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Has the decline of knowledge work begun?

(www.nytimes.com)
388 points pseudolus | 1 comments | 25 Mar 25 17:02 UTC | HN request time: 0.228s | source
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Bukhmanizer ◴[26 Mar 25 19:14 UTC] No.43485838[source]▶
I’m surprised not many people talk about this, but a big reason corporations are able to do layoffs is just that they’re doing less. At my work we used to have thousands of ideas of small improvements to make things better for our users. Now we have one: AI. It’s not that we’re using AI to make all these small improvements, or even planning on it. We’re just… not doing them. And I don’t think my experience is very unique.
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1. mrweasel ◴[26 Mar 25 19:42 UTC] No.43486264[source]▶
Isn't there also the possibility that the US job market simply isn't doing to great at the moment and businesses are adjusting, or preparing for a downturn. In the case layoffs would be across the board, not just entry level or in the service industry. Perhaps the service industry and blue collar jobs have already been trimmed to the limit and knowledge work has simply been lacking. As pointed out, it easy enough, at least for a limited time, to simply not do stuff and just attempt to coast for a few quarters/years.

If it was truly a decline in knowledge work in general, it should be visible in other economies as well, but I don't think that's the case, at least not here in Denmark. Arguably we typically trend a bit behind the US, so it could be looming on the horizon.