A.I.'S Effect on the Work Force Is Showing Up in Wages(www.nytimes.com)
1 pointby marojejianan hour ago2 comments
  • marojejianan hour ago
    Gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/16/business/ai-raises-hiring...

    >Liminal Capital, an investment firm, estimated in August that about a third of jobs appear to be more exposed to substitution than augmentation by A.I. In those occupations, new hires among workers ages 22 to 25 have fallen by a third since 2021, even as firings have barely budged.

    Their paper: https://www.liminal-capital.com/documents/liminal-ai-jobs-im...

    I'm skeptical of the quality/bias of this, given the source. That said, the story makes sense to me at a high level. Even without the current ML expansion, general trends in automation and maturity & consolidation of the tech sector seemed to be generating a similar effect.

    • curuinoran hour ago
      My whisper network has talked about cutting junior hires in computer-touching 60, 70, 80%
  • toomuchtodoan hour ago
    Nah, employers are holding wages down due to interest rates and the cost of money. AI is the excuse. Workers have no bargaining power for higher wages without a union, so they are powerless to demand higher wages unless they are in a unique situation. Same reason productivity is going up, rolling layoffs requiring those who remain to do more with less, which increases productivity metrics. Short term profits are being prioritized over on boarding, developing, and training fresh/junior folks.

    Michigan Insurance Giant Blames "AI" for Layoffs–But Evidence Points Overseas - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49365161 - August 2026

    > My investigation points to a far more conventional explanation: Acrisure is shifting work once performed by American employees to lower-cost operations in India, the Philippines, and Colombia.

    What's Liminal Capital's portfolio look like? I would like to see if they're talking their book versus objective productivity data.