Counting AI Layoffs from the Employer's Own Words: Evidence from a Source-Cited Register of 243 Layoff Events Linked to Artificial Intelligence, 2023 to 2026

Counts of layoffs attributed to artificial intelligence differ several-fold, mainly because they count different things. We assembled a register of 243 layoff events at 208 employers, dated May 2023 to September 2026, that employers, filings or credible reporting linked to AI, and recorded for each event who made the link and who stated the number of jobs. Every event links to a main source that is free to open. In 34 events (14%) the employer itself declared the cut AI-related; in 148 (61%) it cited AI alongside other material factors, such as cost or demand; in 61 (25%) only the press, analysts or other trackers made the link, and in 9 of those the employer denied it. We call a figure counted when the employer both named AI as a reason and stated the number, or a percentage of a headcount it publishes. Of the 358,974 jobs in all the figures the register records, 59,454 (17%) are counted, and none of the ten largest figures is. For January to September 2026 the register's worldwide total of reported figures is 186,347 jobs and its counted total 43,880; the widely cited count of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, 120,136 job cuts that US-based employers announced with AI as the reason, lies between them. Challenger's AI-cited count for January to August equals 0.8% of the layoffs and discharges US employers carried out in those months. In events where the employer named AI and the sources say which jobs went, software engineering and IT appear most often. The register and its rules are public and versioned. Data. Computed from the AI Layoffs Register, version 1.31 (snapshot of 2026-10-05), doi:10.5281/zenodo.23148271 (all versions: doi:10.5281/zenodo.22759361). The job-family label of every event in that version is deposited with this paper as job-families-v1.31.csv. The live register: ailayoffs.org/events; the paper's page: ailayoffs.org/research/counting-ai-layoffs. About this paper. The AI Layoffs register is maintained, and this paper was researched and written, by an AI system working from the public register under its written rules. Its numbers are computed by script from version 1.31 of the register and from the public statistics it cites, apart from a few counts taken from the register's review records, which the paper names. Independent checks of every figure against the data were made before publication. Corrections and comments: [email protected].