Will artificial intelligence take your job? A recent Stanford study provides six facts supporting “the hypothesis that the AI revolution is beginning to have a significant and disproportionate impact on entry-level workers in the American labor market.”
The study noted that “since the widespread adoption of generative AI, early-career workers (ages 22-25) in the most AI-exposed occupations have experienced a 13% relative decline in employment.”
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Easily automated jobs are most affected
The decline in employment can be seen primarily in occupations where AI automates the work rather than when it augments people’s labor. The study found “substantial declines in employment” for those in their early 20s working in fields most exposed to AI, including customer service and software development.
By contrast, employment for more experienced workers in those fields and those working in less AI-exposed fields like nursing “has remained stable or continued to grow,” the study said.
The research showed that job declines remained even when such considering such industry shocks as interest-rate changes. The adjustments are more visible in employment than compensation, meaning AI might affect employment more than wages, at least for now. The patterns also hold in jobs that aren’t affected by remote work and for both fields with a high share of college graduates and those without.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, overall unemployment remains relatively stable. July’s rate was 4.2%, slightly up from 4% in May and 4.1% in June.
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