The Great AI Anxiety of 2026

Workers around the world are experiencing unprecedented anxiety about their job security in the age of artificial intelligence. According to the Mercer Global Talent Trends 2026 survey of 12,000 people, 40% of workers worldwide now fear that AI will make their job obsolete. This represents a sharp jump from just 28% in 2024, showing that anxiety about AI is accelerating quickly. The fear is particularly intense in the United States, where a separate survey found that 60% of American workers expect AI to eliminate more jobs than it creates this year. This level of worry is shaping real career decisions, from whether people apply for new positions to whether they invest in learning new skills.

The fear is not evenly spread across all jobs. Workers in data entry, customer service, content moderation, basic coding, and administrative support roles report the highest levels of concern. Meanwhile, those in healthcare, skilled trades, and creative leadership roles feel somewhat more protected. MIT researchers calculated that today's AI systems could already automate tasks performed by more than 20 million American workers, or about 11.7% of the entire US labor force. In August of last year, 71% of American respondents expressed concern that AI will put too many people out of work permanently.

The Layoff Wave is Real and Happening Now

These fears are not just imaginary worries. The tech industry has already begun massive workforce reductions tied to AI. According to RationalFX data, there have been 30,700 tech layoffs worldwide since the start of 2026, just six weeks into the year. The biggest share comes from the United States with 24,600 layoffs, led by Amazon's announcement that it would cut 16,000 positions in January 2026. This happened even though Amazon posted record revenues of $716.9 billion in 2025. Other major companies have also announced significant cuts: Meta cut approximately 1,500 jobs in early 2026 affecting 10% of its Reality Labs division, while Autodesk and Salesforce each announced layoffs of roughly 1,000 employees. In 2025, companies directly attributed approximately 55,000 job cuts to AI—a staggering 12 times the number reported in 2023.

International layoffs are also substantial. Sweden-based Ericsson announced plans to cut approximately 1,900 jobs, while Dutch semiconductor maker ASML announced cuts of around 1,700 jobs. If the current trend continues throughout 2026, the year could see over 270,000 total tech job losses. However, some economists argue that companies may be using AI as a convenient excuse to justify routine layoffs that would have happened anyway.

The Burnout Trap: More Productive, But Exhausted

Here's a surprising and troubling finding from UC Berkeley researchers: AI is making workers more productive, but it's also burning them out. The researchers studied a 200-person U.S. tech firm over eight months and found that employees using AI tools increased both the work they could complete and the variety of tasks they could tackle. This sounds great, but here's the problem: as employees' productivity increased, so did the amount of work they took on. Workers started using what used to be natural breaks during the day to work with AI tools, eventually filling most of their time at the office with tasks.

One worker described it perfectly: "You had thought that maybe, 'Oh, because you could be more productive with AI, then you save some time, you can work less.' But then really, you don't work less. You just work the same amount or even more." The researchers warned that nonstop work has the potential to lead to burnout and cognitive fatigue, as well as blurring the boundary between work and nonwork. Even worse, the researchers found that employees' focus on supercharging their productivity could potentially lead to lower-quality work.

Job Search Burnout Paralyzes Workers

The combination of AI anxiety and difficult economic conditions has created a disturbing employment trend: workers have stopped looking for new jobs. 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. This is not because jobs are easy to find—it's the opposite. The job market of 2024 and 2025 was brutally competitive, with workers spending months applying to hundreds of positions and receiving no response.

The irony is painful: the same AI technology that workers fear will take their job is already making it harder for them to find a new one through AI-powered applicant tracking systems that filter resumes before humans ever see them. Layoff fatigue is making matters worse, with workers who have survived multiple rounds of cuts feeling a sense of learned helplessness. Some workers are asking themselves: "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 cycle where workers disengage from career development and their skills stagnate, making them even more vulnerable to displacement.

The Silver Lining: AI Skills Pay Better

While the overall picture looks grim, there is one bright spot: workers with AI-related skills are in high demand and earning more money. According to the World Economic Forum, a study of more than 10 million job postings in the United Kingdom shows that candidates with AI-related skills command, on average, an advertised salary 23% higher than those without these skills. The research also shows that AI adoption is accelerating rapidly and labor markets are responding in kind, with online job vacancies explicitly requesting AI-related skills rising steeply.

However, there's a catch: demand has outpaced supply. Training pipelines struggle to keep pace, and firms report growing difficulty in recruiting qualified candidates. This has created a global skills shortage that has elevated the economic value of AI capabilities. Employers are now placing increasing emphasis on AI expertise as a core requirement when evaluating candidates.

Staying Put: Workers Choose Job Stability Over Job Searching

In response to economic uncertainty and AI anxiety, many workers are making a surprising choice: they're staying in their current jobs even when they're unhappy. According to Mercer's 2026 Inside Employees' Minds report, American workers are choosing to remain in their jobs due to economic worries and concerns about AI. This represents a shift from actively seeking new opportunities to choosing the known over the unknown, even if the known job feels precarious.

Looking Ahead: Predictions Vary

Experts disagree about how bad the AI job displacement will be. By 2030, the World Economic Forum estimates that AI and automation will displace approximately 92 million jobs worldwide, 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, 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. Goldman Sachs estimates that by 2028, 300 million jobs globally will be impacted, with 1 million net U.S. jobs lost in a single year. Meanwhile, some researchers argue that firms don't appear to be replacing workers with AI on a significant scale at this point, and many may simply be using AI as a socially acceptable reason for efficiency drives that happen during every economic cycle.