According to the firm’s monthly report, which was released on Thursday, AI was listed as the reason for 3,900 layoffs in the United States, accounting for around 4.9% of all job reductions in May.
According to Business Insider, previous to Thursday’s publication, Challenger, Grey & Christmas had never featured AI as an option.
According to the data, over 80,000 positions were cut by US corporations in May. These layoffs bring the total number of job cutbacks disclosed by US firms since the beginning of 2023 to over 417,500.
This year’s 417,500 layoffs were the “highest January-May total since 2020, when 1,414,828 cuts were recorded,” according to Challenger, Grey & Christmas.
As the subject of AI becomes more popular and more AI-powered technologies become available, doubts regarding how the technology will effect occupations have arisen.
Earlier this year, a Goldman Sachs analysis claimed that some form of AI automation may be employed for roughly two-thirds of U.S. professions, with the technology potentially performing 25-50% of their daily labour. According to Goldman Sachs, the analysts behind the paper also stated that “most jobs and industries are only partially exposed to automation and are thus more likely to be complemented rather than substituted by AI.”
Jobs that did not exist before to AI’s use may also emerge as AI’s use grows more popular, according to the paper.
Separately, the World Economic Forum recently discovered that 50% of businesses believe AI would “create job growth” while 25% believe it will “create job losses.”
Source: Fox Bussiness