As an elementary school child growing up in northeast Ohio, you inevitably stayed up with your friends on Friday night. You watched scary movies, which were hosted by people such as Ghoulardi, or Houlihan and Big Chuck. This was a rite of passage, and even though the movies were sometimes more silly than scary, they would often keep you from sleeping well that night.
Sources: Wikipedia & YouTube
Some of the best and most campy B-movies about monsters that eat things feature cheesy special effects, outlandish plots, and a lot of really bad acting. Standout examples include the growing alien goo of The Blob and the man-eating plant, Audrey II, of Little Shop of Horrors. Even vegetables can get in on the act. Released in 1978, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! is a musical horror parody where ordinary tomatoes grow into rampaging, man-eating monsters.
Source: YouTube
Today, people are afraid of new technology like generative AI and large language learning models. Why are they afraid of them? Good question, it seems the biggest fear is that these new technologies are going to eat their jobs and leave them destitute. As we will explore below, these fears are not new. Each time we go through a new industrial or technological revolution, these fears show up en masse.
The good news is that history and current data show a very different story. Let’s take a closer look at what’s really happening with AI and jobs. To see why the future may be brighter than expected, we can look at the data and past trends.
Source: LinkedIn
First of all, the AI job apocalypse isn’t happening. Despite all the buzz, the actual number of jobs lost to AI so far is surprisingly low. Challenger, Gray & Christmas reports just 17,375 AI-related job cuts in the U.S. private sector this year. Other estimates put it closer to 27,000. That’s a small percentage compared to the millions of jobs created every year. Even Goldman Sachs, which has warned about long-term job shifts due to AI, predicts only a half-percentage-point bump in unemployment during this transition. This is not consistent with the catastrophic headlines we are seeing.
History repeats, in a good way. Luckily, like the Blob or the Killer Tomatoes, we’ve seen this movie before. During the Industrial Revolution, machines took over many jobs in farming and manufacturing. It was a significant change, but between 1880 and 1920, the U.S. workforce more than doubled, growing from 18.1 million to 40.5 million people.
Fast forward to the tech boom: Microsoft and Apple were founded in the mid-1970s. Since then, the U.S. economy has added over 73 million nonfarm payroll jobs. And the digital economy? It grew from 3 million jobs in 2008 to 28.4 million today. New technology doesn’t just replace jobs—it creates entire new industries, most of which we had not dreamt of before the new technology emerged.
AI augments, not replaces. Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, puts it best: “AI upgrades workers, it doesn’t replace them.” Think of it this way—AI is like giving every employee a genius assistant. A welder might now operate a robotic arm that does 10x the work, earning a higher wage while boosting company profits. This isn’t wishful thinking. It’s how every major technological leap has worked—from looms to laptops.
We need AI more than ever. Here’s a twist you might not expect: AI isn’t just a productivity tool—it’s a lifeline for aging economies. Birth rates are falling fast in countries across the globe. With fewer workers, automation becomes essential to keep economies running. Remember, GDP is equal to population growth times productivity growth. With lower or negative population growth, the only way to make up the differential is through automation and productivity.
As long as human wants and needs are unlimited, so is the potential for new jobs. AI will absolutely change how we work—but it’s likely to create jobs rather than destroy them. The key is to stay adaptable, curious, and open to learning new skills.
So next time you hear someone say, “AI is going to take all our jobs,” you can smile and say, “Actually, it’s going to give us better ones.” I thought this was an important message to help combat all the negative news and noise as we continue “Moving Life Forward.”
© 2025 Jesse Hurst
Senior Wealth Manager
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