AskTheRecruiter · press & media kit

Press kit and soundbites

AskTheRecruiter is the open intelligence platform helping workers understand the changing job market and improve their chances of getting hired. Live layoff numbers you can quote, each with a link to the exact rows behind it.

Figures update automatically from the tracker’s database and are reproducible from the public API.

Every number on this page traces to an SEC filing, a state WARN notice, or a named news report. Nothing is estimated. That makes our totals a documented floor, deliberately smaller than announcement surveys: surveys count intentions, including multi-year plans and cuts with no public paper trail. We count what can be verified, on the day each cut takes effect.

← Back to the tracker · How every number is built · Data sources · Contact us

Before you quote a number: which basis

Our published US headline counts jobs physically located in the US. Most announcement surveys count US-company announcements wherever the jobs land. Those are different questions, so the totals differ by design. Both of ours are below, live, so you can quote the one that matches your comparison.

Figures update automatically as records are verified. Compare like with like: quoting our job-location headline against a survey that counts by employer will understate us by the difference above, and the reverse will overstate us.

If you are comparing us against an announcement survey, use the employer basis row. If you want the most conservative documented figure, use job location. Say which one you used and the number is reproducible from our public API.

Before you quote a number: which period

We date every cut on this page by the day it takes effect, and WARN notices are filed weeks ahead by law. So 2026 has two correct totals on that basis, and they are not in conflict. Quote the one that matches your sentence, and say which. The tracker home page counts on a different date basis again, and that figure is named below too.

602,186 have taken effect as of Sep 5, 2026. The other 37,902 are on notices already filed for effective dates later in 2026. Together they make the 640,088 total for 2026.

Both figures come from the same query. Only the end date changes, so you can reproduce either one from the public API. For the first row, use aggregate?from=2026-01-01&to=2026-09-05. For the third row, use to=2026-12-31. Verified job cuts are jobs minus announced_jobs. Every date on this page is EDT, including the cut-off for today, so the whole page shares one dateline.

Before you quote a number: which date

The tracker home page headlines 607,109 for 2026, counted by the date each cut was filed. This page counts by the date each cut takes effect, which is 640,088 for 2026. Neither is a correction of the other, and both are reproducible from the public API.

Filing date is when the notice was lodged; effective date is when the cut lands. The same records, sorted into years by two different dates, so the two totals are not a discrepancy and neither is a revision of the other. Reproduce the home page’s figure with aggregate?years=2026&date_basis=notice and this page’s with date_basis=effective. Open the tracker on the filing basis · on the effective basis.

Month by month against the national announcement survey

Two lenses on the same months, side by side. Our columns count jobs located in the US, verified and announced tiers together, recomputed live from the database. The survey column is the published national monthly total of announced cuts.

Effective basis dates each cut on the day it takes effect. Notice basis dates it on the day its notice or announcement entered the record. The survey books each announcement in the month it was made.

The two columns of percentages are a comparison of lenses, not a score. The survey also counts federal reductions, voluntary buyout offers, employer estimates never filed anywhere, and unnamed small announcements. We count only cuts with a filing or a named public report behind them.

A month above 100 percent is not an error. The two lenses date and admit cuts differently, so a notice filed in one month for a cut landing in another sits in different rows under each. The difference is the lens, not a shortfall in either count.

Our columns read live from the same database as every other figure on this page, so this table re-derives itself as records arrive. The survey column is hand entered from the survey’s published releases, read 2026-08-13, and a released month missing here is flagged automatically rather than left to age. Reproduce our cells from the public API with aggregate?country=United%20States&from=<month-start>&to=<month-end>, adding date_basis=notice for the notice column.

Numbers you can use right now

This week, the latest complete month, and the year to date. Each card is ready to paste into a pitch or a story. Each one ends with a link that opens the live tracker, filtered to the exact rows behind the number. An editor can check the claim in one click.

Generated Sep 5, 2026, 05:14 EDT. Figures refresh hourly; the wording stays stable. When a period rolls over, it moves to the archive below, so a number you already quoted stays reachable. Largest-cut examples come only from entries backed by an SEC filing, a WARN notice or a corroborated report, and never from a row still marked provisional in review.

This week (rolling 7 days to Sep 5, 2026)

August 2026 (complete calendar month)

2026 year to date (1 January to today)

Soundbite library

One-line versions of the same numbers, grouped by period and by region. Copy, cite, done. Attribute to “the AI Layoff Tracker by AskTheRecruiter.com.” Each links to the chart or rows behind it.

Two AI measures, always labeled. Verified means the employer named AI in its own words, quote on file. The broad measure adds looser AI-linked cases, such as an AI pivot underway or press AI-framing. It is never smaller than the verified measure. Right now the two are equal at the verified stage: every AI-linked case on record for 2026 sits in the announced stage. That is why the paired percentages below match. The two are never merged. Pick the standard your story needs. Two stages, always labeled too. The verified figure leads every soundbite. Announced cuts are plans companies have stated that no filing or named report verifies yet. A figure that says including announced adds that tier.

2026 year to date

Latest complete month (August 2026)

By region and country (2026)

Figures are current live values and change as new sources are verified. Every number is reproducible from the public API. Largest-cut examples come only from entries backed by an SEC filing, a WARN notice or a corroborated report, and never from a row still marked provisional in review.

What counts as an AI layoff

The hardest question about any AI layoff number is what counts as AI. We never publish one blended figure. Every entry records how directly the employer tied the cut to AI. So you can pick the standard your story needs, and see exactly what falls in or out at each step.

These are not a second set of numbers. The tiers are the same rows you already see on the tracker, sorted by how directly the employer tied the cut to AI. Verified and announced sort those same rows a second way: by whether the cut has happened yet. Tier 1 and Tier 2 add to 53,253 of the tracker’s verified AI box of 62,953. The 9,700-job difference is rows where the employer named AI as context rather than as a stated cause. Those rows count in the box and in no tier here. Tier 3 is reported on its own and is never folded into either figure above. Nothing is double counted and nothing is invented for this table.

Counts are verified-tier jobs (announced-stage plans excluded) for rows where the employer’s stated reason is on record. The tier columns count the stored cause on each row; the tracker’s AI box counts every row where the employer named AI, which is the wider of the two. Our headline AI figure is Tiers 1 and 2 only: the employer’s own words. Investment in AI, a future automation projection, or AI used to pick who goes does not qualify by itself. If you want the wider lens, cite Tier 3 explicitly and say so.

Monthly release schedule

Each month’s figures are final once that month has closed, and the one-page report for it lives at a permanent link. The release date is the 1st of the following month. Nothing is embargoed and nothing is held back: the link is live the moment the month closes.

Every report link is permanent, so a story that cites the March figure still resolves to the March figure a year later.

Yearly totals

Live figures from the same database the tracker serves, cut at today, so the current year is a part year. These columns count the verified and announced tiers together, which is why the current-year row runs above the verified headline at the top of this page. “AI-attributed” uses our strict standard: the company named AI as a primary or contributing cause, with a supporting quote on file. A separate broader measure is available in the ai_broad_jobs API field.

Data last updated: Sep 5, 2026 · 5:12 AM EDT, the moment the underlying database last changed (a new filing/notice/report was added), not the time you loaded this page. That is a different stamp from Generated Sep 5, 2026, 05:14 EDT higher up the page, which is when these figures were assembled. In a citation, use the date you accessed the tracker.

Coverage depth varies by year: 2015 to 2023 is primarily official US WARN filings; from 2024 on, worldwide news, SEC filings and European Restructuring Monitor coverage deepen. Methodology and per-country sources are documented on the tracker itself.

How to cite us

The data is free for editorial, research, and educational use under CC BY 4.0. Attribute to asktherecruiter.com and link back where possible.

The accurate phrasing: “According to AskTheRecruiter’s AI Layoff Tracker, N job cuts are documented for [period].” Our totals are a verifiable floor, not a census. They cover what we can trace to a filing or a named report under a published methodology. Saying “there were exactly N layoffs” overstates what any tracker can know. Saying “documented counts” is precise, defensible, and survives fact-checking. Every number on this page links to the rows behind it, and the tracker audits its own published rows monthly against their sources.

Suggested attribution: “According to the AI Layoff Tracker by AskTheRecruiter.com…”

One-line description: “The AI Layoff Tracker by AskTheRecruiter.com, a source-linked database of layoffs worldwide, flagging the ones companies blame on AI.”

• Methodology: how every number is built, counted, and corrected.
• AI layoffs, in the employer's own words: every employer AI attribution, verbatim, with its source.
• Data sources: the full list of collectors and what each one covers.

Get the full dataset

Filtered or full CSV and JSON exports are on the tracker page. The public REST API serves the same data live: GET /blog/wp-json/layoffs/v1/query and GET /blog/wp-json/layoffs/v1/aggregate. Company pages with stable, linkable URLs live under /company-layoffs/, so a reporter can cite one company’s full source-linked history at a permanent address.

About the tracker

Boilerplate: AskTheRecruiter is the open, evidence-based intelligence platform helping workers understand the changing job market and improve their chances of getting hired. Its AI Layoff Tracker is a continuously updated, source-linked database of verified job cuts worldwide, purpose-built to flag which layoffs companies themselves attribute to AI or automation, every figure clickable back to a primary document.

Live editorial tracking began in January 2026. The database also carries historical records back to 2002 in Europe and 2015 in the US. Those older rows come from official WARN filings, SEC disclosures and the EU’s restructuring monitor, so year-over-year comparisons are possible.

Why it’s worth citing

Editorial independence

The tracker is a data product of AskTheRecruiter.com. Fixed, published rules produce its numbers. Counts come only from linked primary documents, AI labels require the employer’s own words, and we adjust no figure for any commercial purpose. The full methodology, the per-country source list, the public corrections log and the collection code are open for inspection. Anyone can reproduce the dataset from the public API.

Brand assets

The wordmark and “atr” mark above may be used to credit the tracker in coverage. For high-resolution PNG or SVG logo files or a specific lockup, ask through the contact page and we’ll send them the same day.

Press contact

For data requests, custom cuts of the dataset, corrections, or comment, use the contact page. Press and reporter requests get priority, and every correction to a published figure is logged publicly on the tracker.