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By Hugh Cameron
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The impact of artificial intelligence on the size and composition of the American workforce has long been a subject of discussion for economists and lawmakers, and signs of this impact have now begun to emerge in monthly jobs figures.
On Thursday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) revealed that the economy added 57,000 jobs in June, around half the forecast amount, bringing an end to a series of better-than-expected employment readings.
Fewer gains than previous months were recorded across several sectors, while many others saw declines or ongoing stagnation. This includes financial-activities and information—two of the sectors that have taken the lead in adopting and promoting the use of AI in their industries.
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This comes a day after a report from the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas revealed that AI continues to be the most cited reason behind layoff announcements in 2026.
The Impact of AI on Employment Figures
Combined with downward revisions to previous months’ figures, the latest employment report was viewed as underwhelming by most analysts. Daniel Zhao, chief economist at Glassdoor, told Newsweek on Thursday that this pointed to a "hiring slowdown" which "runs deeper than the headline numbers first let on."
"The unemployment rate's decline to 4.2 percent is a case of good news for the wrong reasons: it was driven by people leaving the labor force, not by more hiring," he added. "This points to a labor market that's stubbornly refusing to reaccelerate, despite recent optimism."
According to the BLS, the financial activities and information sectors have together shed around 150,000 roles—25,000 per month on average—in 2026. And these two sectors were among those identified as leading the charge in AI usage in a recent report from Goldman Sachs, quoted by MarketWatch, alongside professional services and education firms.
Overall, researchers found that AI adoption among American firms had grown to 20.6 percent—up from 19.5 percent in May—while noting that the employment impacts of this had so far been offset by a construction sector boost as "as tech companies race to build data centers."
And while they said that there was not yet a "statistically significant" connection between the technology and unemployment figures, Challenger, Gray & Christmas’s latest report found that AI was again the "dominant force" in June’s layoff announcements. AI led all reasons for cuts last month at 14,029 (31 percent of the total) and has been cited in 101,743 announcements this year.
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Debate Continues Over AI’s Labor-Market Impact
"Rapid improvements in AI capabilities and growing corporate efforts to integrate the technology into enterprise workflows have raised concerns that AI could trigger a ‘job apocalypse,’" Goldman Sachs researchers wrote in a recent report, "especially as some companies have cited AI as a factor in recent layoffs."
Many tech giants, such as Meta and Microsoft, have cited their increased focus on AI when announcing large-scale reductions this year, as economists continue to warn that millions of jobs are vulnerable to replacement by the technology.
Some have suggested that these announcements could be a case of "AI-washing"—with companies overstating the impact of AI on layoffs, rather than blaming structural factors like over-hiring or reduced margins—and others have said the impact on employment in the U.S. could be more complex than a simple reduction in human roles.
Experts previously told Newsweek that AI could create many new employment opportunities, and Kevin Buehler, CEO of the financial AI platform Rogo, said that many incorrectly believe that "if one job gets replaced by AI, it disappears."
"That’s not quite what’s happening," he said at Newsweek’s AI Impact Forum in June. "what we see is other opportunities arise across the economy."
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