Whether AI will lead to massive workforce layoffs over time is still up for debate, but it is starting to leave its mark on U.S. employment data.
According to government data, employment declines in financial activities and information industries, which have seen the fastest adoption of AI, will accelerate in 2026, losing an average of 28,000 jobs per month.
The weakness stands out compared with an otherwise strong labor market. The labor market was creating more than 113,000 jobs each month this year through May — a number that would have been much higher if the banking and technology industries hadn’t been a drag on overall employment. June employment data due out on Thursday is expected to show another month of strong growth.
After investing heavily in artificial intelligence, tech companies are now increasingly using it as a factor in job cuts. Top bankers at JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. have also said the technology will eliminate some jobs.
“When we’re talking in a way we’ve never spoken before, it’s definitely going to have an impact,” said Challenger, Grey & Christmas CEO John Challenger. His company, which tracks job cuts, found that AI has announced nearly 102,000 layoffs so far this year.
Overall, the tech sector accounts for one-third of the total job cuts announced in 2026. “Finance is probably the next hardest hit industry,” Challenger said.
Research shows that the impact of AI on the labor market depends on how companies deploy the technology. one study Researchers at Stanford University’s Digital Economy Lab found that employment rates have declined in occupations where technology automates tasks, while employment rates have remained flat in occupations where artificial intelligence helps workers complete their jobs.
The financial industry may be particularly vulnerable due to the makeup of its workforce. Office and administrative support occupations — including customer service representatives, bank tellers and insurance claims handlers — account for about a quarter of employment in financial activities, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data compiled by Bloomberg. This share is larger than any other major industry.
These office careers are expected to experience some Employment drops the most The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said its latest forecast shows that over the next decade, artificial intelligence will be responsible in part.
one tracker Unemployment data developed by the California Policy Lab found that the state’s financial and insurance industries have the highest concentration of unemployment claims among workers in high-AI occupations, while information and professional services also documented a continued rise in unemployment claims for workers in high-AI occupations.
Researchers at the California Policy Lab said in a report that the findings suggest the impact of artificial intelligence “may already be starting to be felt,” although statewide unemployment claims do not yet indicate widespread AI-related job losses.
premature
Economists say that at a macroeconomic level, it is too early to judge the broad impact.
“Some of this may indeed be productivity displacing workers,” said Pooja Sriram, senior U.S. economist at Barclays. “But the narrative that keeps emerging is actually a cost-cutting move by many companies, given the amount of investment they have in AI.”
Ryan Nunn, research director at the Yale Budget Lab, said he hasn’t seen an impact yet. Nunn said layoff data for the financial activities industry showed no abnormal growth in 2026, suggesting that AI may first impact employment by slowing hiring and attrition rather than widespread layoffs.
For workers in the industry, uncertainty is already real, whether or not AI is cited as the reason for their job losses.
Software engineer Bill Matonte is struggling to find work after being laid off by Citigroup in April. He said it took him just six weeks to land the job at Citigroup in Jersey City, back in March 2025, after losing his last job at JPMorgan Chase. This time, he started interviewing six months ago, expecting to be laid off, and went through multiple interviews without getting an offer.
“It’s really stressful,” he said.
photo: Job seekers at a job fair. Photographer: Alison Joyce/Bloomberg
Copyright 2026 Bloomberg.
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