AI was supposed to destroy jobs. Where's the carnage?

🎯 Impact Sentiment: Neutral

📋 Summary

• A Guardian feature dated August 12, 2026 argues that the mass wipeout of entry-level white-collar jobs predicted by some AI CEOs in 2025 has not shown up in the data a year later.
• Economists quoted say AI is changing the nature of work — consolidating roles, raising the bar for new hires, and slowing hiring for automatable tasks — more than cutting total employment.
• Stanford's Nicholas Bloom describes the pattern as turbulence: some jobs go, others appear to build, sell, and fix AI systems.
• MIT's Paul Osterman warns that more employers will use contractors and freelancers; he estimates about 35% of the U.S. workforce is already easily replaceable, a share AI could enlarge.

💡 JR Insights

• 💼 Implication: The headline risk is not overnight mass unemployment but a quieter freeze on junior hiring and more disposable contract work.
• 🚨 Risk: If you wait for a visible “carnage” number, you may miss that the first rung of your occupation is already thinning.
• ✨ Takeaway: Track hiring in your own occupation, not just national unemployment, and add skills that keep you on the “implement, sell, fix” side of AI.