Overview
- A multi‑university paper from researchers at the Chicago Fed, Yale, Stanford, UPenn and the Forecasting Research Institute projects the U.S. labor force participation rate falling from about 62% to 54% by 2050 under a rapid AI scenario, even as GDP growth accelerates and the top 10% holds up to 80% of wealth.
- Worker pushback is rising, with a Writer and Workplace Intelligence survey finding 29% of employees—and 44% of Gen Z—admitted to sabotaging company AI by feeding proprietary data into public tools, using unapproved apps, refusing to use AI, or submitting poor AI output, and most executives view this as a serious threat.
- Companies are increasingly pointing to automation when cutting staff, with Salesforce dismissing 4,000 support roles after saying AI handles half of that work and Block planning to nearly halve its headcount for “intelligence tools,” even as some leaders, including Sam Altman, warn of AI‑washing.
- A new Goldman Sachs analysis finds people displaced by technology suffer long‑term “scarring,” including roughly 10% slower earnings growth over a decade, delayed home buying, and other lasting setbacks, with worse outcomes when losses hit during a recession.
- Entry paths are shrinking as a SignalFire study shows hiring of candidates with under one year of experience fell 50% at major tech firms since 2019, and a Nikkei Asia tally reports about 78,000 tech layoffs in Q1 2026, prompting calls at industry events to expand retraining and map at‑risk jobs.