Industry jobs still weak

More than half of games workers who lost jobs in recent layoffs still have not found new ones, according to two industry surveys. (pocketgamer.biz) A Skillsearch salary and satisfaction survey of 1,000 respondents, fielded from November 12, 2025 to February 24, 2026 across the UK, Europe, North America, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East and North Africa, found 22% had been made redundant in the past year and another 12% more than a year earlier. Only 45% of those laid off said they had secured new work. (gamesindustry.biz) A separate 2026 State of the Game Industry survey from the Game Developers Conference, based on more than 2,300 industry professionals, found 28% had been laid off in the past two years and 48% of those workers were still unemployed. In the United States, that layoff figure rose to 33%. (gdconf.com) The damage is spreading beyond people already cut. Skillsearch found 44% of respondents had considered leaving games because of redundancies, and 76% of UK respondents said they were or would be looking outside the industry in 2026. (gamesindustry.biz) Studios are still cutting staff after two years of contraction. GDC said 17% of respondents were laid off in the previous 12 months, up from 11% in its 2025 survey, and half said their current or most recent employer had carried out layoffs in the past year. (gamesindustry.biz, gdconf.com) The reasons workers were given were mostly financial. Skillsearch said reduced investor funding, budget cuts, and a lack of projects were the top causes of redundancies, while GDC’s 2025 survey found restructuring, declining revenue, and broader market shifts were the most common explanations. (gamesindustry.biz, gdconf.com) The longest pain is showing up in hiring timelines and confidence. Skillsearch found 47% of re-employed respondents took more than three months to land a new role, 27% said they felt secure in that job, and 38% said they had turned down offers because relocation packages were too weak. (gamesindustry.biz) Some groups are being hit harder than others. GDC said two-thirds of respondents at AAA studios reported company layoffs, compared with one-third at indie studios, while Skillsearch said art roles, senior staff, larger companies, and workers with more than 10 years of experience were among the most affected. (gdconf.com, gamesindustry.biz) New entrants are seeing the same market and pulling back. In GDC’s student sample, 74% said they were worried about their future job prospects because of layoffs, citing fewer entry-level openings and competition from more experienced displaced workers. (gdconf.com) The surveys do not measure the whole business in the same way: Skillsearch is a recruiter poll of 1,000 workers across regions, while GDC’s study covers more than 2,300 professionals across multiple roles in the game ecosystem. Both still point to the same fact in April 2026: layoffs are no longer a short shock, and many people cut from games are still waiting for a way back in. (gamesindustry.biz, gdconf.com)