Arizona Tribune - 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

NEW YORK CITY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / 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 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 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.

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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.

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SOURCE: LHH

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