Signs that AI is already disrupting white collar jobs are hard to ignore. College graduates now make up a quarter of the unemployed, a record high. High school graduates are finding work faster than college grads for the first time ever. Major firms like Baker McKenzie, Salesforce, and KPMG are cutting white collar positions while citing AI efficiency gains. The worry is that this isn’t a temporary downturn but the start of permanent job elimination in fields like accounting, law, and engineering.
If that happens, our usual economic fixes won’t work. Normally recessions end when the government cuts taxes, invests in infrastructure, and the Fed lowers rates to encourage hiring. But companies won’t rehire accountants and lawyers if AI already does those jobs. We’d face structural unemployment instead of cyclical downturns. Unemployment benefits max out after six months and don’t support six figure earners. Retraining programs have poor track records. Even universal basic income won’t solve the core problem: most people need meaningful work, not just a check. Without employed white collar workers spending money, the broader economy suffers. Housing prices fall, tax revenue drops, and inequality widens.
Guitarman0512 on
Didn’t a recent survey show that AI fails at 94% of all jobs?
ityhops on
AI actually means Another Indian. Artificial Intelligence is just the excuse they’re using for layoffs while using H1B and related work visas and/or offshoring positions to fill roles.
jesusonoro on
high school grads finding jobs faster than college grads is genuinely wild to me. we spent 20 years telling kids “get a degree or flip burgers” and now the degree holders are the ones getting automated out first
[deleted] on
[deleted]
Fabulous-Assist3901 on
Cuando salen estos post no sé qué creer. O la IA es la panacea y estamos muy jodidos (robots del año nuevo en china por ejemplo) O es una estafa de las élites, ¿Cual es el futuro? Una mierda, o algo mejor?
legitimateaccount123 on
My corporate workplace **requires** us to use AI as much as possible, touting its efficiency benefits. Most employees are too oblivious to realize that we’re basically training our replacement.
VerlinMerlin on
That is…a surprisingly good writeup. I was expecting a ‘AI gonna take your job’ and it wasn’t. A bit US focused, but oh well.
Still, it makes me wonder what jobs AI can realistically replace. There has been plenty of discussion about coding – just about everyone is talking about that one.
What about analysts? forecasting is something AI is pretty decent at, lots of people claim it is much better than statistical tools and such. Perplexity is great at data collection, something that research analysts do a lot. But they also do advisory and some client facing stuff.
Then there is HR – what about them? A lot of their task is already done my machine, and the part that isn’t, well, I would prefer a human for that.
Upstairs_Eagle_4780 on
If YOU can read the article why don’t YOU summarize it.
galligro on
This isn’t matching up with the other news stories of today related to AI and efficiency. The other headline was that 80% of companies on 2025 reported no productivity gains from AI. More recently, there has been the “SaaSpacalypse” saying that software is going to become obsolete given the latest Claude models, released in the last few months. Given how this narrative is only two weeks old, it seems implausible that this could explain why college grads aren’t finding work over the past few years. I tend to view that as being part of the huge marketing push on AI everyone with a vested interest in the technology has been pushing.
It seems far more likely that college graduates are not finding jobs because the entry level work they would typically do is being outsourced and offshored. This is probably the most disturbing trend in US labor markets since Covid and the US gov has to step in before we experience disastrous consequences, similarly to what happened to manufacturing post NAFTA.
throwaway0134hdj on
Yep it’s looking bad… it appears the end times for white collar work are near. I really don’t know what ppl are going to do. A lot will be placed on bare minimum UBI until they can reskill blue collar or retail.
LongTrailEnjoyer on
Western Civilization won’t like its capitalistic nations hovering at 30%, 40%, or 50% unemployment. Like the size of how large this problem will be will literally make all other arguments for all problems take a backseat until it’s fixed. When tens of millions of people cannot keep a roof over their heads or feed their families these people aren’t just going to “wait” for it all to be fixed…
Elon_is_a_Nazi on
As an EE Im not worried. Clients and Architects need someone to blame.
Stereo_Jungle_Child on
You have an exciting future in the rapidly expanding field of robot repair. 🙂
TommyPickles2222222 on
We need a Universal Jobs Program.
Whether you’re planting trees 32 hours a week or repairing solar panels 32 hours a week, the government will guarantee you employment and a living wage.
Yes, some of this work *could* be done faster by automation, but the intangible benefits of a society where people feel valued, work with others, and have purpose far outweigh the alternatives.
ThedirtyNose on
Here’s my theory. They’ll sack some employees under the guise of ai then rehire for the same position, on the same or less amount of coin, with 5 X the responsibility and workload.
Mithrandir2k16 on
News flash: Capitalism cannot deliver a utopia in a world where computers autonomously do our work.
Lord_Vesuvius2020 on
Keep in mind that AI is improving rapidly. Within the past few weeks new models like Codex are now leading to “vibe coding” where AI prompting is the real skill needed. Conclusions based on an experience from 6 months ago are no longer the same. There are articles I have seen in the last 2 weeks by insiders admitting how good these models are now. AI is a moving target now.
18 Comments
Signs that AI is already disrupting white collar jobs are hard to ignore. College graduates now make up a quarter of the unemployed, a record high. High school graduates are finding work faster than college grads for the first time ever. Major firms like Baker McKenzie, Salesforce, and KPMG are cutting white collar positions while citing AI efficiency gains. The worry is that this isn’t a temporary downturn but the start of permanent job elimination in fields like accounting, law, and engineering.
If that happens, our usual economic fixes won’t work. Normally recessions end when the government cuts taxes, invests in infrastructure, and the Fed lowers rates to encourage hiring. But companies won’t rehire accountants and lawyers if AI already does those jobs. We’d face structural unemployment instead of cyclical downturns. Unemployment benefits max out after six months and don’t support six figure earners. Retraining programs have poor track records. Even universal basic income won’t solve the core problem: most people need meaningful work, not just a check. Without employed white collar workers spending money, the broader economy suffers. Housing prices fall, tax revenue drops, and inequality widens.
Didn’t a recent survey show that AI fails at 94% of all jobs?
AI actually means Another Indian. Artificial Intelligence is just the excuse they’re using for layoffs while using H1B and related work visas and/or offshoring positions to fill roles.
high school grads finding jobs faster than college grads is genuinely wild to me. we spent 20 years telling kids “get a degree or flip burgers” and now the degree holders are the ones getting automated out first
[deleted]
Cuando salen estos post no sé qué creer. O la IA es la panacea y estamos muy jodidos (robots del año nuevo en china por ejemplo) O es una estafa de las élites, ¿Cual es el futuro? Una mierda, o algo mejor?
My corporate workplace **requires** us to use AI as much as possible, touting its efficiency benefits. Most employees are too oblivious to realize that we’re basically training our replacement.
That is…a surprisingly good writeup. I was expecting a ‘AI gonna take your job’ and it wasn’t. A bit US focused, but oh well.
Still, it makes me wonder what jobs AI can realistically replace. There has been plenty of discussion about coding – just about everyone is talking about that one.
What about analysts? forecasting is something AI is pretty decent at, lots of people claim it is much better than statistical tools and such. Perplexity is great at data collection, something that research analysts do a lot. But they also do advisory and some client facing stuff.
Then there is HR – what about them? A lot of their task is already done my machine, and the part that isn’t, well, I would prefer a human for that.
If YOU can read the article why don’t YOU summarize it.
This isn’t matching up with the other news stories of today related to AI and efficiency. The other headline was that 80% of companies on 2025 reported no productivity gains from AI. More recently, there has been the “SaaSpacalypse” saying that software is going to become obsolete given the latest Claude models, released in the last few months. Given how this narrative is only two weeks old, it seems implausible that this could explain why college grads aren’t finding work over the past few years. I tend to view that as being part of the huge marketing push on AI everyone with a vested interest in the technology has been pushing.
It seems far more likely that college graduates are not finding jobs because the entry level work they would typically do is being outsourced and offshored. This is probably the most disturbing trend in US labor markets since Covid and the US gov has to step in before we experience disastrous consequences, similarly to what happened to manufacturing post NAFTA.
Yep it’s looking bad… it appears the end times for white collar work are near. I really don’t know what ppl are going to do. A lot will be placed on bare minimum UBI until they can reskill blue collar or retail.
Western Civilization won’t like its capitalistic nations hovering at 30%, 40%, or 50% unemployment. Like the size of how large this problem will be will literally make all other arguments for all problems take a backseat until it’s fixed. When tens of millions of people cannot keep a roof over their heads or feed their families these people aren’t just going to “wait” for it all to be fixed…
As an EE Im not worried. Clients and Architects need someone to blame.
You have an exciting future in the rapidly expanding field of robot repair. 🙂
We need a Universal Jobs Program.
Whether you’re planting trees 32 hours a week or repairing solar panels 32 hours a week, the government will guarantee you employment and a living wage.
Yes, some of this work *could* be done faster by automation, but the intangible benefits of a society where people feel valued, work with others, and have purpose far outweigh the alternatives.
Here’s my theory. They’ll sack some employees under the guise of ai then rehire for the same position, on the same or less amount of coin, with 5 X the responsibility and workload.
News flash: Capitalism cannot deliver a utopia in a world where computers autonomously do our work.
Keep in mind that AI is improving rapidly. Within the past few weeks new models like Codex are now leading to “vibe coding” where AI prompting is the real skill needed. Conclusions based on an experience from 6 months ago are no longer the same. There are articles I have seen in the last 2 weeks by insiders admitting how good these models are now. AI is a moving target now.