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2026 could be a slow year for job seekers.
Forecasters at job site Indeed expect hiring growth to be minimal in 2026, as several other big companies have already hinted They have no plans to expand their workforce According to a report, the new year is just around the corner.
At a CEO gathering in Midtown Manhattan this month, 66% of leaders surveyed said they planned to reduce their workforce or maintain the size of their existing teams in 2026. according to Wall Street Journal.
Only about a third of respondents said they would be hiring in the new year, underscoring concerns about the economy. Meanwhile, some companies are pausing as they decide how to implement AI into their workforce.
“We have close to zero job growth. This is not a healthy labor market,” Fed Governor Christopher Waller told a gathering of CEOs organized by Yale University. “When I go around and talk to CEOs across the country, everyone tells me, ‘Listen, we’re not hiring because we’re waiting to figure out what’s going to happen with artificial intelligence. What jobs can we replace?'”
Waller noted that while the hiring pause may be temporary, “everyone is worried about their jobs. I mean that.”
These concerns are not unfounded. The unemployment rate rose to 4.6% in November, the highest level in four years.
Given these concerns, employees remain at their jobs. Arvind Krishna, CEO of International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), said employee turnover is the lowest in 30 years.
“People don’t want to change jobs,” Krishna told reporters Magazine. “That will lead to less hiring because people won’t leave.”
Meanwhile, major companies including e-commerce platforms Shopify and Chime Financial have reportedly said they plan to keep their companies the same size in the new year.
“I don’t think we need to increase headcount in any way next year,” Shopify Chief Financial Officer Jeff Hoffmeister said at a recent conference. “We’ve been maintaining numbers like this for over two years. Looking ahead to next year, I think we can continue to be disciplined in terms of numbers.”
Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf said this month that the bank expects to enter the new year with fewer employees. The company has about 210,000 employees, down from about 275,000 in 2019, as it works to cut costs, the report said.
Schaff said he expects the impact of AI on the workforce level to be “extremely significant,” although it may take years to see the full impact.
“No one is willing to stand up and say we should do this — that we’re going to have fewer employees going forward,” Scharf said. “It’s hard to say.”
While Wells Fargo doesn’t plan to use AI to replace humans, Schaff noted, “it does create an opportunity for us to do something radically different.”
Indeed’s forecasters expect more of the same in the new year, with the unemployment rate expected to remain around 4.6% in 2026.
“We don’t expect things to change much in 2026,” said Laura Ullrich, director of economic research at Indeed. Magazine.
at the same time, Company bankruptcy Surge to 15-year high in 2025 as businesses struggle to cope president donald trumpof trade waraccording to a new report.
no less than 717 companies Bankruptcy filings under Chapter 7 or 11 between January and November, according to data reviewed by Standard & Poor’s washington post. That’s a 14% increase from the same period in 2024 and the highest level since the country’s recovery from the Great Recession in 2010.
Businesses forced to close blame inflation, interest rates and Trump’s trade policies, which have hobbled supply chains and increased costs for many businesses.