in them. Thus, Industry recognizes 40,700 employees with more than one job, Construction 21,600 multiple employees and Agriculture 17,000. ​What’s coming in 2026. Randstad Research’s forecasts for this year indicate that Spain will reach an annual average employed population of 22.64 million people, which would represent a growth of 1.9% compared to 2025. The unemployment rate, according to these estimates, will continue to decline and will reach an annual average of 9.8%. However, 2026 presents a complicated economic scenario in which inflation can reduce purchasing power of families, which will predictably contribute to multiple employment in Spain continuing to rise, setting new records. In Xataka | A 22-year-old engineer combined two full-time jobs. His secret: do the minimum so that they don’t give him more work Image | Unsplash (Valentine)

Companies are not just letting go of their youngest workers. They are making them CEO

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The business fabric in the US is experiencing one of its most turbulent periods. Not only because of the coming to power of Donald Trump and his upstart tariff policiesbut because of the challenge in management and governance models that poses to AI. OK to what was published by The Wall Street Journalthe US is experiencing a generational change at the head of the main listed companies. In 2025 alone, one in nine CEOs at the 1,500 largest companies in the S&P 1500 will be replaced, the highest rate since records began in 2010. The demands of AI they are retiring the CEOs more experienced. Relay record at the top. According to data revealed by a study from the consulting firm Spencer Stuart, 168 people debuted as CEO in large listed companies. In more than 80% of these appointments, the new managers lacked previous experience leading companies of that category, although 60% of those appointments were promotions. Furthermore, two-thirds of these incorporations had also not served on boards of directors before. That is to say, its greatest value It was not his experience, but his youth. The trend continues strongly during the first two months of 2026. Top-tier companies such as Walmart, Procter & Gamble, Lululemon, Disney, PayPal and HP have made changes in his highest executive position. This pace marks a great experiment in leadership by large companies in the face of unstable markets, where the pressure to obtain immediate results accelerates the departures of veterans. Younger and younger leaders. The average age of new CEOs dropped to 54 years in 2025, which is almost two years less than the record in 2024, thus confirming that this is a trend that has been occurring for some years. Although only 3% of managers in large companies are under 40 years old, 64% are between 50 and 59 years old, and only 12% are over 60 years old. Some examples are found in recent replacements like disneyin which Josh D’Amaro, 55, took the replacement of Bob Iger 75 years old. This replacement reflects a commitment to fresh talent, but with a deep knowledge of the companies they are going to lead, but without experience in decision-making. The life cycle of a CEO. Spencer Stuart analysts found that CEOs of large companies have “a useful lifespan” at the helm. During the first year in office, the new CEO begins the “honeymoon effect” and his companies outperform the S&P 500 by 10% on average. However, in the second year of office, 73% experience a drop in returns of an average of 21%. Between the third and fifth years at the helm, a reinvention of leadership occurs, which precedes a stagnation between the sixth and ninth years. Beginning in the tenth year, stable leadership is established. The majority cannot taste that stability since, after the third year, 25% have already left the position. 50% do not reach the sixth year as CEO. The average duration of active CEOs is 7.1 years, and 86% of departures are voluntary and agreed upon with the board of directors. Only 9% of CEO changes in the S&P 500 group of companies have been forced removals. It should be noted that only 16% of new appointments to senior management positions they have been womenwhich represents a bittersweet historical record. In Xataka | The average salary of Ibex 35 managers has grown by 172% in two decades: the purchasing power of its employees, not so much Image | Unsplash (Bruce Mars)

Companies are replacing junior workers with AI. Now it’s time to pay the consequences

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When artificial intelligence appeared on the horizon, the first thing we thought was that it was going to retire us. Later, he was going to retire the most senior profiles and now we know that it is just the opposite: is stopping job access to junior profiles. In the past, companies competed fiercely to attract young talent, but now Gen Z has found its great rival in AI. Beginners? No, thanks. This Revelio Labs job report reveals that entry-level hiring has fallen by 35% in the United States since 2023. And it is one of many studies: this other of job offers estimates the drop in junior offers between 11 and 20% in the last year. The phenomenon is not exclusive to the United States: in Spain these data from El Confidencial They report that the Big Four are going to reduce the hiring of people under 30 years of age by between 10 and 20%. In the UK, more of the same. AI boosts productivity… if you’re the boss. The business premise is that artificial intelligence can carry out these tasks of those people with a junior profile such as documentation, testing or writing basic code. It is not that these tasks have disappeared within the workflow, it is that they have been absorbed by higher levels in a twist of efficiency and productivity: senior profiles supervise what the AI ​​does. And if, AI screws up. To the question of how many hours of work per week does AI save you? from the consulting company Section collection in The Wall Street Journal There is a clear divergence between managers and staff: 40% of workers think that they are not saving anything because even if there is a quick response, there are errors and hallucinations. When you take into account the time spent going through everything, checking and redoing, the beads are not so round anymore: this Asana studio shows that employees spend 4.5 hours per week correcting AI work. The boomerang effect. That youth encounter yet another obstacle to having a full adult life is a real drama in terms of unemployment, but this paradigm shift in hiring is also a total threat to the stability of the technological infrastructure as we know it: The illusion of efficiency. AI chops code faster than anyone else, but that raw data is misleading because it doesn’t consider side effects like validation. Operational risk. If the AI ​​does not have human supervision at each step, it can make critical errors, serve as an example when half the internet went down for the total automation of Amazon servers. Of costs and responsibilities. If the AI ​​makes a mistake and it reaches the final chain of the process, that is, delivery to the customer, it is paid. Let them tell Deloitte, they had to reimburse the cost of a report prepared for the Australian Department of Employment and Industrial Relations because it contained hallucinations. A demographic bomb. All of the above is a toll that many companies seem willing to pay for the sake of that efficiency, but there is a devastating effect on a large scale in the medium and long term: the knowledge gap. When these senior profiles retire, there will be no one who can replace them simply because you have eliminated the training ground that is experience. The figures have spoken: between 2024 and 2032, 18.4 million professionals in the United States will retire according to this study from Georgetown University. However, only 13.8 million new workers will gain access. About to explode. Part of the work of senior profiles includes mentoring and all its intrinsic benefits: there are studies that confirm that increases motivation, promotes psychological well-being and even reduces exhaustion. In short: saturation of tasks, inability to delegate and the loss of that added bonus of teaching: there are many ingredients for the recipe for burnout. In Xataka | If AI is going to leave us without jobs, in the United Kingdom they are already seriously discussing the solution: a universal basic income In Xataka | We believed that the AI ​​talent war is about engineers and developers. Actually, it’s about plumbers and electricians.

is that in two years it has fired 30% of its workers

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On Friday, January 30, the shares of the main video game companies They collapsed on Wall Street hours after Google will launch Project Genie. The story was simple: investors believed that artificial intelligence would replace traditional developers. However, that same day a data was published that went practically unnoticed among the stock market noise: a third of American workers in the sector (33%) have been laid off in the last two years. Genie appeared to be a threat, but the video game industry has been bleeding silently for two years, and artificial intelligence is not the cause of that hemorrhage, but rather the instrument that some executives see as the perfect scapegoat. The data. The magnitude of the layoffs exceeds any recent precedent. Between 2022 and July 2025, approximately 45,000 jobs were lost. The aforementioned GDC report estimates that the percentage of workers who lost their jobs in the last two years is 28% globally and 33% in the United States. Half of the professionals consulted declared that their company had made cuts in the last year. The impact was especially devastating at AAA studios: two-thirds of developers working on big-budget productions confirmed layoffs at their companies, compared to just one-third in the independent sector. Specific cases. Some examples illustrate the magnitude of the crisis. Microsoft eliminated more than 9,000 jobs despite boasting a “record year” in revenue and operating profits. Embracer Group reduced its workforce from 15,701 to 7,873 employees, a net loss of 8,000 workers that represented half of its workforce. Unity Technologies carried out six rounds of layoffs between June 2022 and February 2025. Sony closed Firewalk Studios and Neon Koi, eliminating 210 positions after the failure of ‘Concord’. And 2026 has not started better: Ubisoft announced in January the closure of its studios in Halifax and Stockholm, as well as restructurings in Abu Dhabi, RedLynx and Massive Entertainment. When the crisis started. The origin dates back to the confinements of 2020. The world’s population confined to their homes sought entertainment in video games, generating growth figures that the industry interpreted as the beginning of a new era. Steam reached 23 million concurrent users in March 2020, surpassing all previous records. Microsoft reported that Xbox Game Pass had surpassed 10 million subscribers. Console and software sales skyrocketed. The irresponsible expansion. Companies responded with aggressive workforce expansions. Electronic Arts increased its workforce by 12%, going from 9,800 to 11,000 employees between 2020 and 2021. Ubisoft added 2,000 new developers in the same period. But when health restrictions ended, revenue didn’t just stop growing: analyst Matthew Ball documents that video games became one of the few entertainment sectors whose consumption contracted (because, for example, streaming of movies and audio has not stopped growing). Ball notes that major consulting firms and investors had overestimated projected revenue for 2025 by 25% to 30%. The market is ossified. Warnings to the entire entertainment industry about the risk of over-reliance on recycled products were especially pertinent in the video game. Development costs skyrocketed as studios focused resources on sequels and remasters rather than taking risks with new intellectual properties. Furthermore, the omnipotent mobile market, traditionally considered resistant to recessions, was showing signs of ossification: according to Ball, the three main titles in each genre concentrate approximately 40% of the segment’s revenue, and 82% of the turnover corresponds to games that are more than two years old. Ubisoft and AI as an excuse. On January 21, 2026, Ubisoft announced what it called an “organizational, operational and portfolio reset.” The company’s shares They plummeted 33%. The restructuring involved the cancellation of six projects in development. But while carrying out mass layoffs and closing studios, Ubisoft announced “accelerated investments” in player-oriented generative artificial intelligence, not limited to internal tools but integrated directly into games. self-fulfilling prophecy. What Genie offers is an alibi. When a CEO contemplates “accelerated investments in player-oriented generative AI” while closing studios and canceling projects, the technology functions as a justification for financial decisions already made. The GDC survey reveals that 74% of video game development students are concerned about their future job prospects: the industry eliminates positions while its leaders invest in systems to automate work. Header | Vitaly Gariev / Shuichi Aizawa In Xataka | The Spanish video game industry has broken its turnover record. The problem is that they keep laying off workers.

China urgently needed a train station, so it was built in nine hours with 1,500 workers and 23 excavators.

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Anyone who has done a work at home will have already experienced firsthand that they know when it starts but not when it ends, something that happens in domestic works and that we also see from time to time with public works. And large infrastructures take time, although we have seen real records such as this 10-story building in just 29 hours. Of course, in China. Precisely there, in the city of Longyan in the southeast of the country, is where they have made a train station overnight. Literal. And although the work is a milestone in 2026, the reality is that this reform in record time took place in January 2018 and that left Elon Musk with his mouth openwhich had no qualms in stating that “China’s progress in advanced infrastructure is more than 100 times faster than that of the United States.” As China Central Television narratedat 6:05 p.m. the station closed and only 17 minutes later the remodeling kicked off in an action that more than a construction seems like a synchronized swimming number until 3:30 in the morning, the time of the end. A kind of “open heart operation” in public works Only nine hours for a project that, although it is true that it was not a new station from scratch, was not exactly small: it consisted of a remodeling and connection of roads between a new high-speed line between Longyan and Nanping and three existing railway lines. Furthermore, they decided to do it at night so as not to interrupt daily rail traffic. Because at 6:22 p.m., 1,500 workers grouped in seven units were executing seven different simultaneous tasks, such as Zhan Daosong tolddeputy manager of China Tiesiju Civil Engineering Group, China’s leading railway construction company. To carry it out, they relied on seven trains and 23 excavators. Thus, while one group installed monitoring and signage equipment, another paved the land. The millimeter precision and rapport is such that Reminiscent of open heart surgery but transferred to public works: with workers distributed over a range of 1.5 kilometers in their assigned places and 23 coordination teams to ensure compliance with deadlines and processes. Something like this is not done overnight, but before the day of truth They did six large-scale drills to prepare. The decision to do it at night has an explanation: not to interrupt the day’s rail traffic because in fact, at 1:56 in the morning they already had the first test train accessing the new station. Because they had also estimated a verification period of three and a half hours in which three other trains accessed the facilities. At 5:53 in the morning the rehearsals were over: K297, a normal passenger train, arrived at the station. As impressive as the speed of the project, which involves enormous planning work and prior studies, was the achievement achieved: reducing the travel time between both cities from seven hours to just an hour and a half thanks to the high-speed train that travels along the track at 200 km/h. In Xataka | 100% autonomous factories where it is not necessary to turn on the light: China is already considering manufacturing cars only with robots in 2030 In Xataka | Tesla’s dwarfs continue to grow: the Model 3 is no longer the premium electric that sells the most in China Cover | CGNT

Thousands of workers were needed to build the colossal Golden Gate. Just to maintain it you need 200 people

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There are few symbols as recognizable of the United States as the golden gatethat colossal orange bridge inaugurated in 1937 that crosses the San Francisco Bay. And no wonder: 1,280 meters of bridge hanging on two 227-meter-high towers with 600 thousand rivets each. It enters through the eyes and also, it also sounds. The subject of countless photographs and an extra in numerous films and series, it is also the place chosen by many people. to end his life. The colossal construction of the Golden Gate. When the Golden Gate opened almost a century ago, it was considered an architectural landmark that combined engineering and modernity. And no wonder: the work lasted more than four years, cost more than 35 million dollars (from the 1930s) and the construction techniques were cutting-edge. However, they faced challenges such as the turbulent currents, the hurricane winds and the dense fog in the area. Not to mention its proximity with the San Andreas and Hayward fault. One of the solutions was to make the structure of the Golden Gate something dynamic and not rigid, which allows it to better deal with wind and tide (literal). In addition, it is designed so that the two towers absorb the tension generated by the passage of vehicles through the suspension cables. One of those towers had to be built in the middle of the open ocean, something exceptional at the time. High turnover and a lot of security. Although its construction is carefully documented and there is an extensive graphic archive, there is no record of how many people worked on its construction beyond the fact that there were 10 contractors with their respective subcontractors, there was a lot of turnover (note: we were in the context of the Great Depression) and that at the peak of the work there were hundreds of men working, with critical roles such as structuralists, divers, spinners to weave the cables and painters and riveters. Unfortunately, 11 people died during this imposing construction. And this despite the fact that its chief engineer, Joseph Strauss, stood out for its commitment to job security: They installed a safety net under the bridge that would save those 19 workers who became part of the Halfway-to-Hell club (halfway to hell). 200 people for maintenance. Although the exact figure is unknown precisely due to the turnover and number of contractors, there are estimates which point to figures between 4,000 and 8,000 workers who participated directly in the construction between 1933 and 1937, which seems plausible. What is most striking is that for its maintenance about 200 workers are needed among engineering professionals, metal workers, painters, mechanics, electricians, communications technicians, street and garden maintenance, among others. The maintenance team. In the age of AI and automation, San Francisco Bridge Maintenance pulls trades with a multidisciplinary team led by a captain who oversees patrol activities 24 hours a day. As a curiosity, since 1937 there have been 11 captains. As a summary, these are the main positions and their functions: Painters and metal workers. They work at height and in confined spaces. They are responsible for painting, sandblasting old paint, and repairing corroded steel and rivets. Structural Engineers: They carry out visual and sensor inspections of each of the thousands of rivets and cables, in addition to ensuring the operation of the machinery. Safety and Traffic: With a flow of 100,000 vehicles daily, accidents and breakdowns are the order of the day. It is a 24/7 operational service to avoid collapsing the city. Why so many people. As we have seen in the previous point, maintenance logistics is specialized and has a certain complexity being at altitude, it requires always being available and the environment is aggressive. Paint the Golden Gate It has its own, hence it has its own section within the bridge website. To begin with, it is not painted every so often, but rather it is painted continuously and in parts. And maintenance is selective and based on priority: it is a battle against corrosion. The combination of the humidity of the Pacific and its high salinity is a ticking time bomb for steel. Although they chose the International Orange tone because of how well it integrates with the environment and its visibility, this paint protects the steel from UV rays and humidity. On the other hand, inspections of its expansion joints and seismic dampers are frequent to ensure that it can flex without breaking due to vibrations and earthquakes. In Xataka | More than 2,000 people had committed suicide at the Golden Gate. The solution has been as simple as it is shocking for those who throw In Xataka | In 1976 Boston built its most amazing skyscraper. Until its windows became lethal guillotines Cover | Photo of Maarten van den Heuvel in Unsplash

three out of four workers have not improved their purchasing power in two years

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Salaries rise, but they give less and less. At least that is the perception of three out of every four workers in Spain, who feel that They have lost purchasing power or they have not improved it in the last two years, despite having chained annual salary increases. This leaves an increasingly widespread feeling: working serves to cover holes, but not to live better. ​In response to this perception, the majority cut back on leisure and vacations to face basic housing expenses, shopping basket and paying bills. What is striking is that only a minority consider asking for a salary increase in 2026. They don’t make it to the end of the month. The photograph left by the last InfoJobs report It is that of a labor market in which 38% of workers have lost purchasing power in the last two years and 34% say that it has remained the same. This means that almost three out of every four employees have not perceived a real improvement in their ability to save or in its purchasing power. The survey indicates that only 28% claim to have increased their purchasing power. This situation occurs especially in young people between 16 and 24 years old who are entering their first jobs, so they start from a very low previous income. The salary in Spain. According to Eurostat data The average annual salary in Spain in 2024 was 33,700 gross euros, below the 39,808 gross euros that on average registered the European Union. But the averages leave room for interpretation. If we use the data collected by the last 2023 Annual Salary Structure Survey, The median salary in 2023 was 23,349 euros, while the modal salary (the most common) was within the limits of the Minimum Interprofessional Salary with 15,574.85 euros per year. Increases that do not compensate for inflation. The InfoJobs survey indicates that 52% of those surveyed have had a slight salary improvement and 6% recognize a significant increase. Even so, only 40% declare that they have improved their purchasing power, which indicates that a relevant part of these increases has been absorbed by inflation and the rising cost of living. Among those who have received salary increases, a considerable proportion indicate that their economic capacity remains the same or has even worsened. InfoJobs summarizes this gap by noting that “perceived increases are not translating into a real match with the cost of living.” Furthermore, moderation weighs on expectations of increases in the future and they expect insufficient increases in the coming months. 69% estimate that the salary improvement will be less than 1,200 euros gross per year (an increase of 100 euros gross per month) and half do not plan to exceed 2,400 euros gross per year. The payroll goes to housing and basic expenses. The spending structure reinforces the feeling of suffocation in which 92% of those surveyed have had to cut expenses. The InfoJobs survey indicates that dwelling and the shopping basket They add up to 44% of the workers’ monthly budget. Savings represent only 10% of the salary, which greatly limits the possibility of building a financial cushion or facing unforeseen events. Between the ages of 25 and 44, a stage in which mortgages or high rents are usually assumed, housing absorbs 26% of the salary. This implies applying cuts to spending, which are concentrated mainly on leisure and free time (78%), and on vacations and getaways, with 75% of workers having cut their budget to cover the essentials. ​Dissatisfied with salary. The survey reflects that 33% of workers are dissatisfied with his salaryespecially women under 35 years of age and people with low or medium salaries. Despite everything, the percentage of general dissatisfaction decreases compared to the 39% that was registered in last year’s consultation. However, this discontent does not translate into an intention to ask for a raise. Only 17% of workers plan to ask for a salary increase in the coming months, while 83% will not do so. Among those who do not plan to apply for it, just over a third attribute it to the fact that they expect the employer to take the step (21%) or to the fact that they have already had a recent review (16%). A complicated labor market. The majority consider it difficult to find a job that provides a substantial improvement in their current salary or working conditions, which causes a certain immobility in the active search for improvement by changing jobs, as is the case. how it was happening in recent years. The conciliation conditions appear as the most difficult aspect to improve for 45% of employed people, closely followed by the possibility of accessing better salaries, which 42% see as especially complicated. According to the authors of the report, “taken together, the data reflect a labor market that workers perceive as not very permeable to improvement, where progress in salary, conciliation or professional development is increasingly complex.” In Xataka | A study has compared the gap in public salaries vs. private companies in Europe and has found a problem: Spain Image | Unsplash (Emil Kalibradov)

Meta seemed to have more faith than anyone that his metaverse had a future. 1,500 workers have just discovered that they do not

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In 2021, Zuckerberg was very clear that Facebook’s future was tied to the metaverseso much so that He even changed the name of his company.. However, the market did not respond as expected and, after accumulate million-dollar lossesrecently Meta surrendered to the evidence and put a 30% blow to the budget of the Reality Labs division. It was just the beginning. Layoffs. They overtook him in the New York Times and just confirmed: Meta is going to lay off 10% of the Reality Labs workforce, about 1,500 employees in total. Andrew Bosworth, CTO of the company and head of the division, had summoned employees to the “most important” meeting of the year. So important that for many it has been the last. Cuts. As we said, several weeks ago it was made public that Meta was cutting Reality Labs by 30%. It was an expected decision if we take into account that the division dedicated to the metaverse has accumulated 70 billion dollars in losseswhich is said soon. In this context, the layoffs were the next step and also the confirmation that Meta abandons the dream of the metaverse, at least as they proposed it years ago. New priorities. The objective behind the cuts is to be able to move investment to Zuckerberg’s new “pretty girl”, which is none other than AI. Since the beginning of last summer, Meta has signed big names and AI researchers for real millionaires to create your TBD laboratorywho is engrossed in creation of a superintelligence. In parallel, they are dedicating billions to the construction of data centers, one of them as big as Manhattan Island. They also plan to move resources from the metaverse to the AI glasses, your new reference hardware. Investors have spoken. When Meta announced that it was going to spend even more than planned on AI infrastructure, stocks plummeted even though they had achieved very good results. They were investors sending a clear message: we do not see this unbridled spending at all clearly. However, when the metaverse cuts were announced just the opposite happened and the shares rose. script twist. Meta has not explicitly admitted that it is leaving the metaverse, in fact in October of last year they were still defending it. What they have done is talk about a change in strategy and where before there were VR helmets, now there are AI glasses. It is no longer a virtual world completely separated from the real one, but rather an augmented reality powered by AI. The Ray-Ban Meta they have been a success for the company and recently announced the Ray-Ban Displayalthough We will have to wait to try them. Image | Photo of Azwedo L.LC in Unsplash In Xataka | Meta’s AI director is clear about what generation Z should do: be the future Bill Gates of vibe coding

replace 50,000 workers with an army of Terminators

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For decades, movies like terminatorby James Cameron, we were accustomed to thinking about armies of robots since a dystopian perspectiveif you will, as an exaggeration typical of science fiction, a narrative resource to talk about fear of the future. The problem is that, little by littlethat future has stopped seeming so distant, and some of the ideas that previously only fit in the cinema are beginning to appear in the real world with a disturbing naturalness. From the worker robot to the soldier. Most of the humanoid robot startups that have emerged in recent years sell a reassuring promise– Machines designed to work in factories, warehouses, hospitals or even homes, alleviating labor shortages and increasing productivity. Foundationa young Silicon Valley company, shares that ambition, but takes it to much more uncomfortable terrain: his Phantom robot It is not only designed for industrial work, but also for armed combat, with the United States Army as an explicit client. Its founder, Sankaet Pathak, does not hide the intention nor the schedule: manufacture 50,000 humanoids before the end of 2027 and turn them into an operational tool for both the civilian economy and the battlefield. Impossible calendar. They counted in Forbes that Foundation boasts an unusual development speed even by industry standards. In just 18 months since its founding, Phantom was already making real production tasks in facilities of undisclosed industrial partners, a pace comparable to that of the most advanced players in the market. This acceleration is explained by two key acquisitions in artificial intelligence and new generation actuators, but also by a recruited team directly from companies like Tesla, Boston Dynamics, SpaceX or 1X. The scaling plan is as ambitious as it is risky: 40 robots this year, 10,000 next year and 40,000 in 2027. Pathak admits which is an extreme goal, but insists that there is a “non-zero probability” of achieving it, relying on a philosophy inherited from Tesla: do not try to automate everything too quickly. Foundation The economic model. The commercial bet by Foundation It is not about selling robots, but for renting them. The company isn’t looking for dozens of small customers, but rather a few gigantic contracts capable of generating hundreds of millions in recurring revenue. If the plan is fulfilled, 50,000 rented robots between 2026 and 2027 could translate into about 5 billion dollars annuallywith an approximate price of $100,000 per robot per year. At first glance it seems expensive compared to an average human salary, but the argument is purely industrial: A humanoid can work almost 24/7 and replace between three and five people. Even discounting maintenance, human supervision and downtime, the potential savings per unit could be around $90,000 annually. All of this, of course, under a crucial condition that no one has yet demonstrated: that the robot is really as fast, reliable and versatile as a human worker. Technology that does not exist. Phantom boasts of advanced “muscles”, efficient and reversible actuators that allow it to operate for several shifts without overheating and coexist with people with a reasonable level of safety. Still, there is an uncomfortable reality in the sector: no manufacturer has yet achieved a humanoid that is fully equivalent to human performance in complex environments. Therefore, the money intelligent It discounts delays, reduces expectations, and assumes that it will take additional years for hardware and software to reach true maturity. The recent history of robotics is full of promises ahead of their time. An armed robot. It is in the military sphere where Foundation definitively breaks with the comfortable narrative. Pathak defend that an armed humanoid can be “the first body in” in high-risk situations, because a docile robot does not force the enemy to reveal itself. PhantomAccording to his vision, it must be lethal. The range of uses it’s wide: carry ammunition, perform dangerous tasks, explore buildings, cross ridges or enter caves where no officer would want to send a soldier. In fact, it is not pure science fiction: terrestrial robots have already been seen with similar functions in the Ukrainian war, although not humanoid in shape. More precise (or easier) warfare. Foundation argues that these robots could make war more precise, not more brutal. Instead of bombing or heavy weapons, a terrestrial humanoid could evaluate situations directly. The operating model would resemble that of current drones: the robot would move and navigate autonomously, but the lethal decision would remain in human hands, remote and safe. If that scheme works, armed humanoids could alter the logic of deterrence, substituting human deployments for robotic force demonstrations scalable. Pathak even arrives to affirm that an army with tens of thousands of visible robots could prevent wars before they start. The ethical dilemma. There is no doubt, the other side of the argument is just as disturbing. If sending robots reduces the political and human cost of war, it can also make it more likely. History shows that when the threshold for sacrifice is lowered, resort to force becomes more tempting. The ethics of armed humanoid robots become like this more complex than everespecially in a world where China, Russia and the United States are already developing lethal autonomous systems, even if they do not take human form. In reality, automated warfare is not new: Nazi V-2 missiles They already incorporated a primitive form of autonomy during the Second World War. What changes now is the degree of sophisticationthe distributed decision-making capacity and the physical proximity of the robot to the human combatant. Image | Foundation In Xataka | We had seen everything in Ukraine, but this is new: drones are disguising themselves as Russian soldiers, and it is working In Xataka | When we thought we had seen all kinds of rehearsals for an invasion, China makes science fiction: robots taking over an island

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