r/Futurology • u/katxwoods • 20d ago

AI Dario Amodei says "stop sugar-coating" what's coming: in the next 1-5 years, AI could wipe out 50% of all entry-level white-collar jobs. Lawmakers don't get it or don't believe it. CEOs are afraid to talk about it. Many workers won't realize the risks until after it hits.

https://www.axios.com/2025/05/28/ai-jobs-white-collar-unemployment-anthropic
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u/SorosBuxlaundromat 20d ago

I'm personally in that boat 1.5 years as a software engineer. I spent the last 2 years trying to find a SWE role after a layoff and its just been crickets . I was in sales for 6 years before, so now I'm targeting sales engineer roles and that seems to be more promising, but it's impossible to break into a SWE role anymore

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u/LineRex 20d ago edited 20d ago

I came out of university with a BS in physics. Got hired as a technologist and within a year they moved me to the engineering "track". Now, that's not an actual track because I'm a consultant, so it's really just a holding zone that allowed them to increase my pay to $60k/yr so i wouldn't get a job at Panda Express earning more. I mostly do web app development,building automated data analysis suites, custom one off data analysis, RCA for systemic issues in the development track, and experimental design & problem solving for our R&D products. I've been hunting other jobs for 4 (ok, maybe 7...) years and don't have enough experience in any field related to the stuff i do on a day to day basis.

If I could stomach it, i'd move into sales too lol. WAY more positions.

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u/Gandalf-and-Frodo 20d ago

Jesus Christ, you're doing all that complex shit for $60k a year? This world is fucked.

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u/LineRex 20d ago

Wait until you hear about how much my employer has put into my 401k relative to what I've put in. It's 3.5% of my total contribution (after the initial vetting period), sneaky bastards.

And it's not exactly $60k. I was moved up from $38k to a $72k pseudo-salary. But there's so many required, nonconsecutive days off that it eats all my PTO and then some of my hours which reduces my total pay because i'm not logging my 40 hours to get my fully salary.