U.S. employers are navigating a range of thorny issues that impact their labor relations strategies, from the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and multigenerational workforces to increasingly aggressive collective bargaining tactics and work stoppages. Yet regulatory whiplash and short-term cost pressures can make it difficult for employers to act on employee relations and engagement initiatives that can effectively mitigate risk.

Littler’s 2026 Labor Survey Report explores how in-house lawyers, human resources (HR) professionals and business leaders are evolving labor relations approaches and adapting employee engagement initiatives in the current landscape. The report’s second edition draws on responses from 665 executives at organizations that span a range of sizes and industry types and represent both unionized and nonunionized workplaces.

Key Findings

• Nine percent of employers feel “very prepared” for AI’s impact on labor relations. This comes as most respondents (87%) expect unions to use employee fears about AI displacing or changing jobs to fuel organizing interest over the next 12 months.
• Only 29% of employers have updated their labor relations strategies since the start of 2025. Over that same period, 30% of employers saw employees become more vocal or disruptive on social media and 24% saw the same in public forums. Additionally, fewer than half of employers’ labor relations plans address business and operational changes that carry workforce impacts...

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