Middle managers fade as AI rises (Emily Peck, 7/07/25, Axios)
There are now nearly six individual contributors per manager at the 8,500 small businesses analyzed in a report by Gusto, which handles payroll for small and medium-sized employers. That’s up from a little over three in 2019.
“It’s happening broadly across the economy,” Nich Tremper, a senior economist at Gusto, told Axios.
For small companies, a lot of this happened through attrition, he says. “Rather than replacing a manager, an existing one will just see an expanded scope.”
The massive inefficient expansion of management was how white men integrated women and minorities into the workforce without giving up our own jobs.