Economists: AI job research needs new stats beyond employment counts and wages

danielrock · x · 2026-10-01

Economists Alex Olegimas and Rishi Bommasani warn that economists may do a poor job researching frontier AI, fixating on familiar metrics like employment counts, wages, and productivity while workers experience jobs becoming structurally unstable. Daniel Rock agrees, noting employment is an equilibrium outcome—structure and stability of work included. Better data on how jobs are evolving now exists, but it mostly sits inside closed labs; it's time for new stats to complement the old ones.

Related event: Economists' review: AI has not hit overall employment yet, but junior white-collar hiring is slipping(5 posts)→

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