Orgvue Study: 32% of Companies Forced to Rehire After AI Layoffs — The Fire-and-Rehire Cycle Is Increasing Costs and Destroying Morale

HR Tech Edge / Orgvue·high signal

Orgvue research (in partnership with Watermelon Research, surveying 300 US HR managers) reveals that 32% of organizations that cut jobs expecting AI-driven cost savings later had to rehire employees after discovering AI couldn't fully replace the work. Among those that laid off for AI, 55% of leaders admit they made the wrong decisions, with 23% basing cuts on broad automation expectations rather than task-level role analysis. Forrester predicts half of AI-attributed layoffs will be quietly rehired, but offshore or at significantly lower salaries — a 'fire-and-rehire' cycle that increases costs, damages morale, and slows transformation.