Is AI Taking White-Collar Jobs? What the Latest Numbers Tell Us

A facts-only brief, written by a local AI model from this article in The Wall Street Journal, November 7, 2026. It may contain mistakes, and it is not the article: the full story is at wsj.com.

The U.S. Labor Department reported that the professional and business services sector created 70,000 positions in October, the highest monthly gain since July 2022. Consulting firms led the expansion with 17,300 new hires, followed by legal and accounting services, which added 2,400 and 2,300 jobs, respectively. Economists David Deming and Preston Mui argued that these results refute concerns about an imminent collapse in white-collar employment due to artificial intelligence. Despite the overall growth, specific roles faced significant reductions, with document-preparation services cutting staff by 17% in the year ending September.

Background

• Telephone call centers and public-relations agencies each reduced their workforces by 4.7%, while advertising agencies lost 3.9% of their employees over the same period.
• The Commerce Department indicated that monthly expenditures for data-center construction rose by nearly 80% since the start of the year, diverging from a 4% drop in other nonresidential building projects.
• A July study by Indeed showed that listings for data-center roles increased significantly from mid-2024 to mid-2026, even as total job advertisements declined by approximately 12%.
• Construction firms specializing in nonresidential projects and specialty trades hired a combined 10,800 workers in October, reflecting high demand for labor at data-center sites.

Read the full article at wsj.com

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