Dive Brief:
- In a recent Gallup poll, 6% of unemployed adults said they had been laid off, with 80% of currently laid-off workers saying it had happened within the past year and 91% reporting a layoff in the past two years.
- Among laid-off workers, 13% said they had previously worked in the technology sector, and 25% said they had previously been fully remote. Meanwhile, 13% of currently employed adults have fully remote jobs, per the report. “Hybrid and on-site remote-capable workers are represented at similar rates among both laid-off workers and currently employed workers,” Gallup added.
- Only 1% of currently laid-off workers said artificial intelligence was the main reason behind their layoff. However, 62% of laid-off workers reported using AI once a year or less, while 50% of employed workers said the same. On the other hand, 28% of currently employed workers said they were frequent AI users, compared to 22% of their laid-off colleagues.
Dive Insight:
The report highlighted what Gallup called “a disproportionate share” of currently unemployed workers who previously worked in technology or who were fully remote. In addition, report authors said that while AI wasn’t specifically cited as the reason for their layoff, many workers said “organizational restructuring, cost-cutting or the elimination of their role” were to blame.
“Those explanations may reflect AI’s influence on internal decisions, even when workers were not told that AI influenced the outcome,” the report said.
In addition, the pattern of employed workers’ AI use versus laid-off workers’ AI use was steady across age, education, type of industry and the length of time the workers were laid off. Gallup said this suggests that workers who don’t use AI are “more vulnerable in the job market.”
On the other hand, the percentage of U.S. workers who said their companies were reducing their workforce was stable at 21% in the first quarter of 2026, after that rate nearly tripled between the second quarter of 2022 and the third quarter of 2025. Another 34% of workers said their organization is hiring new people and expanding its workforce, while 45% reported no change.
Despite the overrepresentation of tech workers among unemployed adults, recent research from talent acquisition platform ICIMS found a growing demand across multiple industries for employees who could create and manage AI systems. In particular, job opening growth for computer programmers was up 35% since last year.
At the same time, 53% of companies may be avoiding formal layoffs by “quiet firing” employees via benefit cuts, increased workloads or increased office time mandates, according to survey results published last year by Resume Templates. The report said that nearly 9 in 10 companies engaging in this tactic reported reduced morale.
