The Job Market and AI: Reduced Opportunities or a Helping Hand?
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the unemployment rate has risen 0.5% since June 2022, and as of June 2025 the unemployment rate is at 4.1%. With the use of AI also rising, those looking for jobs are left wondering how AI will change the future employment field, and if it is currently continuing to the struggling job market, although its influence or lack thereof is highly debated.
Recently Duolingo, a language learning program, faced backlash after an internal email about shifting to an AI-first schedule and firing and replacing contractor roles with AI. This recent controversy has increased the debate about the use of AI throughout the job industry.
“ I hear a lot of people say it’s taking jobs and I haven’t really understood that… I don’t see it replacing, like actual human touch or creativity and things like that,” said Duncan Hitti , a store manager at Cell Phone repair in Bloomington, IN.
Within the same store a customer directly refuted his idea, saying that her job was in fact taken by the AI programs that she helped to develop and train during her time at Microsoft. She explained that she watched as tasks that used to take 6 months were reduced down to 6 weeks and even 6 days.
“ ‘We have certified ourselves out of a career’ ” she said, quoting her coworker who developed and trained AI alongside her.
Although whether or not AI will replace specific jobs is debated, the unemployment rate has increased recently.
“I think we’re going to have it, where as it’s going to have a net loss of jobs,” said Jeff, a hiring manager from Indianapolis, Indiana. “We’re not going to need quite as many humans doing what we currently do”
Those hoping to get hired are also observing less viable employment and job opportunities.
“I actually saw very much firsthand how difficult and impossible the job market was. Like I spent six months applying for 100 jobs” Hitti, a recent graduate of Indianapolis University, said.
In the BLS’s employment projections, AI is likely to replace certain jobs more than others. Open positions for jobs that help to improve on and work with AI are expected to increase. Like in the case of software development where employment levels are expected to increase 17.9% between 2023 and 2033. But in the case of a job like paralegals and legal assistants, the growth rate is much lower, and in a job like Insurance appraising, the projected employment rate is -9.2%.
More employers are listing AI competence as a skill that they are looking for in employment, which could isolate those who don’t have the money or resources to learn the rapidly developing tech.
“I’m more worried about the less educated folks and how that’s going to displace them” Jeff said. “How many people are living paycheck to paycheck? How are they all of a sudden going to be able to springboard into a technology… you know, they struggle using their phone”
According to a study by Pew research , journalists, cashiers and factory workers are the most likely to lose their jobs to AI.