About 11 million workers in the U.S. will be forced to learn new professions by 2035 due to the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence systems. This was reported by Dengi.ua, citing Bloomberg and a report by McKinsey.
Which Categories of Workers Will Be Most Affected by AI
Office and administrative staff, retail workers, and professionals in the transportation and logistics sectors face the greatest risk of being displaced. This primarily includes cashiers, customer service representatives, and warehouse workers. According to researchers’ estimates, low-wage workers are nearly eight times more likely to lose their current jobs than high-wage professionals.
According to McKinsey, the scale of this transformation will affect approximately 7% of the entire U.S. labor market:
- more than 645,000 people will need to retrain each year, which is three times the historical average of 215,000;
- six out of seven professionals whose duties are being automated face a loss of income and a prolonged retraining period;
- depending on the pace at which algorithms are integrated into business operations, the total number of jobs eliminated will range from 6 million to 16 million.
“Employment opportunities may remain plentiful, but millions of people will still be left without work if new job openings require different skills, degrees, locations, or compensation structures,” the report’s authors emphasized.
How the Government Is Preparing the Labor Market for Mass Retraining
Analysts compare the pace of the coming changes to the market upheavals during the coronavirus pandemic. However, while emergency adaptation took about two years during the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy will have to weather the current wave of technological transition for an entire decade.
Key factors in government support for the workforce:
- direct budgetary funding for government programs aimed at reskilling and retraining the adult population;
- restructuring the education system - which for decades has been focused exclusively on young people - to meet the needs of lifelong learning for those already in the workforce;
- the collection and open publication of up-to-date labor market data to help job seekers quickly identify fields with labor shortages.
Analysts warn that the main threat to the economy will not be a shortage of jobs per se, but rather the structural gap between the rapid decline in demand for routine labor and the actual qualifications of the specialists being laid off.
