McKinsey Says AI Will Create More American Jobs Than It Kills. Only One in Seven of the Workers It Displaces Has a Straight Road Into One
About This Episode
Fortune reported on October 3, 2026 on a new McKinsey Global Institute report projecting that AI and automation will cut demand for about 36 million US jobs by 2035 while growth elsewhere creates about 41 million. The catch is getting there: about 11 million workers would have to leave their occupation entirely, only about one in seven of them has a direct path into a growing job, nearly half face what McKinsey calls an unpaved one, and roughly 85% of growing jobs require a credential.
Our Take
The jobs count comes out positive, but the report's own fine print says the road from a shrinking job to a growing one is short and paved for one displaced worker in seven, and the people with the longest road are the ones least able to afford the trip.
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The article takes on the same 'new jobs will replace the old ones' defense the McKinsey report makes and argues the new jobs sit behind credentials most displaced workers lack, so 'just retrain' asks a person to become someone else.
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Its argument that retraining fails when nothing carries the worker through the gap frames the report's own admission that training cannot pay people while they train.