The AI problem we feared is not the AI problem we got
Layoffs are low by historical standards, but young people may still need help finding a foothold in the labour market.
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Despite fears of a jobs “bloodbath”, AI has not led to many layoffs. Instead, in occupations most exposed to AI, companies are slowing down entry-level hiring, says the writer, while long-tenured workers are being retained.
PHOTO : ST FILE
Sarah O’Connor
Folk memories can be powerful things. Perhaps the most visceral shared image we have of technology’s impact on jobs involves the Luddites of 19th-century England: skilled workers abruptly turfed out of their jobs, who returned under cover of night to destroy the machines that displaced them.
Little wonder that, as our latest machine age has dawned, the question on many people’s lips has been “Will AI steal my job?” But the Luddites’ story might have led us to worry about the wrong thing.