Only 1 in 4 Workers Feel Their Job Is Safe – What That Means for Your Business

New research from ADP has found that just 25% of UK workers strongly agree their job is safe from elimination. Notably, this isn’t happening against a backdrop of a booming jobs market. UK unemployment has been drifting upwards since late 2022 and stood at 4.9% in early 2026, with job vacancies at their lowest level in years. In other words, workers aren’t just imagining risk – the wider labour market genuinely has been cooling, which may be feeding some of this anxiety.

For HR managers and SME owners, this isn’t just an interesting statistic. Job insecurity has a direct, measurable effect on how people perform, how long they stay, and how much energy they bring to work. If a quarter of your team privately believes their role could disappear, that’s already shaping decisions they’re making about their future – whether they’ve said anything to you or not.

When people hear “job insecurity,” they often think about restructuring or mass layoffs. But the research suggests something broader is going on. Much of this anxiety is tied to AI and automation, and to a general sense that roles are changing faster than employees can keep up with.

That means you don’t need to be planning any cuts at all for this to be affecting your team. Simply introducing new tools, automating a process, or talking openly about “efficiency” can be enough to unsettle people if it isn’t handled with context and communication.

The data shows a clear gap by level: senior leaders feel considerably more secure than middle managers, who in turn feel more secure than non-management staff. That’s a useful thing to keep in mind if you’re trying to gauge morale from the top of the business – what feels calm in the boardroom may not reflect what’s being felt on the shop floor or in the call centre.

It’s also worth remembering that middle managers are often the ones expected to reassure their teams, while feeling uncertain themselves. If you want confident, steady communication cascading down through the business, your managers need to feel that certainty first.

The knock-on effects are where this really matters for SMEs. Workers who feel secure in their roles are significantly more engaged, more productive, and less likely to be quietly job hunting. Insecurity, by contrast, tends to show up as lower motivation, higher stress, and more time spent looking elsewhere – often well before anyone hands in their notice.

For smaller businesses in particular, where losing one or two key people can genuinely disrupt operations, this is a retention issue as much as a wellbeing one.

One of the clearest findings is that transparency matters. When people don’t have clear information about their job security, they tend to fill in the blanks themselves – usually with the worst-case version of events.

That doesn’t mean you owe every employee a running commentary on business performance. But it does mean that vague language, long silences after a restructuring rumour, or an unexplained new AI tool can do more damage than a straightforward conversation would. If a role or team isn’t at risk, say so. If something is changing, explain what and why, even if you can’t share every detail yet.

The research also found a strong link between employees who feel their employer is investing in their development and those who feel secure in their role. Practically, this doesn’t need to mean big budgets or formal programmes. It can be as simple as:

• Making sure regular 1:1s actually happen, and aren’t just cancelled when things get busy
• Being upfront about how a new tool or process will affect someone’s day-to-day role, not just the business outcome
• Offering training or exposure to new skills, particularly around AI, rather than letting people feel it’s happening to them rather than with them
• Recognising and talking about the skills someone already brings, not just the gaps

None of this requires a large HR team. For an SME, a manager who takes the time to have these conversations can have just as much impact as a formal talent strategy.

You don’t need to wait for a survey of your own to start addressing this. A few practical steps:

• Check in on how secure your team actually feels. Formal engagement surveys are useful, but so are honest conversations. Don’t assume low turnover means high confidence.
• Equip your managers first. If you want reassurance to land well, make sure the people delivering it aren’t anxious themselves.
• Be specific when talking about AI or new tools. Vague statements about “efficiency” or “the future of the business” tend to generate more anxiety than a clear explanation of what’s actually changing and what isn’t.
• Don’t let silence become the default. If there’s genuinely nothing to share yet, say that too — it’s still more reassuring than saying nothing at all.

Job security is often treated as background noise until it becomes a visible problem – a resignation, a dip in performance, a difficult exit interview. This research is a reminder that it’s usually already a live issue well before that point.

For HR managers and SME owners, the opportunity here is a straightforward one: a bit of clarity and a genuine investment in people go a long way. In a market where most workers admit they don’t feel fully secure, the businesses that offer that reassurance are likely to hold onto their best people for longer.