Worries about AI coming for your job might not be overhyped

For all the fear that AI is coming for people’s jobs, the data thus far has been inconclusive, if not outright dismissive, but that might be a matter of how it’s measured.

So suggests a new report from career-transitioning services firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas analyzing employment data. The report found around 20,000 US job cuts in 2025 due to technological updates, including automation and AI implementation.

All how you slice it. That 20,000 number is where things get interesting. Only 75 were specifically attributed to AI, but, as Challenger noted, “many companies categorize related changes more broadly.”

Those are national unemployment numbers. In the tech sector specifically, 76,214 jobs have been lost, an increase of 27% from the same period last year, when the number was 59,854.

“The disruptions in this industry, both from the advancement of AI and the current uncertainties around visas, [have] cost thousands of jobs this year,” Challenger said in a statement accompanying the report.

Part of a trend. Tech unemployment has historically skewed lower than the national rate, and 2025 has been no exception. In June, the tech rate was 2.8%, as opposed to the national rate of 4.1%, after a drop from May.

Nonetheless, impacts of AI have been seen. In June, journalist Brian Merchant talked to a number of tech workers who reported that executives at the firms they work at were using the threat of AI replacing them to demand faster work, as well as some who have seen their jobs completely eliminated by the technology.

“AI killed my previous job,” one worker Merchant spoke to said, “and it’s killing my current one.”

Other employers have tried to reframe earlier commitments to leverage AI over human workers. Language translator app Duolingo attempted to adopt an AI-first strategy, replacing contract workers with the technology, before customer backlash led to a reversal of policy. And in May, payment plan app Klarna also reversed an AI strategy that prioritized the tech over human hiring.

Reason to hope. Not everyone is so down on AI. Ethan Mollick, a University of Pennsylvania business professor, told ABC News that traditionally new technology has led to job creation despite the disruption it creates on the way there.

“It may be different this time around—AI is a very different technology,” Mollick said. “But we don’t know the shape of that.”