On this Labor Day weekend, it’s hard to avoid thinking about labor’s future.
The Trump administration has made no secret of its hostility toward unions, an employee’s best chance to get decent wages, benefits and working conditions.
Since Donald Trump and his Project 2025ers set themselves up in the White House, they’ve been busting unions and recklessly eliminating jobs – and expertise – throughout the federal government.
Things aren’t great everywhere in the private sector, either.
The Medicare and Medicaid cuts that economists expect under Trump’s One Big “Beautiful” Bill Act are health care job-killers, former Congressman Conor Lamb said during a recent Democratic rally in Shenandoah for workers’ rights.
And while some employers value their workers and compensate them accordingly, all too many are obsessed with enriching their shareholders, trimming their workforce to the bone and paying their employees as little as they can.
Despite threats and intimidation from management, workers at some companies have unionized, only to be jerked around, sometimes for years, when it’s time to negotiate a contract.
Now artificial intelligence has emerged as an even darker storm cloud.
Yes, it’s touted as a boon to health care and other industries, but Stanford University researchers led by Erik Brynjolfsson, whom Fortune magazine described as “a top economist and AI thought leader of sorts,” say they believe they’ve discovered some “canaries in the coal mine.”
Data from payroll processing giant ADP showed AI is already reducing entry-level employment in fields where it’s used a lot.
The number of full-time positions held by 22-to-25-year-olds in customer service, software engineering and other AI-heavy occupations was down 6% in July from late 2022 but increased 6% to 9% for older workers in the same types of jobs, possibly because they had picked up skills that were harder to teach a bot.
Where there was less exposure to AI, employment growth was about the same for both age groups.
Despite some young job seekers’ discouraging prospects, Brynjolfsson isn’t downbeat. “Tech has always been destroying jobs and creating jobs, he told CBS News. “… There is a transition over time, and that’s what we are seeing now.”
A key finding from his study was that AI doesn’t seem to lead to job cuts when it functions mainly as an assistant that handles the grunt work. And according to research from AI company Anthropic, that’s mostly how the technology is used, Axios reported in May.
But Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei told the news service that a shift toward full automation could happen in a couple of years or sooner.
And corporate America is salivating. “We’ve talked to scores of CEOs at companies of various sizes and across many industries,“ Axios co-founders Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen wrote. “Every single one of them is working furiously to figure out when and how agents or other AI technology can displace human workers at scale.
“… This could wipe out tens of millions of jobs in a very short period of time.”
Since Trump fired Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer for releasing weaker-than-expected employment figures, we may never get trustworthy data from this administration. But if and when the CEOs’ wish comes true, we’ll all feel the effects.
And that’s just one problem AI poses for society as a whole. The data centers that allow it to do its work devour massive amounts of water and electricity, which will lead to serious consequences for everyone, whether they’re in or out of the labor market.
It’s enough to make anyone wonder if every application of AI is worth the toll it takes on people and the environment. Polls taken over the past year show it’s far from popular, but like it or not, it’s coming as the U.S. and China try to outrun each other in a technology arms race with a double-edged sword as its prize.
About all we can do is hope for the best – and that those who are intent on bringing AI to us are taking the time to prepare for the worst.
Lisa Von Ahn is an experienced columnist previously published in the Pottsville Republican Herald newspaper.
Canary note: Opinions expressed in any Op-Ed column appearing on this site are the views of the writer and are not necessarily the opinions of Coal Region Canary.
Want to be a columnist with Coal Region Canary? Contact us at newscanary@gmail.com.
Image: Canva
Subscribe to Coal Region Canary
Get email updates from Coal Region Canary by becoming a subscriber today. Just enter your email address below to get started!Support Coal Region Canary
Like our reporting and want to support truly local news in Schuylkill County? Your small donations help. For as little as $5, your contribution will allow us to cover more news that directly affects you. Consider donating today by hitting the big yellow button below ...