Jennie Brand discusses occupational restructuring and worker mobility

Professor Jennie Brand discusses her work on occupational restructuring and worker mobility in the UCLA Newsroom.

Brand and her colleague Xi Song, a Columbia University professor and UCLA alumna, find that workers in occupations that are highly exposed to AI and projected to decline are at most risk of losing their job to AI. Workers in highly AI-exposed occupations who have few AI-related skills, such as payroll or bookkeeping clerks, may find their job prospects and status especially vulnerable to AI.

Brand and Song suggest that employers and policymakers focus on easing the hardships of layoffs. They also recommend building up stepping-stone jobs that lead into growing occupations. For example, policies could connect job training to real openings in growing fields, and employers could offer paid learning time and internal paths into new roles.

https://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/job-loss-ai-exposed-jobs-q-a-sociology-professor-jennie-brand