AI has disrupted entry-level white-collar employment, but blue-collar workers are still looking for clues on how the tech will shape the essential economy going forward.
“I hope that it will be a help, but it’s hard to say that today,” he said on Bloomberg TV’s Wall Street Week on Friday.
AI investments in data center construction and transmission lines will bring “tailwinds” for the essential economy since the buildout will require support from construction workers, plumbers, electricians, and other blue-collar workers, Farley said.
But on the other hand, Farley said there isn’t a good track record of applying new technologies to make blue-collar workers more productive and pointed to automation as an example.
“Those innovations really took jobs out of the job market and out and out of the essential economy,” he said.
In fact, productivity in the essential economy has gone down over the past 20 years, while white-collar productivity has gone up, according to Farley.
“The irony of the irony is, we have all these data centers, all this new technology to roll out, and still requires electricians, construction workers… and we have this huge shortage,” he said.
