The Government Says It Can't See AI Taking Jobs, So It Asked OpenAI, Google, Meta and Amazon to Tell It
About This Episode
Acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling told Axios his department has signed data-sharing agreements with OpenAI, Google, Meta and Amazon to track how AI is affecting jobs, because — in his words — the government does not have the data. The Bureau of Labor Statistics sits inside that department and supplies the jobs numbers the Federal Reserve uses to set interest rates. Meanwhile New York has passed a bill that would make employers report AI displacement by law, and it is sitting unsigned on the governor's desk.
Our Take
The federal government has admitted it cannot see AI reshaping the labor market and has asked the four companies doing the reshaping to describe it — which turns the most important economic measurement of the decade into a self-report.
Continue Reading on Unscarcity
4.2% US Unemployment, 408 Million Jobs Gap: 2026 Data
It documents how the official unemployment rate falls when people stop looking rather than when they find work, which is the measurement failure the Labor Department is now trying to patch with corporate data.
Amazon's AI Penalized Women. Caesar Became Dictator.
It argues transparency only works when it is architectural rather than optional, which is exactly the gap between a cancellable memorandum with four vendors and a statute obligating employers.