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AI adoption linked to 13% decline in jobs for young U.S. workers: study

(www.cnbc.com)
440 points pseudolus | 7 comments | 28 Aug 25 14:13 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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muldvarp ◴[28 Aug 25 14:37 UTC] No.45052736[source]▶
Brutal that software engineering went from one of the least automatable jobs to a job that is universally agreed to be "most exposed to automation".

Was good while it lasted though.

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AndrewKemendo ◴[28 Aug 25 14:44 UTC] No.45052830[source]▶
Too bad engineers were “too important” to unionize because their/our labor is “too special .”

I think you could find 10,000 quotes from HN alone why SDEs were immune to labor market struggles that would need a union

Oh well, good luck everyone.

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1. orochimaaru ◴[28 Aug 25 14:50 UTC] No.45052908[source]▶
Unions won’t solve this for you. If a company just decides they have enough automation to reduce union workforce it can happen the next time contracts get negotiated.

Either way, there are layoff provisions with union agreements.

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2. est31 ◴[28 Aug 25 14:55 UTC] No.45052979[source]▶
In Hollywood, union bargaining bought some time at least. Unions did mandate limits on the use of AI for a lot of the creation process.

AI is still used in Hollywood but nobody is proud of it. No movie director goes around quoting percentages of how many scenes were augmented by AI or how many lines in the script were written by ChatGPT.

3. jszymborski ◴[28 Aug 25 14:57 UTC] No.45053015[source]▶
Tell that to dock workers, who have successfully delayed the automation of ports to the extent we see them automated in e.g. the PRC [0].

Hell, they're even (successfully) pushing back against automated gates! [1]

[0] https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/02/business/dock-workers-strike-...

[1] https://www.npr.org/2024/10/03/nx-s1-5135597/striking-dockwo...

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4. MangoCoffee ◴[28 Aug 25 15:05 UTC] No.45053114[source]▶
Isn't that just delaying the inevitable? Yangshan Deep-Water Port in Shanghai is one of the most automated ports. Considering there are more people in China than in the US, China still automated their port.
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5. ◴[28 Aug 25 15:07 UTC] No.45053142[source]▶
6. jszymborski ◴[28 Aug 25 15:40 UTC] No.45053582{3}[source]▶
I'm not making a value judgment on the specific case of dock workers, I'm rather saying that unions can and do prevent automation. If Software Devs had unionized earlier, a lot of positions would probably still be around.
7. Seattle3503 ◴[29 Aug 25 00:25 UTC] No.45058573[source]▶
The dock owner may not have a lot of alternatives to negotiating with the union. If devs unionize, the work can move.