Mid-year reality check on work: Anxiety is up, trust is down, AI is everywhere
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- Glassdoor released a mid-year review of its 2026 workplace trend predictions, confirming that "forever layoffs" anxieties materialized: mentions of job insecurity in employee reviews climbed 63% year-over-year and layoff mentions rose 29%.
- Senior leadership ratings fell below 3.5 out of 5 in April — the lowest monthly score since 2017 — with employee reviews showing "misalignment" up 95%, "disconnect" up 52%, and "distrust" up 18%.
- AI mentions in Glassdoor reviews more than tripled over the past year and turned net-negative for the first time, a shift Glassdoor admits it missed when predicting AI would remain a background issue for most workers.
- Remote workers gave career opportunities an average rating of 3.16 out of 5 versus 3.67 for in-person employees, the weakest experience across all work arrangements, with remote employees also reporting the weakest work-life balance.
- Job offer decline rates dropped to 21.4% in the first four months of 2026 (19.6% seasonally adjusted), down 5.1 percentage points from 2025, indicating workers are prioritizing stability over ideal-fit roles.
- Gallup found technology workers who used AI less than once monthly faced an 18% layoff risk, compared with 6% for those using AI at least monthly — an inverse correlation the firm is now flagging.
- Statistics Canada reported job vacancies rose 2.4% in Q1 2026, the first increase since Q2 2022, spanning full-time, part-time, permanent, and temporary positions.
Why it matters: Headline layoff numbers remain near pre-pandemic averages, yet anxiety signals surged — job-insecurity mentions jumped 63% and senior leadership trust hit a seven-year low — meaning the damage is being felt in morale and retention rather than paychecks. AI anxiety now leads adoption concerns, with employee reviews turning net-negative for the first time, a signal employers can no longer treat the technology as background noise.
