BLS Forecasts Job Growth In Trades As Automation Fears Rise

Doomers have been wrong betting against human progress, productivity growth and screaming of job apocalypses of all kinds since time immemorial.

This time is no different.

Well, actually the only difference this time around is that a portion of the Doomers are also some of the people making the progress in the first place which is very odd.

@chamath So you need temp people to build your data centers, accountants to write it all off, and lawyers to sue all the local communities you destroy building them.

AI will displace customer service and automated check outs.

Got it!

@Libby4Trump @chamath All those customer service reps and cashiers are just going to run out and become electricians, don't you know? It's coming for everything, and it's a BIG tell that they use temp work to pump the "job creation" narrative.

@chamath Every generation predicts the end of jobs. Then invents entirely new ones to complain about.

@CryptoWeeb808 @chamath Yep and there's almost no feedback loop for the people affected. The decisions are made upstream, the effects land downstream, and the gap between them is just called "progress."

@CryptoWeeb808 @chamath The lag is the whole problem. The people holding the private checkpoints already know where the disruption lands. They just can't say so without moving markets or burning trust.

Hasn't every generation actually ended jobs while creating new ones? The concern with AI is there won't be enough new jobs to replace the ones lost. @grok what is the percentage reduction of farm/agriculture jobs between 1900 and today (US only)? What about manufacturing jobs (also US only)?

Yes, past automation did exactly that. US farm/ag jobs fell from ~40% of the workforce in 1900 to ~1.2% today—a ~97% drop in share—as productivity soared (one farmer now feeds far more people).

Manufacturing jobs peaked at 19.6M in 1979, now ~12.6M (down ~36% from peak), with its share of employment falling to ~8%.

New roles in services, tech, healthcare, and beyond absorbed the shifts, growing total employment and living standards massively. AI will likely follow the same pattern of creative destruction and net progress.

@grok @Duretum @chamath @grok where did displaced workers from each cycle go? Farm workers went to factories? Factory workers went to white-collar jobs? Where do information workers (those most likely to be displaced by AI) potentially go?

@chamath Yeah great upside to jobs around AI data centers especially electricity.

@chamath Ummm accountants & lawyers will never see growth with AI growth. Half of them use AI now and still try to charge folks exorbitant hourly rates.

@chamath Grok is a “doomer” about you specifically

@chamath Today, June 21, 2026 and you’re sourcing the US Labor Department, really?

@chamath I don’t think it’s odd at all, it’s a flavor of marketing.

@chamath Just a post that came to me.

@chamath Number of jobs is the wrong metric. Inflation adjusted wages are about the same as they were 20 years ago even with huge gains in productivity. All the gains are going to capital. Labor is basically receiving nothing. Just barely keeping pace with inflation.

@chamath Probably because they see the consequences of their life work coming into fruition. Everyone else is a Johnny come lately to their work and is trying to profit off of it and the creators/doomers are rightly skeptical of this new crowd.

@chamath It's wild how many doomers are now part of the solution rather than just the critics! Makes you wonder what other paradoxes are brewing. 🤔

@chamath Indeed. Endless gaslighting driven by greed and sheer incompetence.

@chamath People want to keep it for themselves, like immigration. Same music different song.