A I is quietly replacing white collar paper pushers.
Yup. The old thinking was that simple automation would replace workers on the assembly line -- robots are better. And fast-food job? Machines can flip burgers, right? Machines would take jobs from low-skill workers, but no one really cares about them, right?
Well, AI can do most cubicle work. Simple, repetitive, logical tasks. Fill out the spreadsheets, file the reports, crunch the numbers. Machines do that better than people. Insurance, Banking, Accounting, Lawyers, etc. Lots of white collar jobs held by smart people who got good college degrees -- those jobs are going away.
And for young people -- the entry-level jobs of burger flipping or mail room clerk? There aren't really entry-level jobs anymore. But if you get your foot in the door, can you move up? No. We got rid of Middle Management, remember? Those were wasteful jobs, so we don't have Managers running teams of 5 or 10. We have Managers running teams of 100-200. Good luck moving up to that position -- 100 people on the team want to become the new boss. Only 1 will make it. Odds are 99% against you.
Physical trades are a good bet for young people. But the country doesn't need 300 million plumbers, so that's not a complete solution.
I think a VERY large percentage of the population will find that it as no useful labor to contribute to society. This is bad.