Is your job safe from AI? A record number of workers aren’t sure
by Sean Salai · The Washington TimesA record 27% of workers who responded to the latest Gallup poll fear that technology could eliminate their positions soon, the company said Tuesday.
That’s up from 20% of adults who said the same in a survey last year and more than double from 13% in 2010.
That was the first year Gallup asked participants in an annual national survey if they worried “in the near future” that their jobs “will become obsolete because of technology.”
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Lydia Saad, Gallup’s director of U.S. social research, said the rise of artificial intelligence has increased fears of technology-driven displacement beyond most traditional job worries in recent annual surveys.
“The increase is especially notable among younger and college-educated workers, suggesting that anxiety about technological disruption is reaching groups that may have previously felt more insulated from workplace upheaval,” Ms. Saad said in a summary of the findings.
As for fearing layoffs overall, 24% of workers surveyed this year had such an outlook while 21% worried about wage and hour reductions. An additional 33% were concerned about reduced benefits, the top concern cited in Gallup surveys dating back to 1998.
Gallup noted that these other concerns remained relatively stable compared with the surging anxiety about technology.
Ms. Saad pointed to a recent Bentley University-Gallup study that found nearly 8 in 10 adults expecting AI to reduce the total number of U.S. jobs over the next decade.
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However, she also noted that the federal government’s August jobs report showed “solid hiring and a steady 4.1% unemployment rate,” suggesting that AI has had only a modest impact on employment.
“So far, workers’ growing concern appears to be outpacing actual job displacement due to AI,” Ms. Saad said.
Multiple public opinion surveys have tracked growing mistrust of how AI is reshaping workplaces.
The career coaching website ResumeBuilder.com reported Monday that 94% of 866 business leaders it surveyed in March expected “to reduce headcount as AI takes over more functions.”
The survey also found that 92% prioritized AI investment over employee satisfaction, and 94% were willing to accept higher workforce turnover to fund AI investment.
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More than a quarter said their company had already sacked workers or planned layoffs to fund their transition to AI systems.
“The concern that AI could take away jobs is legitimate,” Stacie Haller, ResumeBuilder.com’s chief career adviser, said Tuesday. “Whether AI ultimately eliminates jobs or not, it will certainly change them.”
Ms. Haller added in an email that people correctly perceive “the skills employers value, the tasks workers perform, and the way work gets done” are changing.
“Workers who stay on top of these developments and continue building relevant skills will have a much easier time adapting as those changes take hold,” she said.
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But Enrique Escalante, an economics professor at Angelo State University in Texas, said fears about the pace and scope of such changes are likely overhyped.
“AI may substitute for some workers but create demand for others,” Mr. Escalante said. “What is happening looks more like a reallocation of employment.”
He predicted that AI would increasingly generate jobs in engineering, data centers and power generation while reducing service costs by eliminating “jobs that require routine tasks, such as customer service and administrative tasks.”
Gallup conducted a randomized national telephone survey of 1,200 adults, including 507 full-time and part-time workers, from Aug. 3-24. The margin of error at the 95% confidence level was 4 percentage points for all adults and 6 percentage points for those currently employed.
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Sean Salai
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