The days of employees quitting for better opportunities, negotiating higher salaries and feeling confident about their professional future has given way to a very different reality. Mass layoffs and hiring freezes have become more common, new roles (especially those at the entry level) are harder to come by, and artificial intelligence is adding a fresh layer of uncertainty about long-term job security.
With hiring, resignations and new job creation at relative lows, workers who have a job are hanging on to it for dear life — a phenomenon some analysts have dubbed “job hugging.” After repeated rounds of layoffs, many workers feel demoralized, but they would rather shoulder heavier workloads in a job they don’t like than risk having to duke it out with their unemployed peers in a stagnant job market rife with AI screening tools, ghost jobs and unresponsive hiring managers.
What Is Job Hugging?
“Job hugging” is a term used to describe when workers cling to their current roles — even the ones they dislike — because the risks of leaving feel too high. Unlike the “job hopping” trend of 2021 and 2022, when employees quit more freely for higher pay and better opportunities, job hugging has taken hold in 2025 amid a weaker labor market and the rise of AI. Although they would like to leave, employees are choosing to stay put for fear of unemployment, long, arduous job searches and the uncertainty surrounding automation.
While the economy is at least partly to blame for this holding pattern, the rapid ascent of artificial intelligence is also playing a significant role. Many workers say that learning AI tools feels like a second job, and that it has driven productivity and efficiency standards to near-impossible expectations. Where they might have once pushed back by “acting their wage,” employees now feel like they have to grind harder, working through their burnout and anxiety to keep up and prove they’re not expendable.
Employers may enjoy this renewed leverage after The Great Resignation, but it comes at a cost: Neither employers nor employees win when workers are feeling anxious about their professional relevance, burned out by higher expectations and stuck in a job they aren’t happy in. So what’s driving this shift, and where is it all headed? Let’s break it down.
Rising AI Anxiety in the Workplace
Artificial intelligence is advancing at an unprecedented pace, leading many workers to worry their skills and experience will soon become obsolete. Sixty-four percent of U.S. adults believe AI will lead to fewer jobs over the next 20 years, according to a 2025 Pew Research study. A 2023 EY survey showed similar results, with 65 percent of people reporting that they are anxious about the technology replacing their job.
These workers’ fears are only amplified by recent warnings from executives who are bullish about the technology’s potential. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei predicts AI could eliminate half of entry-level white collar jobs, while OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said “whole categories of jobs might go away.”
Although many assume these shifts are still years away, evidence shows some entry-level white collar jobs are already starting to vanish. A 2025 Stanford University study found early-career workers in “AI-exposed occupations” have seen a 13 percent drop in employment since the introduction of tools like ChatGPT in 2022.
One of the go-to examples of “AI-exposed jobs” is customer call centers. As the managing director of Customer Management Practice, a research and advisory firm that counsels executives in the customer contact industry, Nicole Kyle has seen firsthand how executives are forgoing hiring for deeper investments in AI tools.
“I really do think I’m observing this calculus right now, [where executives] invest in automation and technology, see what efficiencies [they] can gain, and then see how [they] can change the workload of [their] human workforce or change their roles slightly,” Kyle told Built In. “We’re not seeing layoffs in droves by any means.”
Still, some tech executives have expressed enthusiasm about the potential for AI to reduce personnel costs. The AI boom inspired fintech company Klarna to hold off on hiring new human workers. At Shopify, managers cannot request more employees or resources unless they prove the same tasks cannot be performed by AI. Executives at JPMorgan and Amazon, meanwhile, both anticipate AI efficiencies will lead to workforce reductions.
Most executives and analysts agree that humans will remain essential in most roles, with AI expected to either augment or change how work gets done. But the uncertainty of what that could look like five, 10 or 20 years from now doesn’t sit well with many workers. Another Pew study revealed that more than half of workers are worried about AI’s potential impact, with one-third of respondents saying they were already feeling “overwhelmed.” The 2023 EY survey found 65 percent of workers are worried they would fall behind or lose out on promotions for not using AI, and they are anxious about not knowing how to use it responsibly.
Even those who do manage to hold on to their jobs often feel frustrated by the lack of support they are given to incorporate the technology. More than half of professionals say learning AI feels like another job, according to a LinkedIn survey, and more than 40 percent say the rate of AI’s advancement has taken a toll on their well-being.
Employees Are ‘Job Hugging’ in a Soft Labor Market
The job market slowdown isn’t just changing how people work, it’s also changing how they think about their next career move. Workers are more pessimistic than ever about their ability to find another job right now, and nearly half are resorting to “job hugging,” clinging to jobs they don’t like rather than risking unemployment. For nearly a year now, the percentage of workers voluntarily leaving their jobs has stayed close to 2 percent, which — aside from the Covid-19 lockdowns of 2020 — is the lowest it’s been in a decade.
These fears aren’t unfounded. Employers are reluctant to hire these days, as they assess the impact of President Donald Trump’s constantly shifting tariff policies while gauging which roles can be automated by artificial intelligence. Job growth has stalled since April, when the tariffs were announced. And while AI optimism continues to push the stock market to record highs, the employment outlook is bleak. The hiring rate is the lowest it’s been in more than a decade (aside from the pandemic lockdowns of March and April 2020), and there are more unemployed people than available jobs.
The job market looked much different just four years ago. During the post-pandemic “job hopping” boom, roughly 3 percent of workers were quitting their jobs each month, and employers were adding 4.6 new hires for every 100 employees. Now, job seekers are out of work for an average of nearly six months.
This mix of economic uncertainty and AI anxiety has left many workers feeling paralyzed. “Between nonstop headlines about AI replacing jobs and the ongoing hiring slowdown, many professionals feel like they’re stuck in a high-stakes game of musical chairs where the music hasn’t stopped, but it might at any moment,” Elizabeth Bodett-Dresser, a therapist at Still Oak Counseling, told Built In.
That constant “what if” stress can be “exhausting,” she added — not just from the work itself but from the “mental gymnastics” of imagining every possible worst-case scenario, whether that’s being replaced by AI, falling behind on skills or failing to land another job. “When employees believe those voices, it creates a constant sense of pressure. And ironically, instead of motivating big career moves, it often does the opposite — people cling more tightly to their current roles because the unknown feels scarier than the burnout they’re already managing.”
Employees Are ‘Quiet Cracking’ Under the Pressure
In a more forgiving economy, these exhausted and cynical workers might have attempted to scale back their efforts and do the bare minimum — also known as “quiet quitting,” which was all the rage in the jobs boom of 2022. But with hiring at record lows, employees are afraid to take their foot off the gas for fear of being pegged for the next round of layoffs and expelled into a hellscape of a job market. Even those who manage to find new roles worry they’ll be the first one on the chopping block when the next round of layoffs hits.
As a result, they are staying in place and “quiet cracking,” a term coined by Talent LMS to describe a “persistent feeling of workplace unhappiness that leads to disengagement, poor performance and an increased desire to quit.” In a March 2025 survey, Talent LMS found more than half of employees experience some level of quiet cracking, while one in five employees feel this way frequently or constantly. These employees feel like they are buckling under the weight of high workloads and demanding managers, but are too afraid to quit in such an unstable economy — not to mention the looming threat of AI wiping out their entire profession.
Employee engagement, or workers’ sense of “buy-in,” has been on the decline for years, and it’s only getting worse. According to a Gallup poll, employee engagement dropped from 23 percent to 21 percent in 2024, and 67 percent of employees said they are either “suffering” or “struggling.” When workers feel unhappy, they become less productive and less creative — which in turn breeds more disengagement.
As workers hunker down and embrace the “great stay,” employers may feel freer to pile on more demands. With little leverage in a stagnant job market, employees can’t easily push for raises or negotiate job offers. But what looks like a major advantage for employers, could come at a great expense: A workforce that is drained, disengaged and ready to bolt as soon as the job market swings in their favor.
What’s the Solution?
In many ways, quiet cracking is a new way of talking about a familiar problem: burnout. Dr. Dana Pollet, an organizational psychologist and manager of product science at The Predictive Index, told Built In that burnout is generally caused by an imbalance between job demands and job resources. And in 2025, that imbalance is stark, with workers expected to do more with less due to layoffs and a reluctance to hire new workers.
In an environment like this, AI can feel like yet another task on the to-do list. But it also has the potential to be a resource that can help workers streamline their work and brainstorm new ideas. However, leaders can’t just drop tools on employees and expect immediate productivity gains. They need to provide training, be clear about their expectations and give people room to experiment.
“Have [leaders] clearly communicated expectations around how AI ought to be used in their particular organization? Are they providing those AI tools, and are they also giving training on those tools,” Pollet said. “I think a lot of people have tools available to them that they haven't been trained how to use, so that makes it feel like more of a stressor than a resource.”
The numbers back this up. About 80 percent of workers said they would feel more comfortable using AI if their employer offered training and shared best practices, according to an EY survey, and more than 80 percent said they would view their employer more favorably if it disclosed how organizational data is used by AI.
Done right, additional training could not only support employees in AI adoption, but also show employees that the company is invested in their professional future, hopefully easing their concerns and boosting adoption. Neither employees nor employers benefit from quiet cracking, so it’s in both parties’ best interest to have genuine conversations about workload expectations, career development goals, how they are using AI and what they hope to accomplish with it.
“When it’s rolled out effectively, the change is managed effectively and it’s seen as a tool to make you better at your job — not a tool that will replace your job — that can ease burnout, improve outcomes and make employees feel more supported,” Kyle said.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is AI driving mass layoffs?
Artificial intelligence is fueling layoffs by automating tasks once handled by humans, especially routine and entry-level roles. Companies in industries like customer service and finance are investing heavily in AI tools to cut costs and boost productivity, often freezing hiring or reducing headcount as a result.
