Male Gen Zers are dropping out of the US job market in droves: Susceptible to being displaced by AI

Male Gen Zers have been dropping out of the labor pool in droves — and experts warn that the spread of artificial intelligence could accelerate the ugly trend even further.Last month, the US unemployment rate — the percentage of Americans who are jobless and actively looking for work — dipped to 4.1%, its lowest level of the year and well below the 5.6% average since the end of World War II.But there’s a grim corollary to the rosy-looking numbers: Also in July, the labor force shrank by more than a quarter million people versus a year earlier, hitting its lowest levels since the pandemic.One key point of worry: the share of men aged 16 to 24 participating in the labor market dipped to 56.1% – tumbling nearly 13 percentage points from 69% in 2000, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.What’s more, the share of young, unemployed men who are not looking for work at all has doubled since the 1990s to 8%, according to Ben Smith, head of research at the American Institute for Boys and Men.That last figure raises concerns that a growing number of young men in the US are struggling to leave the nest — and the question of why has become an increasing point of concern for economists and social advocates alike.Artificial intelligence has already been cited in 184,538 layoff announcements since 2023, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

While tech leaders have argued that AI will create new jobs in the long-term, the new technology is widely expected to disrupt entry-level roles in fields like tech, finance and manufacturing.Smith warned that the effects of AI are uncertain, but “if it substitutes for those jobs entirely, men and the occupations they tend to be in are more susceptible to being displaced by AI.”Maria Flynn, chief executive of nonprofit Jobs for the Future, said entry-level hiring is being hit at retail, at factories and across a swath of white-collar jobs that young men used to enter en masse.“The longer the individ...