Digest archive · Weekly edition
Aug 31 - Sep 6, 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 36 · August 31 - September 6 · verified job cuts · counted by the date the cuts take effect · provisional
In Week 36 of 2026, employers verified 12,283 US job cuts, up from Week 35 (early, not like for like). Worldwide, verified job cuts totalled 82,268, up from Week 35 (early, not like for like). Employers explicitly named AI on 3,300 of the worldwide total.
United States verified job cuts ▲ up from Week 35 (early, not like for like) | Worldwide verified job cuts ▲ up from Week 35 (early, not like for like) |
Both figures are verified job cuts between August 31 and September 6, 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.
2,950 of the 82,268 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
3,300 this week · 66,553 in 2026 so far
We reviewed 153 entries dated August 31 - September 6, 2026, 82,268 verified job cuts between them. Employers explicitly named AI as a reason on 1 entry, covering 3,300 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 66,553 verified job cuts to AI, 11% 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 31 - September 6, 2026, verified only: 74,254 from named news reports, 7,950 from state WARN filings, 64 from SEC 8-K filings.
There are 153 entries between August 31 and September 6, 2026, 134 of them verified. Including announced estimates, the same window holds 141,228 job cuts across 143 companies. Announced cuts are plans companies have stated that no filing or named report verifies yet.
Biggest cuts
August 31 - September 6, 2026, ranked by job count. 2 of these 5 are announcements, marked below, and sit outside the verified figure above.
| Volkswagen (VW) (Germany, takes effect September 4, 2026, announced) Source (swissinfo.ch) | 50,000 jobs |
| Volkswagen (Germany, takes effect September 3, 2026) Source (news.google.com) | 50,000 jobs |
| Jaguar Land Rover (United States, takes effect September 5, 2026, announced) Source (moneycontrol.com) | 4,000 jobs |
| Uber (Multiple countries, no split given, takes effect September 2, 2026, AI attributed) Source (livemint.com) | 3,300 jobs |
| id Software (United States, takes effect September 1, 2026) Source (eurogamer.net) | 3,200 jobs |
Where the jobs were
August 31 - September 6, 2026, verified job cuts, counted where the jobs were rather than where the employer is based: United States 12,283 · Europe 59,842 · Latin America 1,944 · Canada 834 · Asia Pacific 815 · Multiple countries, no split given 3,600 · No country recorded 2,950. Regions are our own grouping.
Which industries
August 31 - September 6, 2026, verified job cuts, by the industry we classified the employer into: Automotive 50,277 · Manufacturing 9,782 · Technology 4,842.
By US state
August 31 - September 6, 2026, verified US job cuts, by the state where the notice was filed: Washington 1,403 · Washington, D.C. 1,270 · California 1,205 · Georgia 814 · Florida 651.
Why
August 31 - September 6, 2026, verified job cuts, by the reason the employer or report gave, and an entry can carry more than one: Restructuring 55,621 · Plant / site closure 53,902 · Cost reduction 7,714 · Reason tag: AI or automation 3,866 · Revenue decline 1,014.
Roles most affected
August 31 - September 6, 2026, verified job cuts, by the roles affected, and an entry can name several: Manufacturing & production 52,500 · Engineering & IT 3,425 · Operations & warehouse 679.
2026 YTD
608,207
verified job cuts
January 1 - September 6, 2026, worldwide, counted by the date the cuts take effect.
Of those, 66,553 were attributed to AI by the employer, January 1 - September 6, 2026, worldwide.
52,093 of the 608,207 verified job cuts sit on entries with no country recorded, January 1 - September 6, 2026.
Open the tracker for August 31 - September 6, 2026
Read this edition in the archive
Data notes
Each company above links to its own entry page, which names the filing or report behind the row. Every row also carries a "Source" link to the filing or report it was drawn from.
These lines cover 64,901 of the 82,268 verified job cuts between August 31 and September 6, 2026. 13,955 more sit below the lines shown. 3,412 are on entries with no industry recorded.
About this snapshot
The database last changed September 7, 2026 at 12:11 UTC. This digest was composed September 7, 2026 at 13:00 UTC, and every figure in it is the snapshot taken then.
Cite this
AI Layoff Tracker, AskTheRecruiter.com. Figures for August 31 - September 6, 2026, as of September 7, 2026 at 12:11 UTC, accessed September 7, 2026 at 13:00 UTC.
https://asktherecruiter.com/blog/ai-layoff-tracker/
Talent Intelligence Tracker
1,073
talent and employer-activity signals
August 31 - September 6, 2026, worldwide, counted by the date the source published, or, for a job-board reading or a source that carries no date, the day we captured it.
A talent and employer-activity signal is one sourced employer update, not one job. Job counts below are the roles named in that update. Some signals are job-board scans, where a rise means the employer listed more active postings than our previous scan, not that it confirmed new openings.
From 1,053 companies, August 31 - September 6, 2026. 334 of the 1,073 are verified against a primary document, which here means a filed one. The rest are of two kinds: news reports we have not independently confirmed, and readings of employers' own job boards. A board reading is first-party, but it is our measurement rather than a figure the employer filed.
Figures for this window are provisional: signals keep arriving for days after the date they carry, so the tracker will show more for the same dates later.
189 of the 1,073 signals listed between August 31 and September 6, 2026 state a direction of hiring. The rest are other employer activity in the same window: funding, leadership, pay and site news. That activity names no roles, and this tracker follows it because it tends to come before hiring.
Biggest hiring signals
August 31 - September 6, 2026, the signals naming the most jobs first, then newest first. Each headline is quoted as its source published it, in that source's own language.
- CEO VinCons tiết lộ 100.000 công nhân tuyển mới từ vùng nông thôn, miền núi, không lấy của doanh nghiệp khác (cafef.vn) (100,000 jobs, Vietnam, CafeF, September 5, 2026)
- SBI to hire 12,000 employees, add 250 branches in FY27, says State Bank of India's chairman CS Setty (livemint.com) (12,000 jobs, India, Mint, September 6, 2026)
- SRAM prevê criar 530 novos empregos (observador.pt) (530 jobs, Portugal, Observador, September 4, 2026)
- HURC sedang merekrut 168 personel untuk pengoperasian dan pemeliharaan jalur kereta listrik Phu Quoc. (vietnam.vn) (168 jobs, Vietnam, Vietnam.vn, September 4, 2026)
- Perusahaan Jalur Metro Kota Ho Chi Minh 1 sedang merekrut 168 personel untuk pengoperasian dan pemeliharaan jalur LRT Phu Quoc. (vietnam.vn) (168 jobs, Vietnam, Vietnam.vn, September 4, 2026)
Other talent activity
August 31 - September 6, 2026, worldwide: Leadership moves 668 · Funding rounds 166 · Pay and benefits changes 55. These categories overlap with the hiring signals above and with each other, so they do not sum to the headline.
2026 YTD
25,794
talent and employer-activity signals
January 1 - September 6, 2026, worldwide, counted by the date the source published, or, for a job-board reading or a source that carries no date, the day we captured it.
Jobs in: US hiring demand
External context from Indeed Hiring Lab, not the tracker's own records. These figures describe the whole US labour market and are not counted in the totals above.
The Indeed US Job Postings Index (February 1, 2020 = 100, seasonally adjusted) stood at 101.91 as of August 21, 2026, 1.91 points above the baseline, unchanged from a month earlier.
AI-related terms appeared in 6.28% of US postings as of July 31, 2026, up 0.33 points from a month earlier.
Sources: Indeed Hiring Lab Job Postings Tracker for the index and Indeed Hiring Lab AI Tracker for the AI share, both published by Indeed Hiring Lab under CC BY 4.0. Index as of August 21, 2026. AI share as of July 31, 2026. The comparisons against the baseline and against a month earlier are our own arithmetic on the published series.
Open the Talent Intelligence Tracker for August 31 - September 6, 2026
Cite this
Talent Intelligence Tracker, AskTheRecruiter.com. Figures for August 31 - September 6, 2026, accessed September 7, 2026 at 13:00 UTC.
https://asktherecruiter.com/blog/talent-intelligence-tracker/
From the blog
What we wrote around the numbers: analysis and explainers from the tracker team.
The 3 newest of 64 posts we published between August 31 and September 6, 2026.
Tips on Finding Employment as a Corporate Flight Attendant Becoming a corporate flight attendant is one of the less-documented career paths in aviation, and that lack of documentation is itself part of the challenge... September 6, 2026, 9 min read |
Tips for Getting Started With Online Data Entry Jobs Online data entry jobs get pitched constantly, often with pay claims that sound too good to be true, because a lot of them are. September 6, 2026, 11 min read |
Tips for Cover Letters to Get More Interviews Whether a cover letter actually helps you land an interview is one of the most contested questions in job searching. September 6, 2026, 11 min read |
All archived editions · Methodology · Submit a correction
Aug 31 - Sep 6, 2026 layoff digest. AI Layoff Tracker, AskTheRecruiter.com. Accessed Sep 9, 2026. https://asktherecruiter.com/blog/ai-layoff-tracker/editions/weekly/2026-W36/ Licensed CC BY 4.0; every entry links to the filing, notice or report behind it.