Free Republic

Every time a disruptive technology arrives, the prediction is exactly the same: mass unemployment. ATMs were supposed to eliminate bank tellers. Spreadsheets were supposed to wipe out accountants. History tells a completely different, and terrifyingly counterintuitive, story. Out of every job title tracked by the U.S. Census over the past 60 years, exactly one has been fully eliminated by automation. In this episode, we break down the history of automation, from the birth of the ATM to the strange paradox of the airline pilot, to find out what it tells us about our future with AI. Are tools like Claude...

Ninety-five per cent of Americans believe the US is suffering an affordability crisis, as many report trouble with the rising cost of groceries and gas, according to a survey, conducted by Harris Poll. Despite stable employment and record-high stock markets, more Americans believe the overall economy is getting worse (57%) than in February (46%), when the poll was last conducted and before the war in the Middle East sent gas prices soaring. Fewer people today also believe the economy is getting better (16%, compared with 28% in February) and more say their financial security has gotten worse. Even rural Americans,...

(The Center Square) - The U.S. Department of War awarded a $10 million contract on Thursday as part of its Build Freedom project, an effort to develop workers for the skilled trades. The War Department gave the check to Mike Rowe, an American television host of “Dirty Jobs,” to support the mikeroweWORKS Foundation Scholarship program. The program funds scholarships for veterans to train for skilled trades jobs including plumbers, electricians and welders. Rowe coordinates the program through BuildFreedom.US, a website that compiles open job opportunities in the skilled trades sector. The website connects veterans with scholarships and educational materials to...

Aforce of 10,000 inspectors is being recruited to weed out foreigners: door-to-door across the nation, they will check mines, factories and shops, rounding up those without papers for deportation. Oh, and the target will be black people! Trump madness? Marine le Pen? No, this is South Africa and a project launched by President Cyril Ramaphosa to expel millions of black migrants from across the rest of Africa who have jumped the border or overstayed their visa. It’s Africa’s answer to ICE, though you won’t find many people protesting: quite the opposite. Government and the police are desperate to demonstrate they’re...

Wages and salaries for U.S. workers make up the smallest share of economic output in history, according to records going back to 1947. The U.S. as a whole gets more prosperous every year—but less and less of that prosperity is showing up in workers' paychecks. That's according to fresh analysis by researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In a blog post on Wednesday, the researchers highlighted the declining share of the nation's economic output going to workers in the form of wages and salaries, as opposed to corporate profits and capital. Why have workers taken home a...

Jack Clark discusses Anthropic's regulatory fights, the possibility of recursive self-improvement, and how AI could reshape the economy.Today's guest is He's the co-founder of the artificial intelligence company behind Claudeand the head of its newly launched , a forum designed to think through the philosophical, political, and practical challenges that AI poses to society. Nick Gillespie talks with Clark, a former tech journalist at and , about his company's with the Trump administration; whether Anthropic should have held back Mythos, its superpowerful version, from general release; and what might happen if and when AI becomes fully capable of "," or...

When Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced that employees would be required to return to the office five days a week, he argued that in-person work would strengthen culture, collaboration, and innovation. Similar explanations have accompanied countless workplace decisions in recent years. Job cuts, pay freezes, and restructurings have routinely been packaged as opportunities for companies to become more agile, resilient, or future-ready. Whether these explanations are sincere or strategic, often bear only a passing resemblance to reality. The obvious question is: who even falls for statements that seem absurdly false or self-serving? According to new research out of Cornell University,...

With a smartphone strapped to her head, Indian housewife Nagireddy Sriramyachandra films herself slicing mangoes to train artificial intelligence-powered robots to take on household tasks in the future.

This college commencement season — from north to south, east to west, state universities to the Ivy League, law schools to military academies — one trend stood out: speeches about AI. Some speakers praised the technology and were booed; others denigrated it and were cheered. But one thing was clear, it’s all anyone can talk about. At least 25 graduating classes have heard some version of the spiel. Yes, talk about AI is timely, but it’s also not all that helpful. Nobody knows where the technology is headed, and students probably have a better grasp of that future than the...

While investors focus on artificial intelligence, data centers, and advanced manufacturing, a growing crisis is emerging behind the scenes. The U.S. is running short of the skilled workers needed to keep those industries operating. Major employers including Ford Motor Company, along with organizations backed by Bloomberg Philanthropies, BlackRock, and Lowe’s, are now committing hundreds of millions of dollars to train the next generation of mechanics, electricians, and trade professionals.The spending surge highlights a growing reality: the future of America’s economy may depend as much on skilled tradespeople as it does on software engineers.Ford Says Technician Shortage Is Hurting CustomersEvery morning,...

The US economy added 172,000 jobs in May, blowing past expectations, according to the government's closely watched jobs report. The unemployment rate remained flat at 4.3%. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had anticipated payroll growth of 88,000 for the month. April's jobs report — which itself was a massive beat — was also revised to show an even better 179,000 jobs gained, compared to the 115,000 reported earlier. March's payroll growth was similarly updated to show 214,000, bringing the first monthly gain above 200,000 since early 2024. Payroll gains were seen across several sectors — notably not relying just on the...

The U.S. economy added more jobs than expected in May, posting strong payroll gains for the third month in a row, a sign the U.S. labor market is steadily recovering from a weak patch last fall and winter. The U.S. added 172,000 jobs in May, the Labor Department said Friday, beating expectations.

According to payroll processor ADP, private employers added 122,000 jobs during May, exceeding economist expectations of 110,000 and accelerating from April’s revised total of 105,000. The report arrives at a critical moment for investors. Wall Street is trying to determine whether the economy is heading toward a soft landing, a renewed growth cycle, or a more pronounced slowdown. At the same time, Federal Reserve officials are searching for evidence that inflation pressures are cooling enough to justify future interest rate cuts.For now, the labor market appears to be sending a clear message: employers are still hiring.A Stronger Labor Market Than...

ROSELAND, N.J., June 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Private sector employment increased by 122,000 jobs in May and pay was up 4.4 percent year-over-year according to the May ADP National Employment Report® produced by ADP Research in collaboration with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab ("Stanford Lab"). The ADP National Employment Report is an independent measure of the labor market based on the anonymized weekly payroll data of more than 26 million private-sector employees in the United States. ADP's Pay Insights captures over 15 million individual pay change observations each month. Together, the jobs report and pay insights use ADP's fine-grained data...

The number of American men in the workforce are at its lowest level in two decades — with about one in three American men having stopped working as of 2026, new labor statistics show. Just 66% of men were employed or actively seeking a job as of April, a nearly 20-year low from 73% in 2006, according to data the US Bureau of Labor Statistics released earlier this month. The current number — covering men aged 20 and over — is almost exactly as low as it was after the 2008 recession, when rates first plummeted by seven points in...

Gloom and doom is everywhere these days—-except in the economic data or in business planning meetings. Surveys of consumers suggest that these are the worst of times. The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index keeps hitting all-time lows. The Economist/YouGov poll shows 63 percent of Americans say the economy is getting worse, including a third of Trump voters. Eighty-four percent of Democrats say we are either already in a recession or likely to be in one in the next 12 months. Businesses aren’t seeing it. The Atlanta-Fed released its latest Survey of Business Uncertainty on Tuesday, and the results are...

Two billboards went up in New York City recently. This is a city of advertising, where images appear when someone wants the whole world to see them. One billboard is selling artificial intelligence, and the other is warning about it. The juxtaposition between these two advertisers, who most likely wouldn’t have seen the other’s message in advance, captures the conflict of our times and cements the uncertainty about the future within an artificial intelligence world.The selling billboard is dark, purple, and almost cinematic.An AI-generated face with artificial perfection stares out. Three words above her say: “Stop Hiring Humans.” The Era...

CNBC compiled a list of 23 S&P 500 firms across multiple sectors and industries to see how their stocks fared following layoffs linked to AI. As of May 15, 13 of those companies, or 56%, have traded in the red from the time of their layoff announcements. Of the companies whose shares fell after their AI-linked layoffs, the average decline was about 25%. Some of the companies that have seen their shares sink after slashing head count to embrace AI include Nike, Salesforce and Fiverr. Artificial intelligence has ushered in a bull run in stocks that has taken the broader...

Sleep is critical to being in good health, regulating how people think and informing everything from mood to physical health. But the country’s lack of sleep is a problem for everyone, even for those lucky Americans who are able to get enough shut-eye. In addition to individual health, insufficient sleep creates a drag on medical spending, workplace productivity, and long-term health outcomes. America’s chronic inability to get enough sleep comes with a real cost attached, one that researchers have put in the hundreds of billions of dollars in annual economic losses. The other culprit is the thing that makes the...

The launch of ChatGPT in 2022 ignited the artificial-intelligence boom—and elicited a chorus of warnings from AI bosses of an impending jobs apocalypse. Never mind that they have reason to talk up the disruptiveness of their products, or that rich-world employment is near all-time highs—the dark message has landed. Seven in ten Americans think AI will make it harder for people to find work; nearly a third fear for their own jobs. A dearth of openings for college graduates—especially computer programmers—amplifies the dread. The past offers some solace for the anxious. Labour markets constantly change. Today’s offices would be unrecognisable...