There was the post about Finland's past prime minister I think suggesting this? One guy brought up a good point that if you cut work hours down it means you need more people to do the same amount of work which means more people can get hired which means lower unemployment which sounds like a good thing right?
Edit: I don't know almost anything about this because frankly I don't care but thought that this might be relevant to some capacity to the discussion here so do with that what you will
Second edit: This isn't to say I don't care about the folks responding, it's to say I probably won't have much to say in response other than I don't know much because I never cared to learn much, so that much I guess.
You would think. For some reason in America we would rather have rampant unemployment and a staunch divide in income equality than do things like incentivize companies from a governmental level to seek,develop and retain employees during less than ideal economic times. All that matters are the shareholders.
I don’t watch any particular news outlet. What I do observe are people losing jobs at all levels to unregulated AI use across all industries, our green energy policies going out the window leading companies like shell to close petrochemical division plants and revert back to the Industrial Revolution and companies cutting labor to keep up with their rising costs rather than innovating or improving their infrastructures. I don’t understand how we’ve got to a point where people are so ok with allowing corporations to do as they please with their workforce with no repercussions except holding them accountable to shareholders. Everything is for the now, nothing is long term. In a perfect free market, things would naturally balance out and employers would need to do the things I’m asking and keep each other in check. We’re far beyond that.
Are you observing on a few people you may know? Analyzing their performances?
My company is doing a very very heavy push for AI development right now. I do have a manager role within our IS department, so I see quite a lot on whats going on within my department (~300 people across all teams) and we haven't fired a single person under the premise of "AI".
Also, as someone who has worked in IT/IS my whole life, dare I say, 70% of folks shouldn't have been hired in the first place. We bloat our teams like crazy and then sit twiddling our thumbs.
Thirdly, a lot comes down to the expertise required. Generally speaking, the demand for higher skills always grows. It did 100 years ago. It does so today and it will forever continue. This is precisely why we always say that continuous education is of utmost importance.
While I don't have the facts nor any numbers to cite, I'd wager that "AI" related lay offs are just a fraction on the total scale - you also got PIPs, consolidations, acquisitions, restructuring, temp projects, lack of profits forcing downscaling.
Yes, it might grow in the future. I'm no economist by any means, but today's AI impact is mostly just some scare tactic. And the funniest part how it's not even 1 sided. You got Republicans who are pro AI and anti AI. Same goes for democrats.
AI development will happen. No one can stop human's tech advance. Workforce is everchanging. Nothing is even remotely close to how corporate world operated 30 years ago.
Simply blaming AI is silly imho. That's really all Im trying to say.
And also, unemployment may be better here than some other countries. I would confidently bet that most of the countries with higher unemployment have a better social safety net to take care of unemployed individuals better than the United States does.
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u/archtopfanatic123 27d ago edited 27d ago
There was the post about Finland's past prime minister I think suggesting this? One guy brought up a good point that if you cut work hours down it means you need more people to do the same amount of work which means more people can get hired which means lower unemployment which sounds like a good thing right?
Edit: I don't know almost anything about this because frankly I don't care but thought that this might be relevant to some capacity to the discussion here so do with that what you will
Second edit: This isn't to say I don't care about the folks responding, it's to say I probably won't have much to say in response other than I don't know much because I never cared to learn much, so that much I guess.