The unexpected 92,000 drop in payrolls is a clue we might be reading the AI jobs narrative all wrong

The shocking news that U.S. payrolls dropped by 92,000 in February—market watchers were expecting a 50,000 gain—trained the spotlight on what’s probably today’s most worrisome issue for everyone from money managers to Main Street shareholders to office workers: What’s the looming impact of AI on jobs? The widely accepted view, of course, holds that AI has already started generating gigantic efficiency gains empowering enterprises to do everything quicker and better while deploying far fewer people.