AI hiring headwinds hit white-collar roles first, spare blue-collar labour for now: Goldman Sachs Report

The impact of artificial intelligence on labour markets is falling primarily on white-collar knowledge workers, creative fields, and technology service sectors rather than causing sweeping automation of blue-collar jobs, according to a macroeconomics research report by Goldman Sachs Research.

The impact of artificial intelligence on labour markets is falling primarily on white-collar knowledge workers, creative fields, and technology service sectors rather than causing sweeping automation of blue-collar jobs, according to a macroeconomics research report by Goldman Sachs Research. While economy-wide displacement remains low, corporate adoption of generative AI tools has triggered sharp pullbacks in hiring across specialized service industries across major developed economies.

"There is evidence that employment in information and communication services, two of the industries that are the most exposed to AI, has slowed because of AI," the investment bank stated in its report titled “Is AI Impacting Global Labor Markets?”, adding that "employment in these sectors has slowed across nearly all major developed markets since 2022." The report highlights that these hiring slowdowns are most pronounced in the United States, where tech-sector employment has fallen below long-term trends.

"These patterns suggest tech sector (broadly defined) hiring headwinds are global in nature, although outright negative impacts are most compelling in the US," wrote Goldman Sachs Research economists Sarah Dong and Joseph Briggs in the report. Beyond the technology sector, the research report found that other knowledge-based and professional service industries are experiencing similar labour market contractions relative to historical benchmarks.

"Employment in call centers, software publishing, management consulting, and advertising services has fallen sharply below trend across the developed world," the report noted. "Call center employment, for instance, now stands 39% below trend in the US, 33% below trend in Canada, and 27% below trend in Germany". Commenting on the sector-specific disruption driven by available automation tools, economists Dong and Briggs wrote: "These patterns confirm that, like in the US, AI-employment headwinds are visible in industries where labor-automating tools are already available." (ANI)