High Variance with Danny Buerkli Labor Market Impacts of AI – with Bharat Chandar
Dec 29, 2025
Bharat Chandar, a labor economist and postdoc at the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, dives into the effects of AI on the workforce. He shares insights from his research, highlighting a slowdown in entry-level hiring in AI-exposed jobs, particularly impacting younger workers. Bharat discusses the importance of understanding how small demographic groups can be affected, even when aggregate data appears stable. He explores the future trajectories of AI's integration into labor, emphasizing the need for adaptive education and management approaches in a rapidly changing job landscape.
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Entry-Level Slowdown In AI-Exposed Jobs
- Across the US economy we do not yet see major aggregate job or wage disruption from AI.
- But certain AI-exposed occupations show a slowdown in entry-level hiring relative to senior roles.
Pattern Survives Alternative Explanations
- The observed entry-level pattern persists after testing alternatives like tech overhiring, interest-rate exposure, outsourcing, teleworkability, and education disruptions.
- That robustness suggests AI is a plausible driver though causality is not proven.
Measure Adoption At The Firm Level
- Improve firm-level measures of AI adoption using job postings, earnings calls, and surveys to better identify causal effects.
- Anticipation effects mean adoption measures alone won't fully resolve causality, so use multiple approaches.