Turns Out AI Is Taking Sledgehammer To Job Gains Afterall

Industries adopting artificial intelligence at higher rates are experiencing weaker employment growth and higher unemployment, according to Goldman Sachs research released Monday.

Goldman Sachs Chief Economist Jan Hatzius identified statistically significant relationships between AI adoption and worsening 🛠️Labor-market conditions across U.S. nonmanufacturing industries in a Monday report titled “Global Views: Downside Growth Risks.” The findings suggest the economic benefits of the AI boom may increasingly be accompanied by disruptions to American employment, although the correlations do not establish that AI directly caused the job losses.

“We are starting to see clearer signs that the AI impact is spreading beyond the technology sector,” Hatzius wrote in the report.

The analysis found that industries with a greater share of businesses using AI in regular operations tended to experience slower employment growth and higher unemployment compared with industries where adoption remained lower.

Goldman’s statistical model showed that a ten-percentage-point increase in industry-level AI adoption was associated with approximately 0.9 percentage points weaker employment growth. A corresponding analysis found a 0.9-percentage-point higher unemployment measure, calculated relative to the industry’s average unemployment rate from 2015 through 2019.

The relationships were statistically significant, according to the report’s analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of 🛠️Labor Statistics and Integrated Public Use Microdata Series.

The findings extended into industries including financial services, insurance, telecommunications, real estate and professional services, raising questions about how automation could reshape employment in sectors previously considered less exposed to technological displacement.