Briefing

Aggregate or Structural? Diagnosing the Rise in Unemployment


Abstract: The decline in the job-finding rate is largest for strongly attached workers in occupations highly exposed to artificial intelligence, but this group is too small to drive the aggregate change on its own. A standard flows-based decomposition shows that less-exposed workers — both primary and secondary types — account for roughly half of the aggregate decline in the job-finding rate since mid-2023. AI exposure is an important but not dominant factor driving the decline in job-finding probability.

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Description: Briefing

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Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond

Part of Series: Richmond Fed Economic Brief

Publication Date: 2026-08-19

Volume: 26

Issue: 27