RCS - LHH - LHH Research Reveals HR Study of 2026 Layoffs

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21/04/2026 14:15

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RNS Number : 2129B  LHH  21 April 2026

87% of HR Leaders Have Conducted or Plan Layoffs in 2026. New LHH Research
Reveals How Integrated Outplacement and Targeted Redeployment Protect Future
Talent and Support Those Who Must Leave

Only 19% of employees recognize redeployment programs that 77% of HR leaders
say exist, revealing a critical visibility gap that prevents organizations
from retaining future-critical talent and fulfilling their duty of care to
departing employees.

NEW YORK CITY, NY / ACCESS Newswire (https://www.accessnewswire.com/)  /
April 21, 2026 / New research from LHH, a global talent solutions provider
and business unit of the Adecco Group, finds that 87% of HR leaders say their
organization has already conducted or is planning layoffs in the next 12
months, driven by skills displacement, AI transformation, and shifting market
demands. At the same time, 62% of employers track rehiring costs and nearly
three quarters of those organizations acknowledge that rehiring costs are more
than targeted redeployment and mobility.

The findings, published in LHH's The Mobility Breakdown: Redeployment and
Outplacement Trends Report (https://pr.report/kpvx)  reveal that as workforce
restructuring becomes continuous, most organizations lack integrated
outplacement and targeted redeployment and mobility strategies, creating a
compounding cost when they rehire for talent needs. The opportunity is not to
eliminate layoffs, but to ensure that a meaningful share of affected talent,
those with skills critical to the organization's future, are redeployed, while
those who must exit receive outplacement support to transition successfully.

A critical gap between leadership perception and employee experience is
compounding the problem: while 77% of HR leaders say they offer targeted
redeployment and mobility programs, only 19% of employees say they experience
or recognize them.

Research Overview

The 2026 LHH Career Redeployment and Outplacement Trends Report
(https://pr.report/kpvy)  surveyed 3,000 HR leaders and over 8,000 employees
across the United States, Canada, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, France,
Brazil, and Australia. The research finds that continuous workforce
restructuring is eroding trust, straining HR capacity, and creating a growing
employability anxiety among workers, while most organizations lack integrated
outplacement and targeted redeployment and mobility strategies to manage
restructuring effectively.

Key Facts

The Cost Paradox: Layoffs are a necessary response to skills displacement, AI
transformation, and evolving business needs. But when organizations lack
integrated outplacement and targeted redeployment strategies, they lose talent
they later need to rehire at a premium, creating what this research identifies
as the Layoff Cost Paradox.

·      87% of HR leaders say their organization has already conducted or
is planning layoffs in the next 12 months, with 39% of that segment saying
they have already cut roles and expect more reductions ahead.

·      When companies rehire talent needs, the costs compound:
recruiting, onboarding, lost productivity, and institutional knowledge gaps
all exceed what targeted redeployment and mobility would have cost.
Integrating outplacement with targeted redeployment gives organizations the
infrastructure to retain future-critical talent, while supporting
transitioning employees, reducing future rehiring costs, and fulfilling their
duty of care.

·      Only 32% of leaders measure targeted redeployment and mobility
cost savings, and just 30% track the number of redeployments meaning most
organizations lack the data to quantify the ROI of integrated outplacement and
redeployment strategies during restructuring.

The Visibility Gap: Across targeted redeployment and mobility, outplacement,
and skills support, a significant disconnect exists between what leaders
believe they provide and what employees experience.

·      Only 19% of employees say they experience or recognize
redeployment programs, compared with 77% of HR leaders who say those programs
exist, a 58-percentage-point perception gap.

·      73% of workers witnessed job losses in their team in the past
year.

·      1 in 4 employees say they lose trust in leadership as a direct
result of witnessing layoffs.

This visibility gap means that even where organizations have invested in
targeted redeployment and mobility infrastructure, the programs are not
reaching the employees they are designed to serve. Closing this gap is
essential: organizations that make redeployment pathways visible and pair them
with accessible outplacement support, are better positioned to retain
future-critical talent, support departing employees through effective
transitions, and maintain the trust of those who remain.

HR Under Pressure: HR leaders are absorbing the emotional and operational
burden of continuous restructuring while lacking the systems, data, and
leadership alignment needed to implement alternatives.

·      64% of HR leaders say ongoing restructuring takes a toll on their
mental well-being.

·      Top barriers to effective targeted redeployment and mobility
include lack of strategic talent planning, insufficient AI and analytics
capabilities, and manager talent hoarding.

The measurement gap is compounding the problem. Few organizations track the
metrics that would allow them to demonstrate the ROI of integrated
outplacement and targeted redeployment strategies:

·      36% measure learning engagement

·      32% measure mobility cost savings

·      30% measure redeployment

·      25% measure time-to-redeploy

Without these metrics, HR teams cannot demonstrate the ROI of targeted
redeployment and mobility programs, they cannot identify redeployment
candidates at scale and cannot demonstrate to leadership how integrated
outplacement and targeted redeployment strategies reduce the compounding costs
of restructuring, while fulfilling their duty of care to both departing and
remaining employees.

The New Employability Crisis: Employee anxiety has shifted from macroeconomic
concerns to personal marketability. Workers are no longer primarily worried
about whether their company will downsize, they are worried about whether
their skills will still matter.

·      67% of employees worry about the economy and the steady drumbeat
of layoff news.

·      58% worry that industry layoffs will directly hurt their own
future job prospects.

·      56% of employees fear their skills are no longer relevant,
signaling a growing "skills confidence gap" and a new employability crisis
centered on long-term marketability, rather than short-term job security.

This shift reinforces why integrated outplacement and targeted redeployment
strategies matter. When employees doubt their own relevance, targeted
redeployment programs can channel that uncertainty into reskilling and
internal movement. And when restructuring does occur, those with skills
confidence gaps need structured, high-touch, outplacement support to
successfully transition into roles where their capabilities are valued.

The Exit Experience is a Brand Risk: Repeated layoffs have cultural and
reputational consequences that extend far beyond headcount. The way
organizations handle workforce exits shapes perceptions among remaining
employees, future candidates, and the public.

·      73% of employees had teammates laid off in the past year. The top
reported impacts on remaining employees include increased workload, reduced
morale, instability, lost trust in leadership, and decreased productivity.

·      46% of workers say they would consider recording their layoff
experience.

·      63% of HR leaders worry that layoff conversations may be recorded
or shared publicly.

This social exposure risk creates a new compliance and brand dimension to
workforce restructuring. When layoff experiences become public content, exit
management is no longer just an HR process, it is a frontline brand risk.

Why This Matters:

Workforce restructuring is continuous and cyclical, driven by skills
displacement, AI transformation, and evolving market demands. With 87% of HR
leaders planning layoffs in the next 12 months, the question is not whether
restructuring will happen, but whether organizations have the infrastructure
and visibility of these programs, to identify which talent to redeploy based
on future skills needs, and which to support through high-quality
outplacement.

The gap between what organizations know and what they do is measurable. Of the
organizations that are tracking rehiring costs, 73% note that rehiring costs
more than redeployment, and 77% say they offer targeted redeployment programs,
with only 19% of employees experiencing those programs. This visibility
failure compounds the cost: companies let go of talent then rehire at a
premium, remaining employees absorb increased workloads while questioning
their own relevance (56%), and the 64% of HR leaders whose well-being is
impacted from repeated restructuring, lack the systems and analytics to make
the case for a different approach.

Layoffs will continue, when driven by genuine skills displacement and business
transformation. The challenge is executing them better. Organizations that
integrate outplacement with targeted redeployment and mobility, supported by
workforce planning and skills analytics, can retain the talent critical to
their future while ensuring those who must leave do so with the support and
resources to transition successfully.

Those that treat each restructuring as an isolated event, face compounding
costs: rehiring at a premium, eroding trust among remaining employees, and
losing the institutional knowledge and future capabilities they need to
compete.

Executive Quote

"Layoffs are a necessary part of how organizations adapt to shifting skills
demands and market realities. The question is whether companies have the
infrastructure to identify which talent to redeploy for future needs and which
to support through high-quality outplacement. Organizations that integrate
these capabilities retain critical skills, reduce the compounding costs of
rehiring, and fulfill their duty of care to both departing and remaining
employees. Those that treat each restructuring as an isolated event will
continue to face growing losses in talent, trust, and competitive readiness,"
said John Morgan, President of Career Transition & Mobility at LHH."

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What are the hidden costs of laying off talent that companies will need to
rehire?

A: While 87% of HR leaders plan layoffs, 73% of those that track hiring costs
simultaneously share that laying off and rehiring is more costly than
redeployment. Layoffs are often necessary responses to skills displacement and
market shifts, but without integrated outplacement and redeployment
infrastructure, organizations cannot act on what they already know: only 32%
measure mobility cost savings and just 30% track number of redeployments.
Without that data, the financial case for alternatives to layoffs never
reaches decision-makers. The result is a repeating cycle in which
organizations cut roles, lose institutional knowledge, and then pay more to
rebuild the capabilities they eliminated.

Q: What is driving the growing trust gap between leaders and employees?

A: Frequent restructuring, limited transparency, and a widening perception
gap are eroding confidence. The disconnect is starkest around redeployment:
77% of HR leaders say their organization offers redeployment programs, yet
only 19% of employees say they experience or recognize them. When 72% of
employees have watched teammates get laid off in the past year and 1 in 4 say
they lose trust in leadership as a direct result, the pace of disruption is
outrunning the support and communication employees need to stay engaged.

Q: Why are employees more worried about long-term employability than job loss?

A: The nature of workforce anxiety is shifting. While 67% of employees worry
about the economy and steady layoff news, the deeper concern is personal: 56%
fear their skills are no longer relevant, signaling what the research
identifies as a growing "skills confidence gap." Rapid shifts in skills
requirements, combined with limited visibility into development pathways and
targeted redeployment and mobility options, are leaving workers unsure how to
stay marketable. This represents a new employability crisis, centered not on
whether people will lose their current job, but on whether they can find their
next one.

Q: How is repeated restructuring affecting culture and employer brand?

A: Layoff experiences now shape organizational perception more than almost
any other workforce event. Among employees who witnessed teammates laid off in
the past year, the top reported impacts include increased workload, reduced
morale, instability, lost trust in leadership, and decreased productivity. The
exposure extends beyond the workplace: 46% of workers say they would consider
recording their layoff experience, and 63% of HR leaders worry those
conversations may be shared publicly. When exits become visible content, how
an organization manages workforce change is no longer an internal HR matter,
it is a frontline brand and compliance risk.

Q: Why do outplacement and targeted redeployment and mobility need to be
integrated?

A: Workforce restructuring is continuous and driven by cyclical skills
displacement. When it happens, organizations face two critical decisions:
which talent to keep and redeploy, and how to support those who must exit.
Those decisions should not be separate. The economic rationale is clear: 73%
of employers who track hiring costs say rehiring talent costs more than
targeted redeployment and mobility. Yet without integrated strategies,
organizations lack the infrastructure to identify redeployment candidates
during restructuring, or the workforce planning to prevent more costly
rehiring later. Connecting outplacement and mobility is both a duty of care,
ensuring those who stay have pathways and those who leave have support, and a
business imperative, to avoid the compounding costs of external rehiring, lost
institutional knowledge, and eroded trust.

Q: How is the nature of workforce restructuring changing?

A: Layoffs in 2026 are increasingly driven by continuous, skills‑led
transformation rather than one‑time cost‑cutting events. New LHH research
shows that 87% of HR leaders have already conducted or plan to conduct layoffs
in the next 12 months, up from 73% in 2024 and 77% in 2023, reflecting how
frequently organizations are now adjusting their workforce.

Crucially, the nature of layoffs has changed. 78% of HR leaders now describe
layoffs as "regular" events rather than one‑off reductions, signaling that
workforce restructuring has become an ongoing reality.

Q: What is driving layoffs in 2026?

A: Layoffs are becoming more skills‑driven. In 2025, 41% of HR leaders said
layoffs were linked to workforce skills or the need to "right‑skill", with
nearly double citing skills as a driver in 2023, while another 37% pointed to
continuous market and business change.

Q: What is different about layoffs in 2026 versus previous years?

A: Unlike earlier cycles dominated by over‑hiring or short‑term cost
pressures, no single factor drives workforce reductions now. In 2025, the top
layoff drivers including AI and automation, skills mismatches, M&A
activity, and strategic shifts were each cited by roughly one‑fifth of HR
leaders, underscoring how multidimensional and constant these pressures have
become.

As a result, layoffs are no longer exceptional events, but a recurring outcome
of ongoing workforce recalibration. The challenge for organizations is not
whether layoffs will occur, but whether they are equipped to redeploy
future‑critical talent, provide high‑quality outplacement support, and
maintain trust among remaining employees as change becomes continuous.

To download the full LHH Mobility Breakdown report, visit: 2026 LHH
Redeployment and Outplacement Trends Report (https://pr.report/kpvz) .

###

About LHH

LHH empowers professionals and organizations to achieve bold ambitions and
secure lasting impact through unique advisory services and professional talent
solutions.

LHH's full suite of offerings connects solutions, making LHH a single talent
partner for organizations. In a rapidly evolving landscape with complex
challenges, we create value across the entire professional talent journey.
From advising organizational change, to hiring great people, developing skills
and nurturing leaders, to advancing individuals to the next stage of their
careers, LHH makes talent a competitive edge.

We believe the future of work lies at the intersection of exceptional human
care and innovation. Powered by science, technology, and proprietary data
analytics, LHH's approach is crafted to align with business strategies and
cultures, delivering powerful, sustainable, and measurable impact.

LHH has a team of over 12,000 professionals, across 60+ countries and more
than 50 years of experience. As part of the Adecco Group, we bring together
global excellence, local knowledge and centralized coordination for thousands
of companies and millions of people worldwide.

Recruitment. Development. Career Transition.

LHH. A beautiful working world.

To learn more about LHH, visit: lhh.com. (https://pr.report/kpw0)

Media Contact
PR@lhh.com (mailto:PR@lhh.com)

SOURCE: LHH

 

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