US employers announced 97,000 job cuts in May — and AI was blamed for 40% of them

The dependable drumbeat of headlines informing that artificial quality is disrupting the workforce has near galore workers wondering whether their jobs could beryllium next.

New information suggests those concerns aren't going distant anytime soon.

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U.S.-based companies announced much than 97,000 planned occupation cuts successful May, marking the highest level for the period since the pandemic-era layoffs of 2020, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas (1). Employers cited AI arsenic the superior crushed for 40% of those announced occupation cuts.

Still, immoderate experts caution against assuming each layoff attributed to AI is the effect of a instrumentality replacing a worker.

"Roles involving repetitive tasks that chiefly necessitate designation and mentation of patterns tin utilize AI with greater efficiency," Chris Hutchins, laminitis and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants (2), told Moneywise."If AI is assigned blasted aft occupation cuts that proceed beyond these roles, past the underlying origin is apt thing different than AI."

In different words, portion companies are progressively pointing to AI arsenic a crushed for layoffs, the technology's relation successful occupation cuts whitethorn beryllium much analyzable than the headlines suggest.

Why the numbers don't archer the full communicative

In conscionable 5 months, employers person attributed much layoffs to AI than they did successful each of past year. The study shows 87,714 announced occupation cuts tied to AI done May, compared to 54,836 passim 2025.

Workers' concerns astir AI are widespread. A 2025 Pew Research Center (3) survey recovered that 52% of workers are disquieted astir AI's aboriginal interaction connected the workplace, portion one-third said they consciousness overwhelmed by the technology.

Several large tech companies person announced important workforce reductions this twelvemonth portion simultaneously ramping up investments successful artificial intelligence.

Oracle disclosed precocious that it has reduced its workforce by astir 21,000 employees (4) implicit the past year. Meanwhile, Google has continued trimming unit (5) done show reviews, buyout programs and reorganizations, with extracurricular estimates suggesting betwixt 1,500 and 3,000 engineering roles person been eliminated successful 2026.