Skills and Future of Work

New research from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that venture capital investment and advanced technology adoption are closely linked to higher employment and productivity. VC-backed, technology-adopting firms account for a disproportionately large share of U.S. jobs, even as venture investment has declined since 2021.

AI isn’t destroying jobs; it’s creating them. At least in 2024, the surge in AI activity and data center construction generated more jobs than AI displaced.

Detractors of capitalism argue that it took over fifty years for the British Industrial Revolution’s benefits to reach average workers. That narrative is at best contested and, at worst, wrong.

If we’re lucky, AI will restore the productivity growth that has eluded us for 15 years—not through dystopian transformation, but through steady, incremental improvements across the economy.

A pro-worker agenda isn’t the same as a “national greatness” agenda. Workers are an interest group like any other: sometimes aligned with what’s best for the American Republic, and sometimes not.

The proposed AI-Related Job Impacts Clarity Act would create misleading, unhelpful data and unfairly stigmatize AI adoption, diverting attention from more effective ways to measure technology’s real impacts and support workers.

Unions are interest groups, and America’s challenges require every group to put the national interest ahead of narrow self-interest. Yes, including blue-collar workers.

The federal government has imposed a $100,000 fee on companies seeking to sponsor H-1B visas for foreign workers in specialty occupations, which could undermine U.S. efforts to attract top STEM talent. Policymakers should establish a program that grants green cards to temporary visa holders with non-social science STEM degrees.

History suggests the labor market will weather this technological storm, just as it has weathered many others before it.

A productive approach to emerging workplace technologies would focus on two overarching goals: 1) accelerating development, testing, and adoption, and 2) supporting positive uses of the technology while mitigating negative ones.