The women’s labor market is making historic progress. AI could destroy it

Minneapolis
CNN
—

More women in their prime are now employed in the United States than ever before.

The labor force participation rate for women aged 25 to 54 hit a record high in April and hit another high in May, recovering from pandemic-induced ‘withdrawals’ and a gradual historic rise in the labor market. returned to its pre-pandemic morphology.

That could all change with AI.

Economists at Goldman Sachs predict that generative artificial intelligence technologies like ChatGPT could transform the labor market, automating a large portion of jobs for citizens. This technology can create new content such as text, images, audio, video, and code from training data containing examples of desired outputs.

However, recent research shows that despite a male-dominated workforce in the United States, women may be disproportionately affected by the adoption of generative AI by businesses. . One recent analysis estimates that 79% of working women (about 59 million) are in occupations that are susceptible to disruption and disruption. automation. That’s 58% of working men, according to a study by the University of North Carolina Kenan Flagler School of Business.

Julia Pollack, chief economist at online job marketplace ZipRecruiter, said the estimate that nearly eight in 10 female workers could be affected was “amazing.” “Having said that, many of us intuitively would rather have carpenter jobs, electrician jobs, pest control jobs—rather than automate many of these manual service and production jobs. I think people understand that it’s easier to automate some of the paperwork in ‘It’s much more male-centric. ”

“I think there is good reason to worry that some of the benefits that women have gained will be eroded, at least temporarily,” he added. But she also said, “These technologies will definitely create so many opportunities.”

Working women are more likely to be in white-collar jobs, while men are almost evenly split between white-collar and blue-collar jobs, said Mark McNeely, a professor of marketing practice at Kenan Flagler. He is also the lead author of AI research. Some of her most AI-exposed occupations with the majority of female employees are office and administrative support. medical personnel and technicians; Education, training, library. medical support. Community and social services, according to the UNC Kenan-Flagler study.

“It’s not necessarily about ‘losing your job,'” McNeely told CNN. “I think what matters is whether the person can do something to increase the added value.”

In the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, female labor force participation was rising faster than male labor force participation, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Pollack said a combination of factors contributed to these gains. Notably, female-dominated industries such as healthcare and nursing care are among the fastest growing industries. Women’s educational attainment has risen significantly. Women are also making inroads into fields traditionally dominated by men, such as construction, agriculture, repair and maintenance.

By February 2020, the labor force participation rate for women in their prime was 77%, just short of the record of 77.3% set during the dot-com era, according to BLS data.

But that percentage plummeted to 73.5% by April 2020 as the pandemic froze the U.S. economy and left more than 20 million people out of work. But as the country recovered in the months that followed, women did not return to the same level as men.

The pandemic has hit leisure, hospitality, education and health services sectors where women make up the majority of the workforce. In addition, job losses and slowing job recovery in the childcare sector have prevented workers from returning to the labor market. And because caregiving responsibilities often lie with women, women have become even more marginalized as schools have become home-based.

Eventually the tide changed.

Dana Peterson, chief economist at The Conference Board, a business research and membership organization, said the three main factors driving women’s entry into the workforce were access to childcare, market wages and flexibility.

And recovery from the pandemic has launched those catalysts into hyperdrive.

By and large, the work has become less demanding. Working from home has become more common, and working from home has given us even more flexibility with our hours. As a result, schedules were set to facilitate pick-up and drop-off, and the number of companies providing childcare services at facilities increased, improving access to childcare services. And the labor shortage is largely related to the ongoing demographic acceleration of baby boomer turnover, lingering COVID-19 and health-related concerns, which will contribute to higher wages, especially in low-wage jobs. are doing.

“Some of these things are becoming more common, which is driving more women in the labor market,” she said.

Additionally, women-dominated sectors such as healthcare, leisure and hospitality continue to see the strongest job growth in the past two years.

“There’s a lot of hiring going on there, and a lot of wage increases going on here,” Peterson said. “So if there are more job openings, higher wages, and these areas tend to be dominated by women, it’s only natural that women would be drawn to those areas and be more willing to work. is.”

The labor force participation rate for women aged 25 to 54 hit a new high of 77.6% last month, surpassing the record high of 77.5% set the previous month, according to BLS data.

Revelio Labs, which specializes in collecting and analyzing publicly available workforce data, recently identified the occupations most exposed to AI and the gender and ethnic distribution of those occupations. According to Revelio’s analysis, the job titles with the highest proportion of women exposed to AI include billing and account collectors (82.9%), payroll and timers (79.7%), executive secretaries (74.3%), word processors and typists (65.4%), and bookkeepers, accountants and auditors (65%).

According to Revelio CEO Ben Zweig, 71% of employees in the occupations most exposed to AI are women.

“In AI conversations, we sometimes take the view that the task structure of work is static, that work is work and responsibilities are fixed, but I think that is a false view. ,” said CEO Ben Zweig. However, this is not the case. Work is always changing. ”

AI is both an opportunity and a threat, and it really depends on the industry, Peterson said.

Generative AI may not currently have the ability to turn a patient over or insert a drip, but it could help diagnose conditions by sifting through billions of image data. I have.

On the other hand, AI can be harmful and threatening for highly “automatable” roles, Peterson said.

“The problem with AI is that it’s not perfect. It’s generating new content from existing content,” she said. “It still takes a human to create the existing content to extract from. And whatever it produces doesn’t mean it’s right. We have to see if it makes sense.”

There are legitimate risks for companies, he said, including ensuring that applications are used responsibly and that potential bias and ethical concerns are well understood and addressed.

“Over time, some jobs will be replaced by it, but as with any kind of technological advancement, people have always thought of something else.” she said. “Yes, it may destroy jobs in the short term, but it will also create new jobs and opportunities. It will help people be more productive in their existing jobs.”

Sarah Mannheimer, Ph.D., from Montana State University, PhD in Library and Information Science, received a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to lead a research team on how AI can be used in libraries and archives. We are researching whether it can be used ethically.

“Librarians are thinking a lot about evaluating information, thinking about sources and authoritative sources,” she said, noting that the data that feeds AI often comes from the internet. . She said, “ChatGPT she uses Reddit data and Wikipedia data, but who knows what else. [those are] It is known to be used, edited and participated in mostly by men, especially white men. The information out there [these technologies] It’s biased and not always accurate. ”

While the AI ​​project doesn’t specifically address the impact on the labor market, particularly on librarians, Mannheimer is optimistic about what the technology means for him and others in the field. recognizing.

“Libraries cannot be replaced by machines. There will always be work that humans need to do,” she said. “If it can free mindless and tedious work, I think librarians and library staff will have a lot of jobs that require critical thinking.”

Houston-based freelance writer and voice actor Meredith Nuude has always been keenly aware of the potential disruption AI can have to her work, especially dubbing.

Voice actors such as Nude oppose attempts to replace them with AI-generated voices. Organizations such as the Voice Actors Association of America have developed guidelines and campaigns to educate the industry and supporters on the subject.

Mr. Nudo’s standard voice work contract includes a clause that his work cannot be used to train AI, especially if he is hired for job opportunities to teach AI writing and editing more effectively. After that, he began to include similar clauses in his own writing.

“It was a really weird and surreal experience to be asked to train someone who was basically my replacement. It was like being told you weren’t good enough to hire. I felt like I was there.” [for] It’s a job for which you’re experienced and trained,” she said.

Using AI for certain tasks, such as note-taking and transcription, could free up time and space for other tasks that require more leg strength, creativity and critical thinking, Nudo said. said he was thinking.

“I think more people will probably follow technology when we no longer have to worry about meeting our own basic needs,” she says.