• Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Mary Daly states current data does not show widespread net job losses attributable to AI.
  • Significant layoffs, such as Amazon's cut of up to 30,000 corporate roles, are driven by broader restructuring and efficiency goals, not solely by AI displacement.
  • Policymakers are responding with proposed legislation for greater transparency on AI's workforce impact, even as the Fed maintains a data-dependent watch on the evolving situation.

Current labor market evidence and the Federal Reserve's monitoring do not point to major, immediate job displacement caused by the adoption of artificial intelligence, according to Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Mary Daly. "We haven't heard a lot about net job losses from AI," Daly recently stated, signaling that, for now, widespread cuts directly attributed to the technology have not significantly materialized in official data or business surveys.

This assessment comes amid a flurry of high-profile layoffs and a marked slowdown in payroll growth. The annualized rate of U.S. payroll employment growth has slowed markedly, from 1.3% in 2024 to just 0.2% by late summer 2025, a shift generally attributed to a range of economic factors beyond just AI. Meanwhile, companies like Amazon have announced significant job cuts, with the tech giant laying off between 14,000 and 30,000 corporate employees this year. People familiar with the matter at several large tech firms indicate these moves are often part of broader efficiency drives and infrastructure investments for AI, rather than direct net job losses caused solely by the technology itself.

On Capitol Hill, lawmakers are taking a proactive stance. Bipartisan legislation has been proposed that would require companies and federal agencies to provide quarterly reporting on AI-related job effects, aiming to bring more data to a debate currently fueled by anxiety. A staffer for one of the bill's sponsors, who asked not to be named as the discussions are private, confirmed that the goal is to establish a baseline of hard data where little currently exists.

The Federal Reserve, for its part, is navigating this uncertain landscape with a focus on the aggregate numbers. The central bank made its first interest rate cut of 2025, acknowledging economic softness while emphasizing the lack of conclusive data linking AI to widespread job losses. The immense investment flowing into AI infrastructure—such as the recent $40 billion acquisition of Aligned Data Centers by a consortium including BlackRock and Nvidia—signals a profound industry bet on future growth, even as it causes internal restructuring at some firms.

Efforts to reach Amazon for comment on the specific drivers of its recent layoffs were unsuccessful. The company's recent public statements have emphasized a need to streamline costs and re-invest in priority areas, including AI.

*Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the annualized payroll growth rate for 2024. It was 1.3%.