Worker Displacement Rose in Recent Years as Millions Lost Jobs

The U.S. labor market experienced an increase in worker displacement in recent years, with millions of employees losing long-tenured jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

From January 2023 through December 2025, 3.3 million workers were displaced from long-tenured jobs – defined as holding a job for at least three years – an increase of 746,000 from the previous survey period covering January 2021 through December 2023.

Including workers who had been with their employers for less than three years, total displacement reached 7.4 million during the latest period, up from 6.3 million in the prior survey.

The BLS defines displaced workers as people aged 20 and older who report losing or leaving jobs because their company closed or moved, there was insufficient work, or their position or shift was abolished.

The figures provide a different lens on labor-market conditions than monthly payroll and unemployment reports.

Event: All Things Work 2026

Most Displaced Workers Found New Jobs

Despite the increase in displacement, most long-tenured workers affected by job loss had found new employment by January 2026. The reemployment rate was 66.1%, little changed from the 65.7% rate recorded in January 2024.

The relative stability of the reemployment rate suggests that the rise in displacement did not translate into a comparable deterioration in the ability of displaced workers to find new jobs overall. However, outcomes varied across industries.

Among major industry groups, reemployment rates for leisure and hospitality workers fell to 55.3%, while the rate for government workers declined to 57.8%. By contrast, the reemployment rate for workers displaced from the information sector rose to 76.8%.

Manufacturing Accounts for Large Share of Displacement

Manufacturing was the largest source of long-tenured worker displacement during the 2023-2025 period. Some 642,000 manufacturing workers were displaced, representing 19% of all long-tenured displaced workers and an increase of 215,000 from the prior survey period. Most of those losses occurred in durable-goods manufacturing, which accounted for 447,000 displacements.

Professional and business services represented another 16% of long-tenured displacements, while retail trade accounted for 10%.

The government workforce also figures into the latest data, reflecting efforts during the period to reduce federal employment.

“The survey covers the DOGE efforts to decrease government employment,” said Cory Stahle, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab. He pointed to the 179,000 long-tenured public-sector workers displaced, which is 55,000 more people than the 2021-2023 period, and includes much higher percentages of unemployment and having dropped out of the labor force entirely.

Position Eliminations Drive Nearly Half of Job Losses

Among long-tenured workers displaced between 2023 and 2025, 44.4% lost their jobs because their position or shift was abolished. Another 32.6% were displaced because their plant or company closed or moved, while 22.9% cited insufficient work.

Eliminating a position may reflect changes in how work is organized, while a facility closure or insufficient work can point to different operational or demand conditions.

The latest figures also complicate assumptions about technology-sector layoffs and the impact of artificial intelligence on employment.

Stahle said the data did not establish a clear connection between AI and job displacement. In fact, workers from technology-related occupations showed relatively strong reemployment outcomes.

“There was not a clear conclusion that AI is displacing jobs,” Stahle said. “We saw that technology jobs had a higher reemployment rate than in the 2021-2023 period.”

That result is notable given the layoffs and restructuring that have affected parts of the technology sector in recent years, he said.