Posted on 10/05/2025 11:03:22 PM PDT by RandFan
Some estimates suggest that half of all white-collar jobs will disappear as artificial intelligence advances. How will older white-collar workers displaced in the AI revolution fare?
Our recent book, “American Idle: Late-Career Job Loss in a Neoliberal Era,” summarizes interviews we conducted with 62 baby boomers who lost their white-collar jobs during another unemployment crisis: the 2008 Great Recession and its sluggish recovery. Statistics show that workers over age 50 experienced the highest rates of long-term joblessness. Their layoffs also coincided with a precarious stage of the life course: “too young to retire but too old to start all over,” as one of our interviewees put it. Gen Xers today face the same quandary.
There were, however, vastly different financial outcomes after these post-2008 layoffs. At one end of the spectrum were those boomers who experienced “hard falls.” Because long-term unemployment and back-to-back job losses were common within this group, some turned to accessing food pantries, applying for welfare benefits, or losing a home to a short sale or foreclosure. Job losses at the other end of the spectrum were “soft landings,” and individuals were more or less financially unscathed.
Several factors facilitated soft landings. For instance, because these interviewees experienced years of job stability, their extended length of service translated into generous severance packages. Several also departed with defined benefits pension plans in hand. A guaranteed income stream for the remainder of their lives allowed for an unplanned early retirement for some. Family members, such as employed spouses or wealthy parents, were another source of financial support.
Evidence suggests that compared to the boomers we studied, a larger proportion of Gen X are susceptible to hard falls than their predecessors. This demands a structural solution and a universal basic income might be the answer.
First, baby boomers entered the labor force when white-collar workers were rewarded with job security and financial stability. In contrast, today’s office workers are encouraged to always be on the lookout for new opportunities. Frequent job changes, however, translate into a much smaller severance package when length of service factors into the equation. And whereas many of our soft landers had pensions, Gen X entered the labor force just as these secure retirement plans were being replaced with 401(k)s.
Workers are expected to contribute a portion of their salary into these defined contribution plans. But because savings are personally invested, financial illiteracy and market volatility increase the level of risk. At the same time, low wage workers typically lack employer-supported retirement plans, and even if they do have access, they are less likely to participate due to financial hardship.
Not to mention the collective net worth of Gen X is about half that of boomers. Because this generation also carries the highest rates of debt, the ability to retire comfortably will be jeopardized. With lower rates of home ownership than boomers at the same age, many Gen Xers will miss out on the long-term gains that can be derived from owning property.
Finally, a growing share of older adults now live alone. In addition to lacking the financial support of an employed spouse, people who live alone tend to earn less than individuals who are married. This predisposes one-person Gen X households to a financial disadvantage that may turn a layoff into a hard fall.
There is always the possibility that AI-induced job losses don’t materialize, given the current failure of artificial intelligence to increase worker productivity. Still, advancements are inevitable and with almost 900,000 private sector employees having already lost their jobs and another 300,000 federal government employees out of work by the end of 2025, white-collar workers are under threat from many sides.
Older workers are encouraged to protect their finances in this unstable environment but as our research shows, it’s impossible to prepare for a bout of unemployment extended indefinitely by age discrimination in the hiring process.
Targeted education and training programs would empower unemployed Gen Xers to access fields in which job growth is predicted to increase. We must also consider developing a universal basic income program to address long-term joblessness among those older workers who are too young to collect Social Security. Such experiments in other countries have been successful in increasing both well-being and employment rates.
Here at home, several U.S. cities and counties, in both red and blue states, have already experimented with limited basic income programs. For white-collar Gen Xers seeking new employment, this could mean the difference between a soft landing with minimal financial strife, and a hard fall that stresses both personal households and other shrinking social safety nets.
Annette Nierobisz is professor of sociology at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn. Dana Sawchuk is professor and chair of sociology at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario. They are the authors of “American Idle: Late Career Job Loss in a Neoliberal Era” (Rutgers University Press, 2025).
Learn roofing.
“””””Would it make any sense to bring back boarding houses for older workers who live alone?”””””
The problem today is regulations, whether it is making a 1960 VW cost $30,000 today with all the requirements and fancy stuff, or a simple drafty wood frame 1960 house cost $200,000 with all the requirements and fancy stuff and double pane windows, they would make “boarding houses” impossible for a little old lady to convert and operate on her own, and with her home cooking.
You summed it up nicely. Many problems evolved from that, including increased crime in areas where heavy manufacturing once thrived, such as Chicago.
And if I’m reading the various articles right, the illegals are getting a universal basic income in the form of handouts by the lefty/commie/blue states and the fedgov under the Jill Biden/obama administration.
Many of us have late career job losses. That is no reason for handouts beyond unemployment insurance monies.
Give the commies an inch and they will take a mile. Once the commies get basic income for someone, it will balloon to everyone. Look at homosexuality. They were let out of the closet, and today we have child mutilations with the sick belief they can change their sex.
Different agents for each of these tasks. And different robotics to handle the physical tasks then too I assume?
And you feel perfectly comfortable handing off these tasks to AI with little to no oversight?
Explain why we need the H-1B worker visa to import 80k whites collar STEM workers per year from India? Our tech bros can stuff it.
All AI is is the main frame computer on an even more massive scale.
Yeah but automated taking out the trash is only useful if you can afford the automation. And the maintenance.
What small company is going to buy robotics and AI to take out the trash when you can just....take out the trash?
Worker visas (H-1B) have stolen trillions of dollars of wealth from the US middle class because of lost opportunities/wages over the last 30 years. I wish there was a way to quantify it.
Use tariff income to help fund SS. The tariff is really a tax on using foreign labor. Who better to pay for SS?
I hear you it’s the same all over.
They will be going home soon. Basic economics
Some would say good bye ...
As long as those software engineers are not EU or Asians imports. MAGA.
Yes. You cannot expect one person to be a specialist at all aspects, neither should you expect one agent to be a specialist.
Componentization - it worked with COM and DLL days and it works now.
This of course means that you need to have an orchestrator.
And you feel perfectly comfortable handing off these tasks to AI with little to no oversight?
— definitely NOT “no oversight” - you need the human in the machine. But little oversight yes, if they can be proved as working for generic, edge and stress cases.
And no Central_venezuelans
47 percent of Americans pay zero in taxes. I think everyone should have to pay something so when they raise taxes, most just shrug and say, “who cares”. If everyone was contributing, maybe they’d vote smarter.
All of the world has a falling birth rate
Many of the non-civilized world ar rapidly heading to below replacement rate
For instance, India, Iran and Bangladesh have fertility rates below replacement levels
Saudi arabia is at 2.15 and decreasing rapidly
Globally birth rates have been falling for 250 years.
I think those are overly aggressive estimates. I think something closer to 30%, but that will include many of the “newbie” jobs. And I see this as more increasing productivity than anything.
I used to be pessimistic about this until I really started coding at the low level and see the way the tech is getting mired in the noise and can’t determine the signal. Too much data
It seems if you experience late-career job loss...you need a jiob.....not a handout from others.
We thought the same about home vacuuming - and then the roomba. I don't own one, but it seems like everyone has. I now see roombas for cutting grass - and ordinary people are buying it
The prices for these are falling
Yep. Its not only that Americans did not get those lower level jobs with prestigious corporations. They also then did not get the enhanced job skills and they were not able to climb the corporate ladder because they never got the entry level jobs in the first place. They were unemployed - often for YEARS during the Great Recession - when they otherwise would not have been. This was an utter betrayal of the Middle Class in America....the Working Class already having been betrayed by mass illegal immigration and outsourcing.
They are sociology “professors.” They already know what they want to say, they just interviewed a few people to gather some quotes and sob stories to pad their copy.
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