LinkedIn data shows that AI isn’t to blame for the hiring decline…yet

LinkedIn Blake Lawitt The chief global affairs and legal officer of the Microsoft-owned professional networking site confirmed in an interview at Semaphore of the global economy Summit this week that company data shows a decline in employment of about 20% since 2022.

However, he rejected the idea that artificial intelligence is responsible.

“At LinkedIn… we have an economic graph with over a billion members. We have companies, jobs, skills. It’s a really amazing, real-time view of what’s happening in the job market. And we looked – because everyone wants to know the answer to this question: Is AI impacting jobs now? We looked, and frankly, we didn’t see that,” he said during his interview.

Instead, the executive suggested that the decline in employment was more closely linked to rising interest rates.

“We haven’t seen the kind of impacts that you would expect to see in areas where everyone is talking about AI… like industries, whether that’s customer support, management, marketing or not — all of these places where if we see impacts (from) AI, that’s where it’s going to be,” Lawitt continued.

He added: “Yes, the employment rate decreased, but not more than that.”

Lawitt also pointed out that the LinkedIn data did indicate that the decline in employment of college-age youth who got their first jobs was “lower,” either, when compared to people who were mid- or later-career.

However, he did not rule out that things could change.

“Doesn’t mean it won’t happen in the future, but not yet.”

But on this point, Lawet had a warning of sorts. Lawitt noted that over the past few years, the skills needed to do the average job have changed by 25%. With the advent of artificial intelligence, LinkedIn expects this number to reach 70% by 2030.

“So, even if you don’t change your job, your job will change for you,” he said.