TL;DR

UK workers are more worried about the economy than about AI, PwC has found in its latest UK Hopes and Fears survey of 2,023 workers. Asked what most endangers their jobs in the coming three years, 44% chose economic volatility and 37% chose AI taking over more tasks. The more useful finding for employers is a gap between staff who know which skills they need and those who do not.

Money first

The cost of living is the heaviest weight on the workforce: 59% say it has affected their work in the past year. Among them, 45% report higher stress, 24% say they are working harder or for longer, and 23% are thinking about moving jobs. Just 35% say their household can cover every bill and still put money aside for savings and holidays, a smaller share than a year ago. Concerns about poor ethics among managers (44%) and possible job cuts (41%) also score highly.

The skills split

Six in ten workers feel confident they can pick up new skills, yet only half of that group say the learning and development support they require is available to them. Just 48% understand which capabilities their future roles will demand.

The payoff is large for staff who believe employers want what they can do. Among them, 74% feel confident about keeping their job, compared with 30% of everyone else, and 80% are satisfied in their role against 42%, close to double. PwC warns of “a two-track workforce” forming.

Burnout and fatigue (29%) and workload (28%) rank ahead of skills gaps (13%) as productivity barriers.

Gen Z lags

Younger staff stand out. Only 54% of Gen Z workers are confident about learning new skills, against 61% of Gen X and 65% of Millennials, and just 39% feel sure which skills lie ahead for them, versus roughly half of their older colleagues. One in five Gen Z workers blame missing skills or training for holding back their productivity.

Context

On the policy side, see our report on the AI minister making a contingency plan a priority for AI job losses. PwC ties its results to this autumn’s Budget and to policy efforts on economic inactivity, including the forthcoming NEET Review.

Looking forward

The survey suggests AI anxiety is not the main drag on UK workforce morale, but it points to where AI will bite: in the gap between staff who can see a path to new skills and those who cannot. In our view, the cheapest intervention for employers on these numbers is clarity, telling people which skills the business will need, and backing that with actual training access, especially for early-career hires.