A Goldman Sachs economist warns that generative AI is already impacting the labor market, with younger tech workers facing the hardest hits. Unemployment rates among tech workers aged 20-30 have jumped by 3 percentage points since the start of this year. Most companies have yet to deploy AI in production cases, but some are holding off on hiring junior employees as they begin to integrate the technology.
According to Joseph Briggs, senior global economist at Goldman Sachs, the tech sector’s employment trends have been growing steadily for two decades. However, over the past three years, there has been a noticeable pullback in tech hiring, leading it to undershoot its trend. This is particularly affecting young workers, whose jobs are easier to automate.
Briggs recently co-authored a report that cites labor market data from IPUMS and Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research. The findings suggest that roughly 6% to 7% of all workers could lose their jobs due to automation from AI in a baseline scenario. However, if AI researchers achieve artificial general intelligence (AGI), the impact on workers would be more profound.
The Goldman economist notes that companies are already being forced to contend with the implications of generative AI models, which can handle many routine tasks and are on par with human software engineers. Technology executives have become more candid about the impact of AI on employees, with some companies handling 30% to 50% of their projects’ code with AI assistance.
While automation is expected to make companies more productive and enrich shareholders, it could also lead to significant job displacement in the coming years. As Briggs warns, the transition could be painful for workers and the US economy if adoption happens faster than anticipated.
Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/05/ai-labor-market-young-tech-workers-goldman-economist.html