Why employees expect AI job loss more than growth
Imagine a Chief People Officer walking into an all-hands and fielding the same question from three different teams: "Is AI going to cut my role?" A new Pew Research AI job loss report gives that question a global backdrop.
Pew Research Center announced on September 17, 2026 that its AI job loss survey 2026, covering adults across 37 countries, found that in 34 of those countries, people are more likely to expect AI will shrink the job market than grow it over the next 20 years.
Put plainly, the Pew Research AI job loss numbers break down like this: across the full 37-country sample, a median of 46% of adults say AI will lead to fewer jobs in their country over the next 20 years, against just 9% who expect more jobs. Framed in terms of AI job loss vs growth, the gap is wide, not marginal.
| Expected effect | Median share of adults |
|---|---|
| Fewer jobs | 46% |
| Not sure | 25% |
| No real difference | 13% |
| More jobs | 9% |
The U.S. shows the same drift, moving quickly. The share of American adults expecting AI-driven job loss over the next 20 years climbed 7 percentage points in two years, Pew Research Center reports, and the U.S. is the only country in this wave where that two-year comparison exists.
Sources: Globally, More People Expect AI to Cause Job Loss Than Growth | Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/pg_2026.09.17_global-views-of-ai_report.pdf
Who feels this most: age and income gaps
Pessimism isn't spread evenly. Among the 18 high-income countries in Pew's sample, a median of 55% of adults expect AI to cut jobs over the next 20 years, well above the global median.
Age gaps also show up within single countries. In the Philippines, 36% of adults under 35 expect AI to shrink jobs, versus just 11% of adults 50 and older, one of the widest generational splits Pew Research Center measured. The report doesn't say whether that pattern repeats everywhere it surveyed.
We'd be careful about reading a 37-country median, or even one country's age gap, as a forecast for your own workforce. The split that matters for your rollout is the one inside your own teams, not the one in a global table.
Sources: Concerns about AI are especially widespread in wealthier countries | Pew Research Center, Young adults around the world have mixed feelings about AI | Pew Research Center
What self-reported fear can and can't prove
All of these figures describe what people say they expect, not what actually happens to employment. Pew's survey captures belief about a twenty-year horizon; it isn't a measured labor-market outcome, a validated prediction, or proof that AI causes any particular job change.
This isn't the only Pew wave pointing the same direction. A separate, earlier Pew Research study of 5,273 employed U.S. adults, fielded in October 2024 and published in February 2025, found that 32% of workers expected workplace AI use to mean fewer job opportunities for them personally in the long run. That's a different survey, question, and population than the 2026 global report.
We think treating a single survey wave as a trend you can act on is a mistake. Repeated measurement, inside your own organization, matters far more than any one headline number.
Sources: On Future AI Use in Workplace, US Workers More Worried Than Hopeful | Pew Research Center
Treat job-loss sentiment as an adoption risk
None of this is Pew's advice: the report describes what people believe, not what employers should do about it. Our own view at AI Adoption Score is simpler: rising job-loss anxiety is an adoption risk, and you can measure it the same way you measure usage, skills, or training effectiveness.
Start by checking where the worry concentrates inside your own organization, rather than assuming it mirrors the global numbers. Segment any internal check by age and tenure, since Pew's data shows large generational gaps in several countries, and similar splits likely exist inside your company.
A dedicated instrument for this already sits inside AI Adoption Score: the AI Anxiety Scale identifies what employees are actually afraid of regarding AI, so leaders can address the real blocker instead of guessing at it.
Pair that with the AI Adoption Barriers Survey, which uncovers the real reasons a team isn't using AI more effectively, so fear and practical friction don't get lumped together.
We think leaders who track this signal early, alongside skills and usage data, are better placed to respond with facts before rumor fills the gap.
Sources: Young adults around the world have mixed feelings about AI | Pew Research Center
Measure your own workforce, not Pew's global mood
The September 2026 Pew Research AI job loss report doesn't tell you what to do about any of this inside one company. Pew Research Center states national, population-level findings; it doesn't break results down by employer, industry, or job function, and it doesn't address organizational response at all.
The data also isn't perfectly aligned in time. Pew's main 36-country survey ran from February 8 to May 13, 2026, with a supplemental U.S. survey added June 22 to 28, 2026, so not every country's figures were collected in the same window.
The real question isn't whether the world has grown more pessimistic about AI and jobs. It's whether you know how your own people feel, and whether you're tracking that answer as closely as you track the rest of your AI rollout. Start there.
Sources: Globally, More People Expect AI to Cause Job Loss Than Growth | Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/pg_2026.09.17_global-views-of-ai_report.pdf
Frequently asked questions
Does Pew Research's data mean AI is already destroying jobs?
No. Pew Research Center asked people what they expect for their country's job market over the next 20 years, not whether layoffs are happening to them personally right now. That forward-looking framing means a high share expecting job loss reflects outlook, not a current employment count.
What did Pew's AI job loss survey 2026 actually ask?
Pew Research Center asked adults across 37 countries, surveyed mainly between February and May 2026, whether they expect AI to lead to more jobs, fewer jobs, or no real difference in their country over the next 20 years. It also tracked a separate U.S. question with a two-year comparison.
Does Pew break the findings down by industry or company size?
No. Pew Research Center's report breaks results out by country, age group and country income level, as shown in the age and income patterns above, but it doesn't separate findings by employer, industry or job function. For that resolution, you would need to measure inside your own organization.
How often should we check employee sentiment about AI and jobs?
Pew's report doesn't address internal measurement cadence, so this is editorial guidance, not a stated recommendation: repeat the check periodically rather than once, since public sentiment on this topic has shifted noticeably within just a couple of years.
Sources: Globally, More People Expect AI to Cause Job Loss Than Growth | Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/pg_2026.09.17_global-views-of-ai_report.pdf, Concerns about AI are especially widespread in wealthier countries | Pew Research Center, Young adults around the world have mixed feelings about AI | Pew Research Center
