While opinions abound over just how greatly artificial intelligence will affect the workforce, workers themselves are quite nervous, even with respect to the immediate future.
A survey of 1,006 U.S. adults by AI resume builder site Resume Now, conducted on Dec. 9, revealed that 51% of them were worried to at least some degree about losing their jobs to AI in 2026, including 10% who were extremely worried.
Further, 60% of the participants said they believed AI would eliminate more jobs than it would create this year, while just 4% expected a net increase. And one in five respondents said they personally know someone who has lost a job to AI in the past year.
“Rising uncertainty about AI is already shaping how workers view their future at work, even before major changes take hold,” Resume Now wrote in its survey report. “Many are bracing for potential disruption in the coming months, regardless of whether they have felt its effects firsthand.”
As recently reported, AI displaced almost 55,000 workers at U.S. companies in 2025. While that was a modest ripple in the sea of 1.2 million job cuts last year, it was more than three times the combined total of AI-caused layoffs in the previous two years.
Ten percent of the workers surveyed by Resume Now said the threat was already morphing into reality, with AI beginning to encroach on their job responsibilities. Only 16% said they believed AI could never replace what they do.
Almost half (46%) said they expect moderate job reductions in their industry by year-end 2026, while 12% anticipated large-scale job losses.
The survey report noted that even those who anticipate a more balanced impact from AI “may still be preparing for shifts in responsibilities or roles as AI reshapes the workplace.”
Meanwhile, another recently released survey revealed additional evidence of employees’ current skittishness over job security.
The data showed a sharp recent reversal in attitudes around return-to-office policies. In January 2025, MyPerfectResume found that 51% of workers said they would quit their jobs over a mandatory RTO policy. But in a December poll of 1,000 U.S. adults, only 7% said the same.
Almost half (44%) of the workers said they believed at least half of U.S. companies would have entirely eliminated remote work by the end of 2026.
“The era of employee leverage has ended,” said Jasmine Escalera, career expert at MyPerfectResume. “As companies regain control, workers are realizing flexibility isn’t guaranteed; it’s negotiated. Employers know they have the upper hand, and they’re using it to reset expectations around office attendance and accountability.”
