40% of Workers Now Fear Losing Their Job to AI — Up From 28% in 2024

If you have been feeling uneasy about what artificial intelligence means for your career, you are not alone. A sweeping new report from Mercer — the Global Talent Trends 2026 survey of 12,000 workers and business leaders worldwide — reveals that 40% of employees now fear losing their job to AI. That is a sharp jump from 28% just two years ago, and it underscores how quickly anxiety around automation has moved from background noise to a front-of-mind career concern.

The numbers are even more striking in the United States, where a separate Resume Now survey found that 60% of American workers expect AI to eliminate more jobs than it creates this year. Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that AI is "hitting the labor market like a tsunami, and most countries and most businesses are not prepared." Whether you work in tech, finance, retail, or any other industry, the question is no longer if AI will reshape the workforce — it is when, how fast, and what you can do about it.

What Does the Data Say About AI Job Fear?

The Mercer Global Talent Trends 2026 report is one of the most comprehensive snapshots of worker sentiment available today. Surveying 12,000 employees and HR leaders across industries and geographies, it captures something that corporate earnings calls and productivity dashboards often miss: how people actually feel about the AI revolution happening around them.

The headline finding is stark: 40% of workers fear AI will make their job obsolete. In 2024, that figure was 28%. That is a 12-percentage-point increase in just two years — a pace that suggests anxiety is accelerating, not leveling off. The fear is not evenly distributed, either. Workers in data entry, customer service, content moderation, basic coding, and administrative support roles report the highest levels of concern, while those in healthcare, skilled trades, and creative leadership roles feel somewhat more insulated.

In the US specifically, a 2026 survey from Resume Now paints an even grimmer picture of public perception. A full 60% of American workers now believe AI will eliminate more jobs than it creates over the coming year. That level of pessimism goes beyond abstract worry — it is shaping real career decisions, from whether people apply for new roles to whether they invest in upskilling or simply freeze in place.

The IMF has reinforced these concerns at the macro level. In a widely cited statement, the organization described AI's impact on employment as a "tsunami" that most governments and businesses are simply not prepared for. The IMF estimates that roughly 40% of global jobs are exposed to AI in some form, with advanced economies facing the highest exposure rates due to their larger share of cognitive and white-collar work.

Which Companies Are Actually Cutting Jobs Because of AI?

Worker anxiety does not exist in a vacuum. In 2025, companies directly attributed approximately 55,000 job cuts to AI — a staggering 12 times the number reported in 2023, according to data tracked by CBS News. Of those 55,000 layoffs, roughly 51,000 were concentrated in technology roles, with the heaviest losses occurring in California and Washington — the two states that serve as headquarters for much of the American tech industry.

The list of companies explicitly citing AI as a reason for workforce reductions is growing. Pinterest cut approximately 15% of its workforce, telling employees that AI-driven efficiencies had reduced the need for certain roles. Dow, the chemical and materials giant, announced roughly 4,500 job cuts as part of a broader restructuring that leaned on automation. Indeed and its parent company's review platform Glassdoor together eliminated around 1,300 positions, citing AI tools that could handle tasks previously done by human employees.

Chegg, the education technology company, slashed a remarkable 45% of its staff, directly blaming the rise of AI tutoring tools like ChatGPT for eroding demand for its human-powered homework help service. Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike cut roughly 500 roles, pointing to AI-driven productivity gains that allowed smaller teams to accomplish the same output. HP announced plans to eliminate between 4,000 and 6,000 positions over the next few years, with AI automation cited as a key factor. And enterprise software company Workday laid off approximately 1,750 employees, framing the move as a strategic reallocation toward AI-powered products.

These are not small startups making speculative bets. These are established, publicly traded companies with tens of thousands of employees, and their decisions to invoke AI as a justification for layoffs send a powerful signal to the broader workforce. When a worker at a mid-sized company sees a headline about Pinterest or HP cutting jobs because of AI, the natural response is to wonder whether their own employer is next.

Is AI Really Replacing Workers — or Is It Just an Excuse?

Here is where the story gets more complicated — and arguably more important for workers trying to assess their actual risk. A growing number of economists and labor market researchers are questioning whether AI is truly driving these layoffs, or whether companies are using the AI narrative as convenient cover for cuts they would have made anyway.

Economist Ben May has been particularly blunt about this dynamic. "We suspect some firms are trying to dress up layoffs as a good news story rather than a bad one," he told reporters. The logic is straightforward: telling investors and the public that you are cutting jobs to "invest in AI" sounds forward-thinking and strategic. Telling them you are cutting jobs because revenue is down or because you overhired during the pandemic sounds like a failure. AI gives companies a narrative framework that turns bad news into a story about innovation.

Lisa Simon, chief economist at Revelio Labs, echoes this skepticism. "AI is a little bit of a front and an excuse," she has said, pointing to data showing that many of the companies citing AI in their layoff announcements are not actually deploying AI systems that replace the specific roles being eliminated. In other words, the layoffs may be real, but the AI justification may be largely performative.

Oxford Economics has provided perhaps the most data-driven pushback. Their research suggests that "firms don't appear to be replacing workers with AI on a significant scale" at this point. Instead, many companies may be using the broader AI conversation as a socially acceptable rationale for routine workforce adjustments — the kind of hiring freezes, restructurings, and efficiency drives that happen during every economic cycle, regardless of whether a new technology is involved.

This does not mean AI poses no threat to jobs. It clearly does, and the pace of capability improvement in large language models, image generation, and autonomous agents is genuinely unprecedented. But it does mean that the current wave of fear may be outpacing the current wave of actual displacement — and that matters, because fear itself has real economic consequences. Workers who believe their job is about to be automated may stop investing in their career, avoid taking risks, or leave the workforce entirely, even when their specific role is not actually at immediate risk.

Why Are Workers Burned Out on Job Searching?

AI anxiety is not the only force reshaping the employment landscape in 2026. A parallel trend has emerged that is equally concerning: job search burnout. According to recent data, only 43% of people plan to actively search for a new job this year, a dramatic collapse from 93% who said the same thing last year. That is not a typo — job search intent has fallen by more than half in just 12 months.

The reasons are interconnected. The job market of 2024 and 2025 was brutally competitive. Many workers spent months applying to hundreds of positions, often receiving no response at all thanks to AI-powered applicant tracking systems that filter out resumes before a human ever sees them. The irony is not lost on job seekers: the same technology they fear will take their job is already making it harder for them to find a new one.

Layoff fatigue is compounding the problem. Workers who have survived multiple rounds of cuts at their company — or who have watched friends and colleagues get laid off — report a sense of learned helplessness. If companies can cut staff at any time and blame it on AI, what is the point of hustling for a new position that might be equally unstable? This mindset, while understandable, creates a dangerous feedback loop. Workers disengage from career development, their skills stagnate, and they become more vulnerable to the very displacement they fear.

For employers, the decline in job search activity should be a warning sign. A workforce that has stopped looking for new opportunities is also a workforce that has stopped competing, growing, and bringing fresh energy to their roles. Engagement surveys consistently show that employees who feel stuck — whether because of fear, burnout, or a lack of options — are among the least productive and most likely to quietly disengage from their work.

What Jobs Are Most and Least at Risk?

Not all jobs face the same level of AI exposure, and understanding the differences can help workers make smarter career decisions. The World Economic Forum (WEF) projects that AI and automation will displace approximately 92 million jobs globally by 2030 — but will simultaneously create around 170 million new roles, resulting in a net gain of 78 million positions. The challenge is that the jobs being destroyed and the jobs being created often require very different skill sets, and they are not always in the same industries or geographies.

Roles at the highest risk tend to involve repetitive, rule-based tasks that AI systems can already perform with reasonable accuracy. Data entry clerks, basic bookkeepers, customer service representatives handling scripted inquiries, content moderators reviewing posts against predefined guidelines, and junior-level programmers writing boilerplate code are all in the highest-risk category. These are roles where AI does not need to be perfect — it just needs to be good enough and significantly cheaper.

Roles at lower risk share common characteristics: they require physical presence, complex human judgment, emotional intelligence, or creative problem-solving that current AI systems struggle to replicate. Healthcare workers — especially nurses, physical therapists, and surgeons — remain in high demand because their work involves hands-on care that cannot be automated. Skilled tradespeople like electricians, plumbers, and HVAC technicians are similarly insulated, as their work requires physical dexterity and on-site problem-solving. Senior strategists, negotiators, therapists, and roles requiring deep relationship management also remain relatively safe, at least for now.

Then there is the rapidly growing middle category: roles that will not disappear but will be fundamentally transformed. Marketing professionals, financial analysts, software engineers, project managers, and HR specialists are all likely to see their jobs change significantly as AI tools handle more of the routine work and humans focus on strategy, oversight, and the creative elements that machines cannot yet match. For workers in these roles, the question is not whether AI will affect their job — it is whether they will learn to work alongside AI effectively or be outpaced by colleagues who do.

How Can Workers Overcome AI Anxiety and Take Action?

Fear is a natural response to uncertainty, but it is a poor long-term career strategy. The workers who will come out of the AI transition in the strongest position are not the ones who panicked or froze — they are the ones who took deliberate, informed action. Here is what labor market experts and career strategists recommend.

First, learn to use AI tools in your current role. The most immediate way to reduce your vulnerability to AI-driven layoffs is to become the person who knows how to use AI, not the person whose work AI replaces. This does not require a computer science degree. It means learning to use tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, or industry-specific AI platforms to do your existing job faster, better, and with higher output. Employees who can demonstrate AI-augmented productivity are significantly less likely to be on the wrong side of a restructuring decision.

Second, invest in skills that AI cannot easily replicate. Critical thinking, complex problem-solving, emotional intelligence, negotiation, leadership, and creative strategy are all areas where humans still hold a decisive advantage. If your current role is heavily task-oriented, look for ways to move toward more strategic, relationship-driven, or creative work. The goal is to position yourself as the person who tells AI what to do, not the person who does what AI could do.

Third, diversify your professional identity. Workers who define themselves by a single skill or a single employer are the most vulnerable in any disruption — AI or otherwise. Building a portfolio of skills, maintaining an active professional network, keeping your resume and LinkedIn profile updated, and staying visible in your industry all create resilience. If your current job disappears tomorrow, you want to have options, connections, and a reputation that extends beyond your current title.

Fourth, separate the signal from the noise. Not every layoff labeled as "AI-driven" is actually about AI. As economists like Ben May and Lisa Simon have pointed out, companies have strong incentives to frame routine cuts as AI-related strategy. Before you panic about a headline, look at what is actually happening at your company: Is AI being deployed in your department? Are your specific tasks being automated? Is your employer investing in AI tools that directly overlap with your role? If the answer to these questions is no, your fear may be more about the broader narrative than your actual situation.

Finally, consider the long-term picture. The WEF's projection of a net 78 million new jobs by 2030 is not a guarantee, but it reflects a pattern that has held true through every major technological transition in modern history. The printing press, the steam engine, the assembly line, the personal computer, and the internet all eliminated categories of work while creating entirely new industries and career paths that did not previously exist. AI is likely to follow the same trajectory — the question is whether you will be positioned to take advantage of the new opportunities or left behind clinging to roles that no longer exist.

People Also Asked

Q: How many jobs will AI replace by 2030? A: The World Economic Forum estimates that AI and automation will displace approximately 92 million jobs worldwide by 2030, but will simultaneously create around 170 million new roles, resulting in a net gain of about 78 million positions. However, the transition will be uneven across industries and regions, with workers in repetitive, task-based roles facing the greatest risk while those in healthcare, skilled trades, and creative strategy roles are expected to see growing demand.

Q: What percentage of workers are afraid of losing their job to AI? A: According to the Mercer Global Talent Trends 2026 report, 40% of workers worldwide now fear that AI will make their job obsolete, up from 28% in 2024. In the United States specifically, the anxiety is even higher, with 60% of American workers believing AI will eliminate more jobs than it creates, according to a Resume Now survey.

Q: What can I do to protect my career from AI? A: Labor market experts recommend several strategies: learn to use AI tools in your current role so you become the person who leverages AI rather than being replaced by it, invest in uniquely human skills like critical thinking, emotional intelligence, and creative strategy, maintain an active professional network and keep your resume updated, and stay informed about how AI is actually being deployed in your specific industry rather than reacting to broad headlines. The goal is to position yourself as someone who works with AI, not someone whose work AI can fully automate.

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