As middle management jobs shrink, workplace experts say executives may be underestimating just how crucial these roles are to their companies — especially in the age of AI.
The ranks of middle managers, the professionals that bridge senior leaders with frontline employees, have been thinning in recent years. Middle managers made up one-third of all layoffs in 2023, a Bloomberg and Live Data Technologies analysis found. This year, 41% of employees say their companies trimmed down their management layers, according to organizational consulting firm Korn Ferry’s Workforce 2025: Power Shifts report, which surveyed 15,000 professionals worldwide.
The trend is expected to continue into 2026: One in five (20%) businesses are expected to use AI to flatten their organizational structure, slashing over half of current middle management positions, an October 2024 report from research and advisory firm Gartner found.
The layoffs span from major public companies like Amazon and Google to smaller businesses in the U.S., particularly in industries like tech and retail. Some of these companies say they’re rectifying pandemic-era over-hiring. Others say they’ve laid off middle managers as they seek faster, more efficient workflows, and still others cite downsizing due to economic pressures, according to a recent Harris Poll survey on behalf of staffing agency Express Employment Professionals. And while the timing may be coincidental, the tightening comes as some CEOs mandate using artificial intelligence to accomplish work tasks before requesting more headcount.
