Digest archive · Weekly edition
Aug 17-23, 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 17-23 · verified job cuts · counted by the date the cuts take effect · provisional
In Week 34 of 2026, employers verified 6,053 US job cuts, down 42% from Week 33. Worldwide, verified job cuts totalled 19,534, up 8% from Week 33. Employers explicitly named AI on 12,000 of the worldwide total.
United States verified job cuts ▼ down 42% from Week 33 | Worldwide verified job cuts ▲ up 8% from Week 33 |
Both figures are verified job cuts between August 17 and 23, 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. The comparison is not yet like for like: this week has had 1 day to settle against 8 days for the week before it.
489 of the 19,534 verified job cuts sit on entries with no country recorded. The United States figure and the regions below therefore do not sum to the worldwide one.
AI-attributed cuts
12,000 this week · 53,953 in 2026 so far
We reviewed 63 entries dated August 17-23, 2026, 19,534 verified job cuts between them. Employers explicitly named AI as a reason on 1 entry, covering 12,000 verified job cuts. 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 53,953 verified job cuts to AI, 10% of the year's total.
Why that matters: this counts only cuts an employer explicitly named AI for. It is the floor under any estimate of AI driven job loss, never the ceiling. This tracker measures employer disclosure, not the effect of automation on employment.
Source quality
Where these came from, August 17-23, 2026, verified only: 14,413 from named news reports, 5,056 from state WARN filings, 65 from SEC 8-K filings.
There are 63 entries between August 17 and 23, 2026, 58 of them verified. Including announced estimates, the same window holds 25,369 job cuts across 52 companies. Announced cuts are plans companies have stated that no filing or named report verifies yet.
Biggest cuts
August 17-23, 2026, ranked by job count. 2 of these 5 are announcements, marked below, and sit outside the verified figure above.
| Oracle (India, takes effect August 17, 2026, AI attributed) | 12,000 jobs |
| Paramount-Warner Bros. (California, United States, takes effect August 19, 2026, announced) | 4,500 jobs |
| Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC) (Michigan, United States, takes effect August 17, 2026) | 641 jobs |
| JPMorgan (New Jersey, United States, takes effect August 21, 2026) | 500 jobs |
| KPMG (location not recorded, takes effect August 20, 2026, announced) | 500 jobs |
4 of the 5 companies listed between August 17 and 23, 2026 link to an entry page naming the filing or report behind the row. The other one arrived through a bulk filing import, which builds no page, so it links to the tracker filtered to that company.
Where the jobs were
August 17-23, 2026, verified job cuts, counted where the jobs were rather than where the employer is based: United States 6,053 · Asia Pacific 12,000 · Canada 541 · Latin America 269 · Europe 18 · Middle East and Africa 12 · Multiple countries, no split given 152 · No country recorded 489. Regions are our own grouping.
Which industries
August 17-23, 2026, verified job cuts, by the industry we classified the employer into: Technology 13,644 · Food & Hospitality 1,132 · Finance & Insurance 869.
These lines cover 15,645 of the 19,534 verified job cuts between August 17 and 23, 2026. 2,957 more sit below the lines shown. 932 are on entries with no industry recorded.
2026 YTD
549,775
verified job cuts
January 1 - August 23, 2026, worldwide, counted by the date the cuts take effect.
Of those, 53,953 were attributed to AI by the employer, January 1 - August 23, 2026, worldwide.
105,412 of the 549,775 verified job cuts sit on entries with no country recorded, January 1 - August 23, 2026.
Open the tracker for August 17-23, 2026
Read this edition in the archive
About this snapshot
The database last changed August 24, 2026 at 08:21 UTC. This digest was composed August 24, 2026 at 11:56 UTC, and every figure in it is the snapshot taken then.
Cite this
AI Layoff Tracker, AskTheRecruiter.com. Figures for August 17-23, 2026, as of August 24, 2026 at 08:21 UTC, accessed August 24, 2026 at 11:56 UTC.
https://asktherecruiter.com/blog/ai-layoff-tracker/
From the blog
What we wrote around the numbers: analysis and explainers from the tracker team.
The 3 newest of 12 posts we published between August 17 and 23, 2026.
Become a Pilot: The 4 Essential Steps to Actually Take Off in 2026 Every commercial airline captain started exactly where you are now: at zero flight hours, staring at a career that looks equal parts thrilling and impossible to break into. August 22, 2026, 7 min read |
Break Into Multimedia: The 4 Essential Steps to Actually Secure Your Place in 2026 If you want to break into multimedia in 2026, the honest starting point is that it is not one career, it is several: graphic design, animation, video editing... August 22, 2026, 6 min read |
Become a Nurse: The 4 Essential Steps to Actually Make the Transition in 2026 If you are thinking about how to become a nurse in 2026, you are looking at one of the few career changes where the math actually works in your favor. August 22, 2026, 6 min read |
All archived editions · Methodology · Submit a correction
Aug 17-23, 2026 layoff digest. AI Layoff Tracker, AskTheRecruiter.com. Accessed Sep 9, 2026. https://asktherecruiter.com/blog/ai-layoff-tracker/editions/weekly/2026-W34/ Licensed CC BY 4.0; every entry links to the filing, notice or report behind it.