Job insecurity hits record high as fewer than 1 in 4 workers feel safe — ADP survey of 39,000 workers across 36 countries reveals AI-driven layoffs are crushing workplace creativity and productivity

ADP surveyed 39,000 workers across 36 countries and found fewer than 25% felt confident their job was safe from elimination. In no country did job-security confidence exceed 38%, and even among C-suite executives only 35% felt secure. Skilled workers solving repetitive problems showed the lowest confidence at 18%, while knowledge workers creating new things reached 30%.

Worker anxiety about job loss tied to AI rose from 28% in 2024 to 40% in a global Mercer survey of 12,000 executives and employees — a jump driven partly by CEOs using 'AI washing' (blaming layoffs on AI even when it wasn't the cause) to appease investors. Unlike past recessions, researchers say AI-driven job insecurity has 'no end in sight,' creating permanent workplace dread rather than a temporary crisis.

Fear of job loss is backfiring on company productivity. Psychology research shows anxious workers abandon creativity and risk-taking, narrowing their thinking to known safe solutions — the opposite of what companies need when asking employees to experiment with AI tools. Hans De Witte, a work-psychology professor, states there is 'massive empirical evidence' that insecurity leads to lower performance, contradicting CEO assumptions that fear motivates harder work.