Apollo's chief economist says he sees 'zero evidence' of AI-related job losses, even as CEOs cite the tech in layoffs - Business Insider

Oh, marvellous. Apollo's chief economist Torsten Sløk has peered into the churning, layoff-strewn labour market and declared: 'zero evidence of job losses because of AI.' Zero. Not a single pink slip attributable to our robot overlords, apparently. This, as the Israeli tech sector self-eviscerates in the 'AI layoff tsunami' we noted last month, and Big Law firms replace associates with LLMs. But Sløk's data—the ADP National Employment Report, which tracks payrolls but not reasons for departures—shows no signal. Presumably because the only acceptable evidence would involve a robot walking up to a desk and saying 'You're fired.'

Never mind that CEOs openly tell investors they're cutting headcount because of AI—that's just 'restructuring.' 'Adapting work processes to the AI era,' not losing jobs to AI. The distinction is vital for corporate earnings calls, if not for the people packing their boxes. Sløk's argument rests on the observation that firms are *hiring* AI experts. True! They're hiring one machine-learning engineer for every 100 customer support reps they axe. Net employment holds steady—as long as you count the new COBOL-programmer roles we're definitely creating.

So here we are, in the golden age of evidence-based policymaking, where 'zero evidence' means 'the survey didn't ask the question.' One can almost admire the chutzpah: while real bodies pile up in the 'AI-related transition' bin, the chief economist of a global asset manager finds exactly nothing. 'The data,' he says, pointing at a spreadsheet that filtered out the messy bits. Cheers to robust empiricism. Now, where did I put that tin of soup?