Overview
- Deloitte’s June quarterly forecast reports that AI is changing the tasks workers do but is not the main cause of a weaker jobs market, pointing instead to interest-rate rises, geopolitical shocks and government fiscal restraint.
- The report identifies 82 ‘AI-disrupted’ occupations where routine tasks can be automated and a separate set of ‘AI-enhanced’ roles that are likely to grow when human judgement, creativity or empathy are combined with AI.
- Vacancy rates for the most exposed jobs, including software programmers, web developers and librarians, have fallen faster than the broader market and Deloitte forecasts hiring in disrupted occupations will slow from a 1.9% annual average to 1.2% over the next five years.
- Many firms have cut staff or restructured while citing AI investments — examples in 2026 include large technology and service companies — and these company-level moves can cause local job losses even if economy-wide unemployment is driven by broader weakness.
- Longer-term outcomes are uncertain: consultants and institutions such as BCG and the IMF outline scenarios where AI-driven productivity could either eliminate a share of jobs or spur new demand, making retraining and policy choices central to how workers fare.