27%. That is the share of U.S. workers who now say technology could soon make their jobs obsolete, a record in Gallup’s polling. It is up seven points from a year ago and about double the 13% who said so when Gallup first asked in 2017.
The result comes from Gallup’s Work and Education survey, fielded Aug. 3-24. It stands out because the other job worries Gallup tracks hardly moved.
The old fears hold steady
Benefit cuts remain the most common concern of the four traditional ones, at 33%. Layoffs follow at 24%, then reduced hours and lower wages at 21% each. All four sit near their long-term averages since Gallup began tracking them in 1997. Historically they have followed the economy: low in the early 2000s, a peak during and just after the Great Recession, a dip from 2017 to 2019 when more Americans rated the economy positively than negatively, and a sharp jump in the pandemic year of 2020.
Technology worry does not fit that pattern. At 27%, it now beats three of the four.
Degrees no longer protect
Concern rose in the past year among workers with and without a college degree: six points to 25% for graduates, eight points to 29% for everyone else. When Gallup first measured it in 2017, graduates were less worried than non-graduates. Among graduates it then jumped from 8% in 2021 to 20% in 2023, as generative AI tools such as ChatGPT arrived. It held steady last year before rising again.
Graduates are less likely than non-graduates to fear layoffs, wage cuts or reduced hours, yet nearly as likely to fear technology. Both groups still rank benefit cuts first.
Younger workers feel it most
Age shows the starkest split. In 2017 and 2018, workers aged 18 to 44 and those 45 and older worried about equally. Since then, younger workers’ concern has grown while older workers’ has stayed flat. Now it is 34% against 19%.
For the under-45s, technology ties benefit cuts as the top job worry: 34% for technology, 32% for benefits, 30% for layoffs, 29% for reduced hours and 25% for lower wages. Among workers 45 and older, benefit cuts lead by far at 34%.
The fear is running ahead of the damage so far. Gallup notes that AI’s overall effect on U.S. employment remains modest, and the latest jobs report showed solid hiring and unemployment steady at 4.1%. There are signs of weaker hiring for entry-level and junior workers in the occupations most exposed to AI. A recent Bentley University-Gallup study found nearly eight in 10 Americans expect AI to reduce the total number of jobs over the next decade.
Sources
- More U.S. Workers Fear Losing Their Jobs to Technology
- 27% Of U.S. Workers Now Fear Technology Will Make Their Jobs Obsolete
