AI is now the most-cited reason for US employers cutting human jobs in 2026.

That was the main — or at least the most eye-catching — takeaway from Thursday’s Challenger, Gray & Christmas update covering May.

Last month’s 97,006 announced layoffs counted as the highest May total since 2020 and the third consecutive month-to-month increase.

Total announced cuts YTD are closing in on 400,000. That’s down sharply from the first five months of last year, but the comp’s distorted by the DOGE purge.

As the figure shows, AI-related cuts sum to almost 88,000 in 2026.

In May, AI led all reasons for layoff announcements and it wasn’t close: At 38,597, AI more than doubled up the next-closest excuse (macro conditions, which were cited for 16,587 cuts).

By sector, tech layoffs lead by a mile for the year. With May’s cuts, technology firms have now announced 123,653 cuts for 2026, up 66% from the same five-month stretch a year ago.

The figure shows you the leaderboard for layoff reasons. Note that AI was third in April and fifth in March. So, it’s leapfrogged five spots in two months.

In a testament to the dueling narratives I mentioned Tuesday while editorializing around the latest government data on job openings in America, tech also leads all sectors in hiring plans this year.

“The labor market is being reshaped by technology in real time,” Andy Challenger said Thursday, adding that AI “isn’t yet the jobpocalypse some predicted.”

“The open question,” he went on, “isn’t whether AI changes the workforce, but how fast.”