Artificial intelligence is poised to eliminate up to 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs within five years, according to Dario Amodei, CEO of AI company Anthropic. In a recent interview with Axios, Amodei warned that industries such as tech, finance, law and consulting are especially vulnerable, with U.S. unemployment potentially rising to 10% to 20% if these shifts go unaddressed.
Warning from the inside
Amodei criticized both corporate leaders and policymakers for failing to prepare for the scale of disruption AI could cause. “Most of them are unaware that this is about to happen. It sounds crazy, and people just don’t believe it,” he said. Though optimistic about AI’s long-term benefits in medicine and productivity, he stressed that the short-term risks to job stability are not being taken seriously enough.
The “Great Displacement”
The warning aligns with concerns raised by other industry leaders. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently emphasized how AI will change the competitive landscape for workers. “You’re not going to lose your job to AI; you’re going to lose your job to someone who uses AI,” Huang said during a panel at the Milken Institute Global Conference earlier this month.
Andrew Yang, entrepreneur and former presidential candidate, offered a broader view in his 2018 book “The War on Normal People.” Yang describes the rise of automation as the “Great Displacement,” warning that not just manual labor but also routine cognitive jobs — including those held by doctors, lawyers and accountants — are at risk. His 2020 presidential campaign proposed a universal basic income as a direct response to the technological forces reshaping the labor market.
Yang anticipated the scale of disruption years before the current wave of white-collar displacement. “Hey, it’s not your imagination that the economy is changing,” he warned in a 2019 op-ed for NextShark. “We automated away 4 million manufacturing jobs in the Midwest, leading to Donald Trump’s election, and we’re about to do the same thing to retail workers, truck drivers, call center workers as well as accountants, insurance agents and many other positions.”
Early signs of disruption
The latest report by SignalFire reveals that AI is contributing to increased unemployment among recent college graduates in the U.S. While the national unemployment rate remains relatively low, joblessness among young graduates has risen disproportionately — a trend some analysts describe as a “white-collar recession.”
AI’s growing influence on the workforce is also reshaping how younger professionals view higher education. A March 2025 survey by the Harris Poll on behalf of Indeed found that 51% of Gen Z degree holders question whether their college education was worth the cost. Thirty percent of respondents said AI has already made their degrees obsolete — a figure that rises to 45% among Gen Z.
The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 also reported that 40% of employers expect to reduce their workforce where AI can automate tasks. The report forecasts a net loss of 2 million jobs globally by 2029, with technology acting as both a creator and destroyer of roles in nearly every sector.
This story is part of The Rebel Yellow Newsletter — a bold weekly newsletter from the creators of NextShark, reclaiming our stories and celebrating Asian American voices.
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