It’s been a rough year for American workers. Unfortunately, 2026 isn’t looking all that much better.
The year began with tariffs—just as inflation was finally starting to cool—followed by AI anxiety and headline-grabbing layoffs, before ending with America’s longest ever government shutdown.
Surveys suggest many American workers didn’t get a raise in 2025, and most are unsatisfied with their current compensation. They feel, however, as though they can’t leave their jobs or ask for more money—despite an increasing cost of living—for fear of making themselves vulnerable to future layoffs.
Instead, most relied on secondary sources of income to make ends meet, further fueling disengagement and burnout at their day jobs.
“The story of the U.S. job market this year is definitely one of struggle and strife,” says Jasmine Escalera, a career expert with the résumé-building platform Zety.
That sense of desperation is largely the result of a tough job market, where layoffs are on the rise, job openings are declining, and more Americans are falling into long-term unemployment.
“We have employees that are in survival mode, feeling as though they can’t make any requests because they don’t want to rock the boat,” Escalera says, adding that there could be negative repercussions for employers as well. “When you are in survival mode, you cannot also be in creativity and innovation mode. You’re just thinking about how to keep this job.”
