Digest archive · Daily edition
Aug 21, 2026
This page is the edition exactly as it was composed and sent. The figures were read once, for the window above, and they have not been updated since. Filings and notices keep arriving, so the live tracker will now show larger numbers for the same window, and a correction can lower one. Every link below names the date basis it was counted on. Links to other sites appear here as the outlet's address in plain text; the email carried them as links.
AI Layoff Tracker
2026 Week 34 · August 20-21 · verified job cuts · counted by the date the cuts take effect · provisional
In Week 34 of 2026, employers verified 2,555 US job cuts. Worldwide, verified job cuts totalled 3,031. No employer explicitly named AI as a reason.
United States verified job cuts | Worldwide verified job cuts |
Both figures are verified job cuts on August 20 and 21, 2026, counted where the jobs were and by the date the cuts take effect.
Filings and notices keep arriving, so this window is provisional: it usually rises, and a correction can lower it.
Every verified cut in this window carries a country, so the regions below sum to the worldwide figure.
AI-attributed cuts
0 today · 42,953 in 2026 so far
We reviewed 24 entries dated August 20-21, 2026, 3,031 verified job cuts between them. No employer explicitly named AI as a reason on any of them. Explicit attribution is rare and arrives in bursts: of the 32 complete weeks of 2026 measured to August 16, 16 recorded none. So far in 2026 employers have attributed 42,953 verified job cuts to AI, 8% of the year's total.
Why that matters: zero AI-attributed cuts does not mean AI played no role. It means no employer in these records explicitly cited AI as a reason. This tracker measures employer disclosure, not the effect of automation on employment.
Source quality
Where these came from, August 20-21, 2026, verified only: 2,265 from state WARN filings, 766 from named news reports.
There are 24 entries on August 20 and 21, 2026, 23 of them verified. Including announced estimates, the same window holds 3,531 job cuts across 13 companies. Announced cuts are plans companies have stated that no filing or named report verifies yet.
Biggest cuts
August 20-21, 2026, ranked by job count. 1 of these 5 is an announcement, marked below, and sits outside the verified figure above.
| KPMG (location not recorded, takes effect August 20, 2026, announced) | 500 jobs |
| Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) (Canada, takes effect August 20, 2026) | 466 jobs |
| Meta (New York, United States, takes effect August 20, 2026) | 417 jobs |
| Meta (New York, United States, takes effect August 20, 2026) | 389 jobs |
| Meta (New York, United States, takes effect August 20, 2026) | 354 jobs |
2 of the 5 companies listed on August 20 and 21, 2026 link to an entry page naming the filing or report behind the row. The rest arrived through a bulk filing import, which builds no page, so they link to the tracker filtered to that company.
Where the jobs were
August 20-21, 2026, verified job cuts, counted where the jobs were rather than where the employer is based: United States 2,555 · Canada 476. Regions are our own grouping.
Which industries
August 20-21, 2026, verified job cuts, by the industry we classified the employer into: Technology 1,234 · Government & Nonprofit 466 · Retail & E-commerce 394.
These lines cover 2,094 of the 3,031 verified job cuts on August 20 and 21, 2026. 846 more sit below the lines shown. 91 are on entries with no industry recorded.
2026 YTD
534,287
verified job cuts
January 1 - August 21, 2026, worldwide, counted by the date the cuts take effect.
Of those, 42,953 were attributed to AI by the employer, January 1 - August 21, 2026, worldwide.
102,791 of the 534,287 verified job cuts sit on entries with no country recorded, January 1 - August 21, 2026.
Open the tracker for August 20-21, 2026
Read this edition in the archive
About this snapshot
The database last changed August 21, 2026 at 08:08 UTC. This digest was composed August 21, 2026 at 10:20 UTC, and every figure in it is the snapshot taken then.
Cite this
AI Layoff Tracker, AskTheRecruiter.com. Figures for August 20-21, 2026, as of August 21, 2026 at 08:08 UTC, accessed August 21, 2026 at 10:20 UTC.
https://asktherecruiter.com/blog/ai-layoff-tracker/
From the blog
What we wrote around the numbers: analysis and explainers from the tracker team.
One post published on August 20 and 21, 2026.
How Far Back Should Your Resume Go? The Right 10-15 Year Rule for Every Career Stage “How far back should your resume go?” is one of the most common questions job seekers ask, and most of the answers online dodge it with vague advice. August 21, 2026, 7 min read |
All archived editions · Methodology · Submit a correction
Aug 21, 2026 layoff digest. AI Layoff Tracker, AskTheRecruiter.com. Accessed Sep 9, 2026. https://asktherecruiter.com/blog/ai-layoff-tracker/editions/daily/2026-08-21/ Licensed CC BY 4.0; every entry links to the filing, notice or report behind it.