5 Vibe-y Predictions for 2026
Some big ways I think things are going to shift in 2026 and beyond
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Some people love December for the candy canes or excuses to watch Love, Actually or drink egg nog. Me, too — but I also live for the December look backs and predictions for the next year.
Here are five big ways I think things are going to shift in 2026 and beyond:
Attrition
Attrition – in other words, gradual decline – is everywhere you look these days. I’m predicting slow but steady reduction will be the vibe in 2026. For example, this recent piece about Intel’s shrinking workforce:
Intel, the ailing semiconductor giant, said on Thursday that it expected its work force to shrink by more than 25,000 employees…The chipmaker, which reported 108,900 employees at the end of last year, said it now expected layoffs, attrition and other actions to reduce its head count to 75,000 by the end of 2025.
This happens to be about Intel, but it could be about 100 other companies.
Attrition is also frequently how the war in Ukraine is being framed.
It’s in the charts of housing prices.
It’s the slow decline in weight of GLP-1 users. It’s the reduction of college enrollment — and maybe American population overall. It’s vaccine rates.
I don’t anticipate a massive AI-private-capital-housing implosion next year. I expect a kind of pervasive sense of attrition.
2026 will be the year of the renter
More than 30 years since Jimmy McMillan founded the Rent is Too Damn High party and ran for mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani successfully won an election on the rallying cry of freezing the rent.
Just last week Los Angeles reformed its rent control for the first time in 40 years and is capping annual rent hikes at 4 percent.