#white-collar-jobs

#white-collar-jobs

Will AI lead to layoffs? Are people already losing their jobs to AI? While overall employment in the U.S. is still relatively low, there is considerable speculation that the adoption of generative AI was a cause of recent layoffs and slowed hiring, particularly in the tech industry, for entry-level workers, and in customer service and programming jobs. More may be coming: Leading CEOs-including those from Ford, Amazon, Salesforce, and JP Morgan Chase-have proclaimed that many white-collar jobs at their companies will soon disappear.

There's more troubling news for the white-collar job market: wage growth is falling short of inflation. A Bankrate analysis used employment cost index and consumer price index data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to look at how the gap between wage and salary growth and inflation has changed since 2021. The difference allowed Bankrate to identify the industries with better worker bargaining power. Financial activities and professional and business services fell on the wrong side of that divide. Wage growth falling behind inflation in those sectors adds to the bleak picture of the white-collar labor market.

In the past two years, with the exception of New York City, the share of white-collar job postings across the country shrank in many major cities.

Brad Lightcap emphasizes that OpenAI sees no evidence that AI will wholesale replace entry-level white-collar jobs, stating they've observed opportunities with AI in various companies.