Employees in these 10 cities are the most worried about getting laid off

With record-breaking layoffs headlining the news and a recession looming over employees' heads, it's understandable that the workforce may have some anxiety surrounding their job security.

Especially for employees located in tech hubs like Silicon Valley and Austin, Texas, panic and stress is at an all-time high. To pinpoint these hot spots where employees are feeling the most stress, financial technology company SmartAsset analyzed Google Trends data for 94 metro areas in the U.S., and ranked each location based on the percentage of employees is searching for layoff-related terms. 

Analyzing search volume for terms like "layoffs," "severance pay," "recession," "downsizing," "unemployment benefits" and "furlough," SmartAsset discovered that nearly 60% of employees in San Francisco searched for these terms, signaling professional unrest in that locale.  

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"Layoffs at some of the most high-profile tech companies in recent months have contributed to the general sense of economic uncertainty and layoff anxiety," said Patrick Villanova, a certified educator in personal finance in the SmartAsset report. "But the wave of layoffs belies the current strength of the labor market, even as recession fears loom." 

The tech sector saw nearly 200,000 employee layoffs in 2022, with 900,000 more expected in 2023. In addition to San Francisco, 44% of employees in San Diego searched for lay-off related keywords, and Los Angeles and Sacramento also made the top 10. But the paranoia doesn't end with California. 

Several cities in Texas, as well as Seattle and Lafayette, Louisiana also made SmartAsset's ranking. In these cities are the headquarters for Amazon, Microsoft, Exxon and American Airlines, which could contribute to the mounting weariness in the current job market. As a silver lining, 517,000 jobs were added to the labor market in January, according to SmartAsset, and unemployment fell to 3.4% — the lowest it's been in over a decade. But the good news doesn't stop people from worrying. 

See which cities are still most anxious about prospective layoffs according to SmartAsset: