--- title: "Jerome Powell Deeply Concerned About AI’s Effects on Job Market" description: "The federal reserve chair is watching AI's effect on job growth \"very carefully\" as he decides on tax rates." date: "2025-11-02" modified: "2025-11-02" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/powell-ai-job-market" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Ethics" - "Finance" - "Future Society" --- # Jerome Powell Deeply Concerned About AI’s Effects on Job Market ![The federal reserve chair is watching AI's effect on job growth "very carefully" as he decides on tax rates.]() *Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Alex Wong / Getty Images* If you had a hunch that the economy is in the tubes lately, you're not alone: Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell [agrees with you](). After his long-anticipated Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on Wednesday, Powell told reporters that "job creation is very low, and the job-finding rate for people who are unemployed is very low." Per [*Fortune* magazine](), Powell added that a "significant number of companies" have been contributing to the malaise by laying off workers or pausing hiring. Their reason? None other than artificial intelligence. "Much of the time they're talking about AI and what it can do," the Fed chair said about executives of large corporations. "We're watching that very carefully." Powell's cynical comments come after the Fed announced that it'd cut interest down to around 3.75-4.0 percent, the lowest level in three years, [*CNN* reported](). The Fed board has been facing something of an impossible situation over the past few months, juggling both rising unemployment and severe inflation. In a healthy market economy it's typically understood that employment and inflation have an [inverse relationship]() — when one goes up, the other goes down. In 2025, however, both are rising at the same time, placing an increased burden on working-class households, and putting the Fed in an [impossible situation](). As the number of people out of work goes up, corporations are able to [use the pressure]() of hungry hands to keep wages for actual workers low. The effect of this horrible job growth — fueled by the hype of the [AI narrative]() — is an economy where the rich spend like sailors, while the poor get much poorer. As Powell put it: "consumers at the lower end are struggling and buying less and shifting to lower-cost products," while high income households and corporations enjoy the [strongest stock market]() in history. **More on the economy:** *[The Economy Is So Off the Rails That They’re Trying to Figure Out How to Make Ads Specifically Targeted at AI Bots]()* **[]()** ## Author At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()