BlackRock CIO Warns Americans Underestimating How Many Workers Will Be Displaced Amid AI Productivity Boom

BlackRock’s Rick Rieder believes the US economy over the next 5-10 years will undergo “the most extraordinary period of technology productivity.”

Rieder, the financial giant’s chief investment officer (CIO) of global fixed income, says in a new interview with CNBC that this new era of productivity could threaten jobs.

“After you get the fiscal tailwind next year, I actually think the bigger issue is going to be putting enough people to work. You’re seeing it today, you saw the revision in payroll today, you’re seeing weak labor. If you strip healthcare out, you have negative job growth. I think people underestimate — we’re going to displace a lot of people from jobs.

To me, for the next 5-10 years, yes, you’ve always got to manage inflation, you’ve always got to be thoughtful about it… Today, if you ask young people about getting a job, if you ask people in urban settings about getting a job, it’s really hard. That, to me, is going to be the secular discussion over the next few years.” 

The new U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report noted that total nonfarm payrolls gained 22,000 jobs in August, far fewer than the 75,000 that were expected.

The unemployment rate also moved up from 4.2% to 4.3% last month, according to the BLS.

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