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A Labor Market That Held Up by Almost Standing Still: Reading Stephen Cooper’s 2026 Economy Update

A hand spins one plate while another drifts loose and a third cracks. The image illustrates the fragile 2025 economy behind AIS 2026's workers' comp update.

Stephen Cooper opened his AIS 2026 economy update with an uncomfortable truth: 2025 saw the slowest U.S. job growth outside a recession in more than two decades, but workers’ comp kept turning. Senior Solutions Advisor Ryan Smith reads what Cooper’s data means for premium, frequency, and severity heading into 2026.