Data current as of September 10, 2026. Numbers on this page snapshot the JobShift dataset on the date above; the AI hiring view and AI layoffs view refresh continuously as new job postings and WARN filings land.
Two counts, not one ratio
The claim that AI is a net job creator is usually argued with a single number: hiring divided by layoffs. That number is not published here, because the two quantities it would divide are not the same kind of thing. An AI hiring posting is a listed intent to fill a role, not a completed hire. An AI-attributed layoff worker count is a headcount already cut. Collapsing intent-to-hire against workers-already-cut into one ratio produces a number that sounds precise and is not, so JobShift reports the two counts side by side instead.
| Measure | 2026 YTD (through September 10) |
|---|---|
| AI hiring postings, US | 28,180 |
| AI-attributed layoff announcements, US | 37 |
| AI-attributed layoff workers, US | 45,823 |
The 37 announcements figure is counted at the company-and-date grain, not the raw WARN-filing grain: a single corporate layoff that generates separate filings across multiple states or facilities counts once, not once per filing. The 45,823 worker figure sums the reported headcount across those 37 announcements after the same collapsing.
The trend across 2026
AI hiring postings grew unevenly through 2026, dipping in June before reaching a year-to-date peak in August. September's total in this snapshot reflects only the first ten days of the month; the daily posting rate in that window (approximately 210 per day) is close to August's daily rate (approximately 207 per day), so the lower monthly total is a partial-month artifact, not a renewed decline.
| Month | AI hiring postings | AI-attributed layoff announcements | AI-attributed layoff workers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2026 | 553 | 8 | 10,988 |
| Feb 2026 | 759 | 3 | 4,642 |
| Mar 2026 | 1,179 | 5 | 2,093 |
| Apr 2026 | 3,624 | 8 | 10,256 |
| May 2026 | 5,161 | 8 | 11,449 |
| Jun 2026 | 3,950 | 1 | 290 |
| Jul 2026 | 4,431 | 4 | 6,105 |
| Aug 2026 | 6,419 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2026 (partial) | 2,104 | 0 | 0 |
August and September have no AI-attributed layoff announcement on file through this snapshot. Neither month shows an overall layoff slowdown: total US layoff events of any kind, AI-attributed or not, held at 270 in July, 303 in August, and 84 through the first ten days of September, consistent with the July pace. What changed is the share of that layoff volume carrying an AI attribution, not the volume itself.
What this comparison does not establish
A hiring posting is not a completed hire. Postings measure listed intent; a role can be posted, held open for months, or withdrawn without JobShift's pipeline recording that outcome. The 28,180 figure counts postings, not confirmed placements.
AI attribution for layoffs depends on news coverage naming AI as a factor. A layoff driven by AI-related automation but reported without an AI framing, or not reported at all, does not enter the 37/45,823 figures. The comparison likely undercounts AI-linked layoffs relative to AI-linked hiring, since a job posting requires no press coverage to be counted while a layoff requires a qualifying news link.
WARN Act filings generally apply to layoffs of 50 or more workers at a single site. Smaller AI-attributed layoffs below that threshold, or ones not filed at all in states without reporting requirements, do not appear in the 37/45,823 figures regardless of press coverage.
The 28,180 hiring figure counts roles the classifier identifies as AI-related by title, description, or both. Company hiring mix varies: a single company posting hundreds of generic software-engineering roles alongside a handful of explicitly AI-labeled ones will show up in this count only for the latter, so the figure understates total hiring at AI-adjacent companies while remaining a reasonably clean count of roles explicitly framed around AI work.
What the comparison does show
No combined ratio is reported here, for the reasons already stated. Read as two separate series, AI-labeled hiring activity has been the larger and more consistently growing measure through the first three quarters of 2026, while AI-attributed layoffs have appeared in smaller, more concentrated bursts tied to a limited set of named companies. Both undercount in different directions -- hiring postings miss unlabeled AI-adjacent roles, layoff figures miss unreported or sub-threshold cuts -- so neither series alone settles whether AI is a net job creator in 2026; each documents a different, partial slice of the same labor market.
Live per-company data
The national snapshot on this page reflects the JobShift dataset on September 10, 2026. For current activity as new postings and WARN filings land:
- The AI hiring view shows current AI-role postings with company and state breakdowns.
- The AI layoffs view shows AI-attributed layoffs with monthly totals and per-company detail.
- The state pages show combined hiring and layoff activity for any individual state.
- The methodology page documents the AI-attribution logic applied to layoff and hiring events.