A Goldman Sachs report finds that AI-related employment pressure is showing up clearly in labor market data across major developed economies, concentrated in a specific group of industries and hitting entry-level workers hardest.
Employment in call centers, software publishing, management consulting, and advertising has fallen sharply below historical trend across developed markets; US call center employment is now 39% below trend, 33% in Canada, and 27% in Germany.
Industries with greater AI exposure have seen slower job openings growth since the second half of 2022, with the pattern most pronounced in Germany, Australia, and the US.
A 10% occupational exposure to AI was associated with only a 0.1 percentage point drag on overall annual headcount growth in France, Canada, and the US, but the impact on entry-level workers ranged from 0.2 to more than 0.6 percentage points.
AI adoption across major developed economies currently averages roughly 15% to 20%, with France, the US, the Netherlands, and the UK leading; Italy, Japan, and New Zealand are among the lower adopters.
Read more via CNBC
Initial unemployment claims fell to 206,000 for the week ending August 15, below economist expectations and suggesting the labor market remains stable despite a weak July jobs report.
Claims dropped 6,000 from the prior week's upwardly revised 212,000; economists had forecasted 210,000.
Claims appear anchored at the lower end of their 189,000 to 230,000 range for the year and remain notably below levels seen at the same point in each of the past three years.
The US shed 23,000 jobs in July overall, but the loss was concentrated in local government education; the private sector added 30,000 jobs.
Continued claims, a proxy for hiring, rose 18,000 to a seasonally adjusted 1.799 million, reversing an equal drop the prior week but remaining at their relatively low trend level.
Read more via Reuters
US manufacturing employment has been growing since January, with factories adding 29,000 jobs this year and activity reaching its highest level since 2022. But economists say the picture may be more uneven than the White House's framing suggests.
Metal products and transportation equipment, both subject to tariff protection, account for most of the gains, adding more than 41,000 jobs since January; food, furniture, and rubber and plastic manufacturers have shed more than 32,000 positions over the same period.
Overall, manufacturing has lost about 62,000 jobs since Trump took office in January 2025 and remains well below the post-pandemic peak reached under President Biden in 2023.
At the current pace of growth, a Washington Post analysis of Labor Department data finds, it would take nearly five years to return to the Biden-era employment peak.
Economists cite the AI and data center construction boom, the conflict in Iran, and lower interest rates as likely bigger drivers of manufacturing hiring than tariffs.
Read more via The Washington Post
The Trump administration's decision to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitian immigrants took effect July 27, and employers across Florida are feeling the impact. Home-care agencies, nursing homes, restaurants, hotels, and small businesses are all scrambling to fill positions vacated by workers who lost employment authorization.
About 93,000 Haitian TPS holders were part of Florida's workforce, including an estimated 16,000 cooks and servers, 8,000 stockers and packers, and 4,000 nursing assistants.
In Miami-Dade and Broward counties, two home-care agencies shut down entirely after each lost more than 80 Haitian TPS holders.
ArchCare, a New York-based healthcare operator, tripled sign-on bonuses to $6,000 and enlisted premium-priced staffing agencies to fill 20 vacancies left by TPS terminations.
Haitians make up 28% of Florida's immigrant direct-care workforce, the largest share of any country of origin.
Read more via The Wall Street Journal
A proposed rule submitted to the Office of Management and Budget on August 6 would eliminate the 60-day grace period currently available to H-1B visa holders and other employment-based visa categories following a job loss. The rule has not been finalized, and the grace period remains in effect while the rulemaking process continues.
Since 2017, H-1B workers who lose their jobs have had up to 60 days to find a new sponsoring employer, change immigration status, or leave the country without immediately falling out of status.
The proposed rule would remove that window entirely, meaning a terminated worker could face immediate immigration consequences.
The grace period applies to multiple visa categories beyond H-1B, including L-1, O-1, TN, E-1, E-2, and E-3; dependents tied to the principal visa holder would also be affected.
Public comment periods and further regulatory review are expected before any change takes effect.
Prior to the 60-day grace period rule, a 10-day grace period existed
Read more via Global Immigration Blog, Higher Ed Dive
A new analysis from the Centre for Economic Policy Research finds that labor force participation rates in the euro area and the US have been moving in opposite directions since 2006, with the gap between the two narrowing significantly. The labor force participation rate, or LFPR, measures the share of the working-age population that is either employed or actively looking for work.
In 2025, the euro area LFPR averaged 58.2%, still 4.2 percentage points below the US rate, but the gap has closed considerably as the euro area's rate rose 1.6 percentage points since 2006 while the US rate fell about 4 points over the same period.
Population aging is pushing participation lower in both regions, but rising educational attainment has partially offset that drag, more so in the euro area than in the US.
In the euro area, older workers are staying in the labor force longer, driven by later retirement ages and pension reforms; in the US, prime-age male participation has declined across all age groups, with the steepest drops among men under 35.
By 2035, researchers project the euro area LFPR will fall to roughly 57% and the US rate to about 61.5%, driven primarily by demographic shifts.
Read more via CEPR/VoxEU
The International Labour Organization reported that global youth unemployment rose in 2025, reversing post-pandemic gains and reflecting a deterioration in both the number and quality of jobs available to young workers. The ILO is the United Nations agency responsible for setting international labor standards.
The unemployment rate among 15-to-24-year-olds rose to 12.4% in 2025 from 12.3% in 2023, representing 67 million young people worldwide.
Youth unemployment increased in eight of the world's 11 subregions, with North America seeing one of the sharpest jumps, climbing to 9.8% from 8.3% in 2023.
The ILO flagged the erosion of middle-skill jobs, including clerical, administrative, sales, and manufacturing roles, as a key driver, since those positions have historically served as entry points for young workers.
The ILO estimates 6.1% of jobs held by people aged 15 to 29 are in occupations most exposed to AI-related changes; if just 10% of those disappeared, 5.6 million young workers could face unemployment or exit the labor force entirely.
Nearly nine in 10 young workers in low- and lower-middle-income countries remain in informal employment, without adequate labor or social protections.
A survey of 2,017 British employers conducted between late June and late July found hiring confidence near its weakest point outside the pandemic, with employers reluctant to add headcount but equally reluctant to cut it.
The CIPD's net employment balance held at +9, close to its lowest level outside the pandemic; the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, or CIPD, is the UK's main professional body for HR practitioners.
Private-sector hiring intentions remained at +11, matching a record low outside the pandemic, with just 57% of private-sector employers planning to recruit in the next three months.
31% of employers reported hard-to-fill vacancies, and 14% expect significant recruitment difficulties in the next six months.
Median expected pay rises held at 3%, unchanged for more than two years.
Canada: Canadian inflation rose to 3% in July, hitting the top of the Bank of Canada's target range and coming in slightly above the 2.9% economists expected. Gas prices, up 25.7% year-over-year, were the biggest driver; strip out energy and annual inflation held steady at 2.2% for a third straight month. Most economists expect the central bank to leave interest rates unchanged at its September 2 meeting, given narrow underlying price pressures and ongoing trade uncertainty. (The Wall Street Journal)
India: Nearly 40% of Indian college graduates under 25 are unemployed, according to a study from Azim Premji University, even as the number of private colleges tripled in the decade after 2014 and higher education enrollment reached 45 million students. India creates only about 250,000 jobs a year paying more than $500 a month, while an estimated 400,000 students annually spend more than $20,000 on private engineering degrees chasing them. AI is now adding pressure on the technology sector jobs those degrees were meant to unlock. (The New York Times)
Spain: Women hold just 20.1% of jobs across Spain's main IT occupations, according to a Randstad analysis of second-quarter 2026 labor force data, with representation dropping as low as 1% among electronics and telecommunications equipment installers. The sector employs more than 1.08 million people overall, with software developers and programmers accounting for more than four in ten of those jobs. (Staffing Industry Analysts)
United Kingdom: A survey of 500 UK hiring managers found 34% plan to expand permanent headcounts before year-end, with an additional 25% planning to increase contract hiring, suggesting a selective rather than stalled market. Employers are concentrating recruitment in technology, cybersecurity, finance, and compliance. Six in ten small-to-midsized firms say upskilling and reskilling are now key strategies for addressing workforce gaps. (Staffing Industry Analysts)
