Economists Now Fear AI's Looming Job Disruption

Economists who once dismissed AI's threat to employment are changing their tune. While most see little current evidence of AI disrupting the job market, they increasingly believe significant disruption is coming and warn that policymakers are unprepared to respond. A new survey of economists found most expect moderate AI-driven growth, but acknowledge a plausible scenario of rapid change bringing greater inequality and millions of lost jobs. Key turning points include OpenAI's reasoning models in late 2024 and Anthropic's Claude Code, which have shifted even sceptical economists toward treating AI as a potential industrial revolution-scale event.