Goldman Sachs finds longer job searches after AI displacement

Workers displaced from AI-exposed jobs since 2025 took about a month longer to find new work than other displaced workers, according to Goldman Sachs. They were also roughly 10 percentage points more likely to remain unemployed a year after losing their jobs. The gap was larger for older workers: those 35 and older took about five weeks longer to return to full-time work, compared with about three weeks for those under 35.

Goldman economist Pierfrancesco Mei analyzed more than 15,000 displaced workers in the Labor Department’s Displaced Worker Supplement, covering 2016 through 2025. He combined occupational AI exposure, industry adoption and whether a position was eliminated into an exposure score, classifying the top 30% as AI-displaced. Historical technology disruptions also showed slower real earnings growth for affected workers than for other displaced workers.

The findings come amid broader pressure on employment and wages. Employers cited AI in 120,136 announced job cuts through September, about 21% of all cuts and the leading reason given. Among long-tenured workers who lost full-time jobs from 2023 through 2025 and subsequently found full-time work, about 49% earned as much as or more than before, down from about 62% in the prior survey.