Government Survey Shows Most Workers Fear They'll Lose Their Job To AI By Year's End — & They Won't Take Less Than $81k Because Of It
To prepare for possible unemployment due to AI, workers are demanding a fair salary.
Antonio Guillem | Shutterstock Many people are beginning to fear that they'll soon lose their jobs due to the emergence and rapid growth of artificial intelligence, and unfortunately, it's not an unfounded fear. In May 2023, a total of 3,900 job losses in the United States were directly attributed to AI, accounting for 5% of all job losses during that month — placing AI as the seventh-largest contributor to job displacement.
A recent government survey found that plenty of workers are extremely worried that their job positions will be next, and are demanding certain securities from their employers as a result.
The survey found that most workers fear losing their jobs to AI by the year's end.
According to a Federal Reserve Bank of New York survey, workers are becoming increasingly anxious about losing their jobs as executives threaten to replace them with AI.
Every few months, the Federal Reserve Bank asks 1,000 people about their job situations and outlooks — the number of people who feel they will be unemployed within the next four months has reached a record high.
The survey found that 4.4% of respondents expect to lose their jobs in the near future. The only other time it hit 4% was when the pandemic struck in March 2020.
These findings come as many working Americans are concerned about the threat of AI to their jobs and skills, as well as the everchanging economy and high cost of living.
Experts predict that AI will severely shrink the workforce in the coming years.
In a global survey of C-suit executives conducted by Swiss staffing firm Adecco Group, the use of AI in the workforce will reduce the number of workers at thousands of companies over the next five years. The poll of 2,000 executives showed that 41% of them expect to employ fewer workers because of the technology.
The executives surveyed work in 18 industries — including energy, retail, and the automotive sector — in nine countries, including the United States, Canada, Germany, and Japan, where their workforces represent white-collar and blue-collar jobs.
Among those, 46% of executives said they would redeploy employees internally if their jobs were impacted by AI. Two-thirds said they planned to recruit people skilled in AI, and just over one-third said they would train their existing workforce in the technology.
While this does offer some hope that workers won't be entirely pushed out of their jobs and replaced by AI, it's not enough considering many tech companies that have laid-off employees over the last year have cited AI as the reason for their cuts.
It seems many company executives are unaware that even with the efficiency of AI, they will still need actual human beings to calculate data and make sense of findings. There's also the reality that you can't replace a human being's creativity with an artificial intelligence device, and while things may get done faster, will it really be worth it?
Workers are demanding nothing less than $81K in salary to prepare for the job cuts.
Despite fears that they may be jobless soon, today's job seekers are refusing to accept anything less than $81,147 — a figure that's the average reservation wage of workers, which is the lowest wage at which respondents would be willing to accept a new job, according to the government survey.
The report also highlights that workers are increasingly dissatisfied with their current wages, benefits, and promotion opportunities. Women, people without a college degree, and those with annual household incomes lower than $60,000 feel the least likely to land a promotion any time soon.
According to Ipsos’ Consumer Tracker survey, 82% of Americans are satisfied with the work that they do, 78% are satisfied with the company they work for and 73% are satisfied with their boss or manager. But when it comes to their salaries, that percentage drops to just above half, with 58% stating that they are satisfied with their income.
A lot of that dissatisfaction has to do with the cost of living and inflation, which has made it hard for Americans to support themselves and pay for the most basic necessities, like groceries. Considering many could be facing potential layoffs due to AI, it's not unreasonable that they'd want some sort of safety blanket to ensure that they won't end up unhoused or unable to put food on the table when the seemingly inevitable happens.
Nia Tipton is a Chicago-based entertainment, news, and lifestyle writer whose work delves into modern-day issues and experiences.