Qantas Cut 850 Jobs. Most of the Work Came to India.

Qantas is cutting 850 corporate roles and handing the work to Accenture, most of whose delivery for the deal sits in India. That is not really an AI layoff; it is an offshore move that will be automated here next. The same week, Challenger's October report shows AI-cited cuts at their lowest for the year, which tells me the AI label now measures press releases, not causation. I ask for one honest number: net entry-level hiring, not gross announcements.

On Tuesday morning Qantas emailed its staff. Eight hundred and fifty corporate positions will go, AAP reported on 10 November 2026, starting with finance, procurement, human resources and marketing. The work goes to Accenture, and "most of Accenture's services will be delivered in India". Chief executive Vanessa Hudson told staff: "The scale and speed of change in this space is unprecedented ... standing still is not an option for us."

Notice what nobody said: that the work had disappeared. It moved.

The Australian Financial Review's Chanticleer column named the mechanism the same day: "The two-step – cut jobs via offshoring first, then use artificial intelligence to automate – is becoming a common sight in corporate Australia".

In 2014, writing about Seattle's minimum wage, I noted that "All over the World, jobs have a tendency to migrate to places where these can be performed cheapest", and that skilled mental jobs, in particular, "can be performed remotely, with help of Internet" (Bravo, Kshama Sawant!, 6 June 2014). What I missed was the second half. The work comes to India first and is automated in India next. Cut abroad, offshore to India, automate here. I believe Indian white-collar workers are booking the second-hand benefit of a first-order disruption.

Now look at how we count it. Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported on 5 November 2026 that:

• US employers announced 43,994 cuts in October, down 71% from 153,074 a year earlier;
• AI was cited in 1,265 of them, its lowest monthly total this year;
• AI has been cited in 121,401 cuts in 2026, about 20% of all cuts;
• market/economic conditions led for a second month, cited for 16,407 cuts in October and 130,531 for the year, overtaking AI as the leading reason;
• technology leads all industries, with 171,501 cuts through October, up 21% from a year earlier.

I do not believe the technology changed between spring and October. The sentence in the press release changed. A cut attributed to AI in March becomes a cut attributed to market conditions in October, and the AI figure for the month drops to a rounding error without a single tool being unplugged. We are counting press releases, not causality.

In April I wrote that "some layoffs packaged as 'AI efficiencies' may be strategic cost-cutting with limited evidence that AI will fully replace the displaced work", and asked for clearer disclosure when a company blames automation (AI Layoffs: A Silver Lining, 4 April 2026). I would sharpen it into two numbers, published quarterly and by sector, here and in the countries sending us work:

1. the net change in entry-level and junior hiring, not gross announcements;
2. for every company citing AI in a layoff notice, how many roles were automated and how many merely relocated.

Gross numbers flatter everyone. Qantas gets its 850, Accenture gets its hiring release, and neither tells a graduate in Pune whether there is a first job at the end of the conveyor belt. I am glad the work is coming. I would like us to count what it is, before it moves again.

With regards,
Hemen Parekh
www.Iam-Immortal.ai / www.IndiaAGI.ai / www.YourContentCreator.in
10 November 2026