Gallup: U.S. workers still seeing elevated layoffs, but AI not main culprit

WASHINGTON — U.S. workers continue to report elevated levels of downsizing at their workplaces, though hiring still appears to outpace layoffs, according to a new Gallup workplace report.

Gallup found that 21% of U.S. employees said their employer was letting people go and reducing the size of its workforce during the first quarter of 2026. That figure has leveled off after rising sharply from 2022 through 2025, but it remains well above the 8% Gallup recorded in mid-2022.

At the same time, the report shows the labor market is not simply shrinking. Gallup said 34% of workers reported that their employer was hiring and expanding, while 45% said staffing levels were not changing.

Federal government workers reported the highest level of downsizing, with nearly 38% saying their employer was cutting jobs. That compared with 17% of for-profit workers, 18% of nonprofit workers and 19% of state or local government workers.

The report also pushed back against the idea that artificial intelligence is already the main driver of layoffs. Among unemployed adults who said they had been laid off, only 1% named AI or automation as the primary reason.

Gallup did find that laid-off workers were more likely to be non-users of AI tools than currently employed workers. The gap was especially notable in the technology industry, where workers who did not use AI regularly appeared more exposed to layoffs.

The findings suggest that while AI may be reshaping the workplace, most workers who lost jobs are still pointing to more traditional reasons, such as restructuring, cost-cutting or elimination of positions.

For employers and employees, the report points to a workplace in transition: layoffs remain more common than they were a few years ago, but many companies are still hiring, and AI appears to be more of a skills and adaptation issue than a direct mass-layoff trigger.