ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood has sounded the alarm over growing job market pressures, especially for new college graduates, amid rising unemployment and the disruptive impact of artificial intelligence on entry-level roles.
What Happened: In a video shared by ARK Invest on Wednesday, Wood pointed to troubling labor market trends, citing The Wall Street Journal’s reporting on new grads struggling to land jobs.
“We do know that AI is certainly hurting entry-level jobs,” she said, highlighting that the unemployment rate for recent graduates has climbed from a recent low of 4% to around 6.3% or 6.4%.
Wood offered direct advice to those entering or re-entering the workforce: “Start focusing on AI. There’s a lot you can do yourselves,” she urged, encouraging job seekers to upskill as automation reshapes hiring dynamics.
She also noted that continuing unemployment claims are rising, a sign that many unemployed individuals are struggling to find work, even as initial claims remain stable.
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The comments first came during Episode LXIX of “In The Know,” ARK’s monthly video series posted earlier this month, where Wood addressed broader economic issues.
Why It’s Important: Last month, the Kobeissi Letter highlighted that the gap between Americans who say jobs are “plentiful” versus “hard to get” has narrowed to 11.1%, the lowest since 2017, excluding the COVID-19 spike.
Economists view this as a warning sign, historically followed by rising unemployment. The data now points to a potential increase in the U.S. unemployment rate to 6.0% in the coming months.
Previously, Craig Shapiro also cautioned that AI could disrupt 25% of all jobs by 2030 — a challenge he says the Federal Reserve is largely powerless to resolve.
In June, speaking at SXSW London, Demis Hassabis, CEO of Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google DeepMind, said that AI will “supercharge” technically skilled individuals in the next 5–10 years and advised students to focus on STEM fields to understand AI fundamentals.
Earlier, Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang also encouraged students to start leveraging AI now to boost their career opportunities and productivity.
Meanwhile, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has cut 9,000 jobs in its second round of 2025 layoffs—affecting less than 4% of its workforce—as it balances cost control with an $80 billion investment in AI data centers.
On the flip side, Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) and OpenAI are fueling a talent war in Silicon Valley, offering compensation packages as high as $20 million annually.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
