New York Fed survey: 61% of service firms now use AI, but only 4% laid off workers because of it

AI layoffs are still rare at New York-area businesses even as use of the technology has become the norm, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported on 1 September 2026. In its August regional business surveys of firms in New York and northern New Jersey, 61 percent of service firms said they had used AI in the past six months, up from 40 percent in 2025 and 25 percent in 2024; among manufacturers the share was 51 percent, roughly double last year's 26 percent. The job effects were smaller. "Only 4 percent of service firms reported laying off workers in response to AI over the past six months, compared to just 1 percent in last year's survey, while no manufacturers reported layoffs this year or last year," the authors, Jaison Abel, Richard Deitz, Natalia Emanuel and Nick Montalbano of the bank's research group, write. About 15 percent of service firms said they had hired fewer workers than they would have without AI (12 percent last year), while about 13 percent said they had hired more because of it. Retraining remains the main response: just over a third of service firms that use AI, and more than 20 percent of manufacturers, retrained staff. Investment is mostly small. Three-quarters of service firms describe their AI spending as minimal to modest, and among adopters the median share of workers using it is 17 percent in services and 7 percent in manufacturing. The authors conclude that AI "has been more likely to augment workers than replace them", while noting that one recent study points to entry-level workers being hit harder and that "these patterns could shift as adoption matures." The survey asks firms what they did, so the 4 percent is a share of firms, not a headcount. The verified ledger on this site counts the other side of the same question: named employers whose own statements tie job cuts to AI.