Technology usually creates jobs for young, skilled workers. Will AI do the same?
A new study by MIT labor economist David Autor examines how technology impacts employment in the U.S. postwar era. The research indicates that new tech-enabled jobs tend to benefit young, educated workers, particularly those under 30. It also highlights the role of government investment in creating new specializations and raises questions about the future of work in the age of artificial intelligence.
- ▪The study shows that new forms of work have historically benefited college graduates under 30 more than any other demographic.
- ▪Government-backed expansion during the 1940s significantly contributed to the creation of new jobs and expertise.
- ▪The research utilized U.S. Census Bureau data from 1940 to 2023 to analyze employment trends and worker demographics.
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| Original publisher | MIT News |
| Canonical URL | https://news.mit.edu/2026/technology-creates-jobs-young-skilled-workers-ai-0521 |
| Publication time | Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 -0400 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-05-21T04:10:03.485Z |
| Last seen | 2026-05-21T04:10:03.485Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
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| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
| Citation coverage | Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL. |
| Cluster | 4SlPW0OE8HTB |
| Cluster logic | Grouped by semantic title/content similarity across sources within a rolling window. Same-publisher template collisions are excluded from coverage comparison. |
| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
| Substitutes article? | No — link-out required for full text |
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| Indexing | May the item be indexed (stored, ranked, made findable)? | Allowed |
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| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
| Model training | May the content be used to train AI models? | Not asserted |
| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
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Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
A new study of the postwar U.S. shows which kinds of workers historically filled new tech-enabled jobs. Peter Dizikes | MIT News Publication Date: May 21, 2026 Press Inquiries Press Contact: Abby Abazorius Email: [email protected] Phone: 617-253-2709 MIT News Office Media Download ↓ Download Image Caption: In the postwar U.S., as Autor and his colleagues examined in granular detail, new forms of work have tended to benefit college graduates under 30 more than anyone else. Credits: Image: Jose-Luis Olivares, MIT; iStock *Terms of Use: Images for download on the MIT News office website are made available to non-commercial entities, press and the general public under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives license.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at MIT News.