Spooked by AI: Clinging to Stability in a Shifting Job Market

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For decades, college-educated employees built a career on the assumption that if something went wrong: a bad job fit, a stalled role, a difficult manager, they could fix it. They would polish their resume, reach out to their network, scan LinkedIn or Indeed, and trust another opportunity waited nearby.

That sense of professional mobility cracked during the pandemic when layoffs spread and hiring froze. It rebounded in the years that followed, as employers rushed to hire and employees regained leverage and even the upper hand in job market. Today, as hiring slows and layoffs ripple through white-collar sectors, that assumption again erodes, this time more persistently.

Hiring has softened in sectors with large concentrations of office workers, from information services to banking and finance-related industries, and unemployment among college-educated workers has crept higher over the past year, https://www.wsj.com/economy/jobs/white-collar-workers-job-anxiety-d8f83885.

Nationally, unemployment has risen to 4.6%, its highest level in four years, https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm. While Anchorage’s unemployment rate remains relatively low, about 3.5%, https://aedcweb.com/report/anchorage-employment-report-august2025/, surveys show that white-collar workers increasingly doubt their ability to land a new job if they lose their current one. In one recent poll, college-educated workers estimated they now have a roughly 47% chance of finding a job within three months of a layoff, down sharply from 60% just three years ago, https://www.wsj.com/economy/jobs/white-collar-workers-job-anxiety-d8f83885.

This loss of confidence has real consequences. Employees cling to their current positions with a grip shaped more by anxiety than loyalty. Resignation rates have slowed. Internal mobility has stalled, and the once-pronounced “quit your job and find something better” mentality has given way to “keep your head down and hope your job lasts.” For many, this caution reflects less risk-aversion than a recalibrated sense of risk, shaped by fewer job openings and hiring processes that stretch out for months.

Layoff announcements from major employers compound the unease. Giants like Amazon, Target and UPS have cut white-collar roles in recent months, often attributing reductions to having hired too aggressively during the post-pandemic boom. Employers also seem to expect more from fewer people; with many professionals describing roles that feel less like one job than three compressed into one, https://www.wsj.com/economy/jobs/white-collar-workers-job-anxiety-d8f83885.

Artificial intelligence adds another layer of uncertainty. Ford CEO Jim Farley also predicted artificial intelligence will halve the number of white-collar jobs in the U.S. https://fortune.com/2025/07/05/ford-ceo-jim-farley-ai-white-collar-jobs-essential-economy-skilled-trade-jobs-shortage/.

For employees, this moment calls for realism. Holding onto a job out of fear can narrow options, especially when learning, networking and internal visibility fall by the wayside. Even in a cautious market, employees benefit from staying professionally active: updating skills, maintaining external connections, and having a clear sense of how their work creates value. Security increasingly depends on adaptability.

For employers, the message runs parallel. A workforce that stays put out of fear may look stable on paper but often carries hidden costs, including burnout, disengagement and diminished trust Asking fewer people to do more work indefinitely rarely produces long-term engagement. Clear communication about priorities, realistic workloads and the future roles available to an employee, including how technology fits in, goes further than vague promises or empty slogans. Companies that acknowledge this stand a better chance of retaining talent when conditions improve.

All this adds up to a profound shift in how white-collar workers view their careers. Where a layoff once felt like an interruption, with another opportunity waiting, many now see it as a lasting setback. The labor market may not yet resemble a full downturn, but the psychological downturn has already arrived. Employees aren’t just holding onto jobs, they’re guarding their sense of economic security in a world that feels less predictable than it once did.

Yet even now, many employers continue hiring, and many professionals continue to build skills and find opportunities despite uncertainty.

© 2025 Lynne Curry, PhD, SPHR, SHRM-SCP