When automobiles replaced the horse and buggy in the early twentieth century, entire industries disappeared—blacksmiths, horse stables, whip makers and carriage manufacturers. You couldn’t give away horses. Still, newer jobs in the automotive industry replaced these careers, contributing to the strengthening of the middle class.
Unlike then, the rise of AI in the early twenty-first century is eliminating jobs without creating sufficient new ones. In 2025, the transformation of the labor market by AI is unfolding while most of the population remains unaware or unprepared.
By the middle of this year, unemployment had surged to 5.8%, as traditionally entry-level positions, often the first rung on the career ladder, began to vanish. CEO Dario Amodei of Anthropic, the world’s most powerful creators of AI, predicts that by 2030, half of all entry-level white-collar jobs could be replaced by AI, resulting in a spike in unemployment up to 20% within five years.
In 2024, big tech reduced the hiring of new graduates by a quarter compared to 2023, despite a full market recovery from the pandemic. The loss of entry-level jobs is not simply a lost opportunity; it represents the loss of the corporate career ladder previous generations have climbed, wrecking careers before they even begin.
Entry-level jobs are not the only ones threatened. In the first six months of 2025, AI eliminated 77,999 tech company jobs, equivalent to approximately 491 jobs per day.
Ford CEO Jim Farley estimates that the short-term loss of white-collar jobs will be around 50%. A study by the World Economic Forum on the future of jobs noted that within the next five years, 41% of employers worldwide plan to reduce their workforce due to the impact of AI.
In the early 1960s, the average CEO received 20 times the salary of the average worker. By 1975, this ratio had increased to 44 times—and it has only widened since, accelerating the decline of a once-stable middle class.
By 2020, the difference between a CEO’s salary and that of the average worker was 670 times, with some CEOs, such as Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, being paid 6,474 times the average worker’s wage. This disparity was due to multiple causes, including the relocation of manufacturing jobs to countries with substantially lower wages and the consolidation of jobs to increase corporate profits.
Because rising CEO wages are tied to decreasing wages for workers, there is a corporate incentive to eliminate jobs. In the past, CEOs who were able to lay off 1,000 or more workers earned higher compensation than those who weren’t.
AI’s contribution to the U.S. wealth gap through the elimination of jobs is unethical, as the fundamental assumption within liberative ethical systems emphasizes human dignity and flourishing of those at the margins of society.
The problem with our neoliberal worldview is that AI is being developed by those driven by enormous ego and extreme earnings, not ethics. Irrespective of the number of jobs lost due to AI or how soon they may occur, one business enticement that has existed before the introduction of AI will continue to be true.
When labor costs, which are labeled as an expense, are reduced, stock values and CEO salaries rise. Replacing humans has always been incentivized within our current neoliberal-based economy.
The coming tsunami of unemployment will ravage U.S. communities, creating a crisis specifically among white men, which will negatively impact society. Because of the prevailing sexism within U.S. society, men—predominantly white men—represent 70% of law firm partners, 72% of Congress, 86% of tech founders, 90% of Fortune 500 CEOs and 100% of U.S. presidents.
Men with or without college degrees outearn women with the same educational attainment. Due to institutionalized racism, those who are mostly unemployed are predominantly people of color and white women.
But what happens when those accustomed to the privilege of employment start being laid off? Studies show that for these men, employment is a stabilizing force.
One British study stated that “the strongest predictor of a positive mindset in men – by far – is secure and satisfying employment.” Today, one in eight men ages 25 to 54 is not working—a group disproportionately affected by addiction, incarceration, overdose and suicide.
Not surprisingly, the havoc created by unemployment within white working-class communities will only increase. Those most likely to vote for authoritarian populist leaders promising to solve their dilemma will be these same men seeking to regain their lost standing within society.
Let’s be clear, AI is not to blame for this coming unemployment tidal wave. Rather, it will be due to short-term neoliberal capitalism that prioritizes maximizing profit over creating long-term benefits for all of humanity. Instead of augmenting work to reduce employees’ workload and/or eliminate mundane tasks, it is more profitable for AI to move towards automation and replace the laborer altogether.
Take the warning uttered by former Google executive, Mo Gawdat, who predicts a fifteen-year span of eliminating all white-collars workers will begin in 2027, ushering in what he calls “a short-term dystopia.” Using his own startup, Emma.Love AI, as an example, he said that in the past it would have required hiring 350 developers, but now the entire operation is run by just three individuals—one of whom will soon be replaced by AI.
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Professor of Social Ethics and Latinx Studies at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado, and a contributing correspondent at Good Faith Media.
