Layoffs on Reddit, 2012-2026

Monthly counts of 707,046 Reddit posts mentioning layoffs with US JOLTS layoffs, AI mentions by quarter, jobs of laid-off posters, severance and job applications stated on Reddit. Source: KissMyPost analysis of public Reddit posts. This dataset accompanies the KissMyPost study Layoffs on Reddit: more talk than in 2020, a new kind of worker, and AI in one in six posts. The method, charts and the full write-up are on that page. Files: reddit-layoff-posts-by-month-2012-2026.csv: Layoff posts by month, 2012 to 2026. All posts, posts mentioning layoffs, first-person layoff titles, fear posts and US JOLTS layoffs, by month. ai-in-reddit-layoff-posts-by-quarter-2019-2026.csv: AI in layoff posts, by quarter. Share of layoff posts mentioning AI, naming AI as the cause, or mentioning offshoring. laid-off-redditors-by-job-2019-2026.csv: Jobs of laid-off posters, by period. Jobs in first-person layoff stories with a known job, 2019, 2020, 2023-2024 and 2025-2026. severance-and-job-applications-by-year.csv: Severance and applications, by year. Median severance weeks and job applications people state on Reddit, 2015 to 2026. Method: Word matching over all Reddit posts without known bots; random sample of 1,200 first-person layoff posts classified by two language-model judges with a third on disagreements. Measured: Reddit posts mentioning layoffs per million posts, by month; Share of layoff posts mentioning AI, by quarter; Jobs in first-person layoff stories, by period; Median severance weeks and job applications stated, by year. All files contain aggregates only, no individual posts or user names.