Job cuts doubled YoY in 2023 and at least 4,600 firings throughout the past nine months can be explicitly attributed to AI. The tech and financial sectors, which saw some of the most aggressive increases in job cuts, were also the sectors that experienced the quickest uptake of machine learning technologies. AI-related job listings are surging and online job boards are utilizing AI to streamline users’ job searches. Though some have expressed anxiety about some level of tech-induced job destruction, research shows that the creation of new opportunities and skill sets should vastly outstrip near-term job loss in the long run.
Related ETFs: ROBO Global Robotics & Automation Index ETF (ROBO), Global X Artificial Intelligence & Technology ETF (AIQ)
Challenger, Grey & Christmas data indicates that 2023 saw job cuts double from 2022, tallying the largest spate of firings since the COVID-induced employment crash of 2020. The new year has not started off much better, as last month saw the most job cuts of any January since 2009 – the depths of the Great Financial Crisis. US employers have announced plans to hire just 5,376 workers during the month, the lowest January total on record.
Interestingly, the latest report from Challenger credited some of the job cuts to “a strategic shift towards increased automation and AI adoption in various sectors”, suggesting that the replacement of human labor with machine learning techniques may have finally arrived. Though companies have explicitly attributed just…
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