AI is coming for your job
The growing gap in the future of work and how Canada can keep up
When Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced plans to eliminate up to 317,000 government jobs in 2025, it sent shockwaves through the federal workforce. The announcement sparked anxiety and uncertainty among many older, mid-career professionals. Young, tech-savvy teams deployed an AI chatbot aimed at automating essential government tasks.
The US tech sector saw 7,488 layoffs in January 2025 (128% more than December) with February's numbers soaring to 245% higher than January. The future is here, and it's creating starkly different realities for those with advanced technical skills and those without.
On one side are young tech workers whose careers and salaries are climbing. On the other side are older employees in traditional roles watching their jobs disappear faster than they can learn new skills. This split hits women and marginalized communities hardest, since they often work the jobs that are most easily automated.
Who’s winning and who’s losing with AI?
On paper, AI’s potential is staggering. PwC says AI could add as much as $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030. But who profits? History suggests the spoils won't be shared equally. Goldman Sachs anticipates up to 300 million jobs could vanish globally.
Earlier this year, Meta cut about 3,600 employees, 5% of its workforce, while hiring for AI roles at the same time. At JPMorgan, an AI system called COIN now does work that once took 360,000 hours of lawyers' time. The AI divide isn't an academic concept. AI is reshaping real careers right now.
Last week, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) confirmed that newly created AI jobs are clustering to specialized industries like finance and manufacturing. These industries are looking for software engineers and data scientists, not laid off workers looking to switch careers.
Here in Canada, more than 10% of workers face a high risk of seeing their jobs changed or eliminated by automation, according to a 2020 study. Another 30% face moderate risk.
Why AI cuts hurt women and minorities more
The stats tell a clear story about who's vulnerable. In the US, 79% of women face high automation risk compared to 58% of men. That means for every seven men at risk, ten women could lose their jobs.
Canadian numbers aren't much better. While women make up nearly half (48%) of our workforce, they hold just 34.8% of jobs in the digital economy. In the tech sector, women occupy only 9% of leadership roles. Among Canadian AI inventors, only one in eight is a woman—far below the global average of one in four. When the tech jobs of today are already unequal, it’s not hard to imagine who will find themselves with new opportunities as old jobs disappear.
Women made up about 33% of workers at big tech companies like Facebook and Google but accounted for 44% of their layoffs in late 2023. Why? Because departments typically staffed by women like human resources, marketing, and finance faced deeper cuts. Meanwhile, people from marginalized communities face similar obstacles, potentially erasing years of progress in workplace diversity.
"In the United States, 79% of women face high automation risk compared to 58% of men—for every seven men at risk, ten women confront potential job displacement."
Why "learn to code" just isn’t realistic
Whenever automation threatens jobs, someone inevitably suggests workers should "learn to code." But last week's OECD report shows why that advice falls flat. After a brief hiring surge in 2022, companies began favouring experienced tech workers over newly trained ones.
Most retraining programs underestimate how hard it is to learn complex skills like machine learning and data science, especially mid-career. The skills gap is growing wider, not narrower.
Here’s how Canada can handle AI’s impact on jobs
According to the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Future of Jobs Report 2025, artificial intelligence and automation are set to dramatically reshape the workforce by 2030, displacing about 92 million existing jobs while creating roughly 170 million new roles. This means a net gain of 78 million positions, but chances are the people benefitting from the new jobs won’t be the people at risk of losing their jobs. Clearly, helping workers transition into AI-driven careers will be complex, especially since the same WEF report says that 39% of existing skill sets are expected to become outdated between 2025-2030.
For Canada to weather this shift, we need practical solutions that put people first. Here is what some experts are saying will help.
Make lifelong learning available to everyone. This means government-backed education accounts for all workers that cover everything from short certificates to advanced degrees. Tax breaks should encourage both individuals and companies to invest in ongoing education, especially for workers most at risk.
Benefits shouldn't disappear when jobs do. We’ll need portable benefits for health insurance, pensions, and unemployment support that follow workers throughout their careers. Simple digital platforms could help people manage these benefits across different jobs and industries.
Workers who lose their jobs to AI need stronger safety nets. Extended unemployment benefits specifically for tech displacement and wage insurance to help when people have to take pay cuts could make transitions less painful. Companies saving money through AI could help fund these programs.
Businesses adopting AI should be required to have plans for their affected workers before they put new technology into place. Tax incentives could reward companies that successfully retrain and keep their employees rather than simply replacing them.
People going through career transitions need personalized help. Specialized centres offering career advice, job matching, and mental health support could make the difference between successful adaptation and long-term unemployment.
Finally, workers deserve a voice when it comes to AI decisions affecting their jobs. Companies should include worker representatives when planning automation, consult employees throughout implementation, and create clear channels for feedback on new systems.
By taking concrete steps, we can build a workforce ready to survive AI disruption and, hopefully, to thrive through it. A forward-thinking approach will tackle today's workforce challenges and create a better future for Canadians.
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In the news
Italian newspaper says it has published world’s first AI-generated edition (The Guardian) An Italian newspaper, Il Foglio, has become the first to publish an entire edition created by AI, including articles, headlines, and summaries, as part of an experiment exploring AI's impact on journalism. This special edition covers diverse topics from politics to relationships, but notably lacks direct human quotes, raising intriguing questions about AI’s role in media.
Ben Stiller, Mark Ruffalo and more than 400 Hollywood names urge Trump to not let AI companies ‘exploit’ copyrighted works (Variety) More than 400 Hollywood creative leaders signed an open letter to the Trump White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, urging the administration to not roll back copyright protections at the behest of AI companies. Ben Stiller, Mark Ruffalo, Cynthia Erivo, Cate Blanchett, Cord Jefferson, Paul McCartney, Ron Howard and Taika Waititi submitted comments for the Trump administration’s U.S. AI Action Plan.
60% of C-suite execs are actively seeking new roles at AI-forward companies (ZDNET) A new report reveals that 59% of C-suite executives and 35% of employees are actively seeking roles at companies with stronger commitments to generative AI, highlighting AI as a major talent magnet. The study underscores a significant gap between employee expectations and company readiness, urging businesses to quickly integrate and leverage generative AI to attract and retain talent.
The AI Data-Center Boom Is a Job-Creation Bust (WSJ) Tech and political leaders tout them as an employment bonanza, but data centres need very few workers in very large spaces.