Since March of last year, more than 160 companies in Up-to-date York state have filed mass layoff notices. None of them – in a group that includes Amazon, Goldman Sachs and other employers implementing artificial intelligence tools – attributed the job cuts in these reports to “technological innovation or automation.”
This option was added 11 months ago to a required question about the documents that companies with 50 or more employees must file with the state to notify of significant job losses. The Up-to-date York Department of Labor told WIRED that as of behind schedule January, no employers had cited technology as a reason for job cuts.
Over the past few years, many companies have celebrated the offloading of repetitive tasks such as customer servicesales and bookkeeping for AI systems. However, claiming they are abandoning human workers in favor of AI agents or robots could pose a reputational risk. Economists face challenges in linking layoffs to technological progress because: it could take decades for companies to fully reorganize around up-to-date ways of working.
Enter Up-to-date York Governor Kathy Hochul. To better understand the current reality, she ordered The Department of Labor has begun asking questions about whether artificial intelligence spurred the layoffs. Up-to-date York became the first state with an AI option, According to legal experts.
Businesses in Up-to-date York can select multiple grounds from a total list of 17, which also includes “bankruptcy,” “merger,” “transfer” and “other” on required Worker Adjustment and Retraining (WARN) filings. If any company were to choose the technology and automation option, they would receive an additional question asking them to identify the technology taking over the job, such as AI, robotics, or “software modernization.”
After implementation, there were over 750 notices covering 162 employers and affecting almost 28,300 employees, without the appearance of artificial intelligence. The results suggest that companies can avoiding the question about artificial intelligence. Or it is a sign that employees do not yet have to fear anything more than the conventional factors causing layoffs.
Applicants include catering companies and retailers whose employees are not commonly associated with replaceable AI. On the other hand, according to Up-to-date York data, Goldman Sachs is the leader, with over 4,100 employees affected by layoffs or location closures. Amazon was among the top 10 with 660 workers affected. Morgan Stanley, another AI supporter, reported that 260 employees lost their jobs.
Internally Goldman Sachs connected last year’s layoffs for AI’s potential to unlock significant productivity gains. Amazon warned before the latest wave of layoffs, which affected a total of around 30,000 workers, the benefits of artificial intelligence would have led to job cuts. Unnamed source he told Bloomberg that a petite portion of Morgan Stanley’s layoffs were due to the exploit of artificial intelligence and automation. The companies operate all over the world, so it’s possible that only workers outside of Up-to-date York were pushed to AI.
Overall, nearly 55,000 U.S. companies attributed job losses to the adoption of artificial intelligence last year, According to analysis of public statements by the job search firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
However, none of these trends seen in Up-to-date York’s unique data constitute an improvement challenge answering the question on everyone’s mind: “Will artificial intelligence take over my job?”
Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Nantel says, “AI is not driving the vast majority” of cuts and that instead the goal is to “reduce the number of tiers, increase ownership and help reduce red tape.”
Goldman Sachs declined to comment. Morgan Stanley did not respond to requests for comment.
Accuracy checks
WARN reports are intended to give state agencies advance notice of cuts so they can expand services to support people quickly find up-to-date jobs. Companies face fines of $500 per day for failing to comply with filing requirements.
Kristin Devoe, a spokeswoman for the governor, says the Department of Labor is contacting each employer to ensure the accuracy of the filings. In the case of Amazon, for example, according to Devoe, the company cited “economic” as the reason for the layoffs. She explained to the department that workers hired during the pandemic to cope with the then-current surge in online shopping were no longer needed.