This week's workplace update reveals a workforce facing real stress from multiple directions. Workers around the world are dealing with massive job losses, falling morale, and an AI-driven job market that doesn't always match their skills. Here's what's happening and why it matters.

The Technology Industry Layoff Crisis

The biggest story involves the technology sector. Over 92,000 tech workers have lost their jobs in just the first four months of 2026—and we're only in May. April was particularly bad, with 45,800 people affected in a single month, the worst month for tech layoffs in at least two years. Major companies like Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle, Snap, and Block all announced significant job cuts within just a few weeks of each other. This created what experts call a "layoff pile-on" that hasn't been seen since the difficult years of 2022 and 2023.

What makes this crisis especially painful is the timing. Many of these companies had rushed to hire people just months earlier, only to quickly turn around and lay them off. Meta announced it would let go of 8,000 employees—roughly 10% of its entire global workforce—and would leave 6,000 open positions unfilled. Even smaller companies suffered devastating cuts. GoPro eliminated 145 jobs, which represented 23% of its total workforce in one move. The reason behind all these cuts? Companies are betting heavily on AI infrastructure while simultaneously trying to reduce spending.

The Engagement and Manager Burnout Problem

Beyond the tech industry, a deeper problem is affecting workers globally. Gallup released a comprehensive report showing that global employee engagement fell to just 20% in 2025, down from 23% in 2022. This represents three straight years of decline, and marks the first time Gallup has recorded two consecutive years of falling engagement. What does this mean practically? Most workers don't feel excited, motivated, or connected to their work.

The most alarming finding concerns managers specifically. Since 2022, manager engagement has dropped an alarming nine percentage points. In a single year between 2024 and 2025, manager engagement fell five points, dropping from 27% to just 22%. Regular workers' engagement, by comparison, has remained relatively stable. This reveals a troubling pattern: managers have been hit much harder than their employees.

Why are managers struggling so much? Consider everything managers have navigated in the past five years: handling massive worker departures after the pandemic, managing through hiring booms followed by brutal layoffs, rapidly adopting new AI tools, adjusting to workers' demands for flexibility and remote work, reorganizing teams while managing shrinking budgets, and dealing with supply chain problems and changing customer needs. This accumulated stress is taking a serious toll. When managers burn out, the consequences spread throughout teams. The report describes something called "quietly quitting"—workers who show up physically but don't engage or work hard. This happens when engagement is low everywhere in an organization.

Rising Job Loss Fears Among Workers

Workers in America have become significantly more pessimistic about their job security. Research from the University of Michigan shows that concerns about job loss have risen substantially. Workers with college degrees have become progressively more worried since mid-2023, right after ChatGPT was released. They now believe there's approximately a 25% probability they'll lose their job within five years, compared to just 15% only a few years ago. For workers with less than a high school education, anxiety is even higher. This widespread "AI anxiety" is reshaping how workers view their future.

Making matters worse, workers describe feeling trapped. Many people are submitting job applications but receiving no responses. They feel stuck in their current situations with no clear path forward. When this stagnation combines with low engagement at work, organizations end up with workers who are physically present but not performing or caring—exactly the opposite of what companies need for success.

The Skills Matching Problem

Here's an important nuance: the real problem isn't a shortage of workers overall. Rather, the specific skills companies need don't match the skills workers currently have. Chief people officers—the top human resources leaders at major companies—emphasize that the core issue is "talent matching," not total talent supply. About 50% of these senior HR leaders expect to have enough available workers, but they struggle to find people with the right skills. The problem is especially acute for high-skilled, future-ready talent.

To address this challenge, companies are increasingly turning to AI-powered platforms to match candidates to jobs automatically and instantly. These platforms use machine learning algorithms to score candidates from agencies, direct sources, and gig pools in real time, dramatically reducing the time needed to fill positions. This speeds up hiring but also means AI systems are now making decisions that affect people's careers and opportunities. Recognizing this power, the European Union implemented new protections through the Platform Work Directive, which requires human oversight of algorithmic decisions affecting workers. This regulation shows that policymakers understand AI's impact on worker welfare.

The Shift to Contract and Temporary Work

Companies are fundamentally changing how they employ people. Rather than hiring permanent full-time employees, more organizations are turning to contract workers and temporary staff. This represents a significant shift in employment models. Before 2019, approximately 50% of contract workers eventually became permanent employees. Today, only about 14-15% of contract workers achieve permanent status. This flexibility benefits companies but leaves workers facing less job security, fewer benefits, and greater uncertainty. Technology platforms manage most of this contingent workforce now, orchestrating hiring, onboarding, payment, and performance tracking through AI systems.

What This Means for Workers

The week's news paints a clear picture of workforce transformation under stress. Workers face an uncertain environment with massive tech layoffs, falling engagement levels, and legitimate concerns about AI affecting their jobs. Managers are burning out from the demands placed on them. Yet companies still desperately need skilled workers and are investing heavily in AI systems to find and manage them more efficiently. For workers, navigating 2026 requires staying flexible, continuously building new skills, and understanding that the job market is changing fundamentally and quickly.