Pew Poll: 46% Globally Say AI Will Mean Fewer Jobs

A Pew Research Center global survey released on September 17, 2026, found that in 34 of 37 countries, the most common response was that AI would lead to fewer jobs. Across the 37-country median, 46% of respondents predicted fewer jobs, 13% said it would make little difference, and only 9% expected more jobs, while roughly a quarter were unsure. Nigeria was the only country where more people thought AI would create jobs than eliminate them (27% vs 26%), while “not sure” outnumbered “fewer jobs” by wide margins in Thailand (49% vs 32%) and the Philippines (54% vs 26%).

Pew identified stronger pessimism in higher-GDP countries, possibly reflecting concerns about white-collar automation and AI-related wage pressure. In the U.S., 71% of respondents predicted fewer jobs, up from 64% in 2024. Young adults reported the most anxiety about AI's impact on employment in both high- and middle-income countries, although the trend was not universal. Higher earners and more educated respondents were more likely to predict job losses, at least in middle-income countries, while lower earners and those with less formal education were more likely to say they were unsure.

The share of adults saying they were more concerned than excited about AI has risen since 2025 in Sweden (+9 percentage points), Poland (+8), the Netherlands (+7), Hungary (+6) and Australia (+4). Respondents leaning left were more pessimistic about inequality, with the widest ideological gap in the U.S., where liberals were 31% more likely than right-wingers to fear rising inequality. Experts at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, in work published in July 2026, found that AI's overall impact on the U.S. labor market has so far been marginal, though it may already be making conditions tougher for recent graduates.