Artificial intelligence is seen as a bigger threat to jobs than migration, offshore

WASHINGTON, DC — More than half of Americans (58%) say technology poses the biggest threat to US jobs over the next decade, while 42% see immigration and offshoring as the biggest threat. Republicans, who see immigration and offshore activities as roughly equal threats to technology, are the only subgroup of Americans who do not see technology as a greater threat.

This data comes from a Northeastern University/Gallup survey on Americans' attitudes toward artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on their lives and work. The mail survey of 3,297 US adults was conducted from Sept. 15 to Oct. 10, 2017. The data shows that Americans are largely positive about the impact artificial intelligence will have, but still expect it to cost jobs jobs, with 73% of Americans predicting that AI will result in more job losses than it creates.

The survey asked Americans to choose which they thought would be the biggest threat to US jobs in the next decade, immigration and the offshore market or new technology, automation, robots or artificial intelligence. The question defined offshoring as jobs or companies moving overseas.

Although majorities in nearly all subgroups agree that new technology poses a greater threat to their jobs than immigration and offshore exploitation, Republicans see the threat posed by technology (52%) as about equal to that of immigration and offshore exploitation (48%). Republicans' perceptions contrast sharply with Democrats, whose views lean more strongly toward the view that new technology is the biggest threat to jobs (67%) than immigration and the offshore market (33% ).

US workers twice as likely to worry about job loss due to AI than immigration

US workers also see a greater threat from new technology than from immigration and offshore corporations. Nearly one in four American workers say they are very or somewhat worried about losing their own jobs to new technology, nearly twice as many as the 12 percent who say the same about immigration and the offshore market. Levels of concern about these specific threats to American workers' jobs are higher than the 8% of US adults who are generally concerned about layoffs in the next 12 months.

For the most part, American workers' fear of losing their jobs to new technology versus immigrants varies little by subgroup. But the key exception is Republican workers, who worry about the two threats to their own jobs about equally — 19% about new technology versus 17% about immigration. Among working Democrats, nearly a quarter (23%) worry about losing their jobs to new technology compared to 9% who worry about the threat to their personal jobs from immigration.

Conclusion

Americans overwhelmingly see new technology as a bigger threat to US jobs over the next decade than immigration and offshoring. This view is supported by a recent Oxford study on the potential impact of AI adoption on the US labor market, which suggests that up to 47% of jobs are at risk of being eliminated by this new technology. By contrast, estimates of the cost to American jobs of immigration and outsourcing vary widely, with some reports suggesting that they may create more jobs than they eliminate.

The threat new technology poses to American jobs has received little public attention from President Donald Trump's administration. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin recently said there is no reason to worry about AI displacing American workers for half a century or more. Trump has focused much more on the impact of immigration, based on the claim that immigrants take jobs away from Americans.

Whether the Trump administration is focused on AI's impact on jobs, many others find it especially pressing. Nearly three-quarters of Americans (73%) say the adoption of artificial intelligence will eliminate more jobs than it creates.

Read the full Northeastern/Gallup report “Optimism and Anxiety: Perspectives on the Impact of Artificial Intelligence and Higher Education's Response.”