Economists urge better labor data to track AI's job impact

More than 40 economists and economic policy experts pressed Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer to make high-quality, timely data on artificial intelligence’s labor effects a top priority, warning that Washington is not prepared to monitor job changes as they unfold. The September 9, 2025 letter was organized by Americans for Responsible Innovation, a bipartisan nonprofit focused on emerging-technology policy, and it included four Nobel laureates plus former Federal Reserve chairs Janet Yellen and Ben Bernanke.

The economists said the immediate policy gap is not a lack of speculation, but a lack of measurement. They called for stronger data collection on which jobs are exposed to AI and for upgrades to the Current Population Survey and the O*NET database, two of the federal labor tools most often used to gauge the changing workplace. The letter said the CPS response rate has declined and that its sample size has not been expanded since 2001, a weakness the signers argued leaves officials with an incomplete picture of how quickly labor markets are shifting.

Their request was aimed at more than surveillance. The economists argued that better data would help policymakers respond appropriately to AI-driven disruption and train workers for new jobs in an AI-integrated economy. That argument has become more urgent as new research suggests AI is already reducing job opportunities for younger workers in occupations most exposed to the technology, especially at the early-career end of the labor market where displacement can be hardest to absorb.

The pressure on Labor came alongside a broader wave of concern over how governments should track and govern AI. Nearly 200 economists have separately signed a letter urging policymakers to do more to understand and respond to potential AI disruptions, reinforcing the demand for a more systematic public record on who is gaining from the technology and who is losing ground.

The issue also reached the international level. A July 1, 2026 report from the United Nations Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence said current safeguards cannot keep pace with the growth of AI capabilities. The panel, made up of 40 leading scientists and experts, added to the warning that evidence often lags behind the speed of AI development, leaving governments to regulate a labor shift they are still struggling to measure.