AI is Hitting UK Harder Than Other Big Economies, Study Finds (theguardian.com)
- Reference: 0180659228
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/01/26/1428221/ai-is-hitting-uk-harder-than-other-big-economies-study-finds
- Source link: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/26/ai-uk-jobs-us-japan-germany-australia
It found that British businesses reported an average 11.5% increase in productivity aided by AI. US businesses reported similar gains, but created more jobs than they cut. It suggests UK workers are being hit particularly hard by the rise of AI, as higher costs and taxes also weigh on the job market. Unemployment is at a four-year high, as rises in the minimum wage and employer national insurance contributions squeeze hiring.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/26/ai-uk-jobs-us-japan-germany-australia
The cover up (Score:1)
We all know AI doesn't increase "productivity" and has nothing to do with any of these layoffs. Sales are down, the global economy is tanking, and people are using AI as an excuse to just cut people they over-hired for too much. It's just another aspect of "bullshit" that comes from all this AI slop media and reporting.
Re: (Score:2)
Nobody appears to be verifying such claims such that those who want to blame bots can. They are simply surveys. No executive likes to admit to a sales slump because that puts them in the crosshairs, so if they can find a relatively safe scapegoat they will.
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I was wondering where the hell these garbage numbers that flew in the face of all other evidence came from - executives' assholes.
lol no (Score:2)
The UK economy is weakening at the moment. Whilst the figures show an improving economy I suspect that's heavily slanted by companies in more investment heavy sectors. We seem to have a lot of failing small businesses whether that's by the extra taxation or customers not having as much money for their services anymore or probably a myriad of other things I haven't thought of. One of own businesses is failing due to the rise in SEO spam. So guess AI has replaced my job...
Tax the workers, pay the "idle" (Score:1, Troll)
The UK is currently embarking on yet another round of increasing taxes on those who work, and simultaneously making it easier for people never to work by allowing them to get declared "unfit for work" on pseudo-science psychological grounds.
Just as with the trans issue, the parole issue, social media issues, psychology is being used by governments to make important decisions as if it was a SCIENCE based on facts while it very clearly is not, so life-changing decisions are being made based solely on the feel
Re: (Score:2)
You're right there. After studying psychology, all I really learned is that we know remarkably little. What we do know is mostly based on the "asking a bunch of college students"-method, then applying statistics to somehow make it valid. You invent a construct, write up some leading questions in a brief questionnaire, and administer it to a small self-selected sample of the population. You then use some basic statistics to "validate" that a pattern exists, and make up some plausible-sounding but completely
Tax the robots (Score:3)
Look I know you don't want to have to think about it but you're going to have to deal with the fact that we are heading for permanent 25 to 40% unemployment. We simply do not need all the people that we have. There is literally nothing profitable for them to do. Now there's plenty of productive things for them to do but that would involve government spending because it's not profitable it's productive.
I know you've got your hand full of guns and your pension plan from the government that you pretend you
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
What the hell does this even have to do with Brexit? Leaving a large federation that promotes globalism and unified government over the interests of individuals is a GOOD thing. Brexit didn't go far enough. We need smaller governments and smaller states all over the world.
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> Brexit didn't go far enough.
Why, are you in Britain? If so, I agree, as it's failed to prevent me from seeing your comments.
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Well brexit is another factor in Britain's poor economic situation
Re:STFU (Score:5, Insightful)
Brexit is a factor for sure. The UK's economy has generally underperformed compared to its peers since the result was announced, let alone the actual exit, but it's definitely not the only factor. It also overlaps with the decision to increase the minimum wage and various inflation busting public and private sector payrises which, while maybe warranted, also have the flipside of increasing costs and that is often clawed back through headcount reduction. That's particularly noticeable in the hospitality sector which always runs on thin margins and has been hit pretty hard; AI isn't making beds and prepping food. Another factor would be all the uncertainty over the US, one of the UK's largest trading partners, putting a lot of focus on business development elsewhere and that doesn't yield results, let alone jobs, overnight if you don't already have a foothold to build from; I'm seeing a *lot* more Brits at overseas BD events than 12-18 months ago because of this.
I know we like to hate on AI a lot here, but while I'm sure it's contributed to shifts in the job market it's incredibly disingenous to claim AI is responsible for the entirely of the UK's current employment woes, and frankly I'm not even sure who would really benefit from making that claim. Companies using it as a convenient excuse for layoffs because of other reasons on the otherhand... Yeah, I can totally see that.
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> Brexit is a factor for sure. The UK's economy has generally underperformed compared to its peers since the result was announced
No it hasn't. The most comparable EU economy to ours is France and has been for decades. The UK has continued to perform either slightly above or below France as it always has.
Re: (Score:2)
Larger federations lead to more efficiency; they result in easier trade, easier movement for jobs, and easier ability for businesses to sell goods, since they have an easier time knowing if the goods comply with local laws. The UK has actively suffered under Brexit. Investment has gone down since Brexit [1]https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/voting-their-money-brexit-and-outward-investment-uk-firms [cepr.org] . GDP per a capita has gone down, as cost of living in the UK has gone up [2]https://www.nber.org/papers/w34459 [nber.org] [3]https://e [encompass-europe.com]
[1] https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/voting-their-money-brexit-and-outward-investment-uk-firms
[2] https://www.nber.org/papers/w34459
[3] https://encompass-europe.com/comment/the-brexit-vote-inflation-and-uk-living-standards
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It is only a good thing for the individuals whose interests have been promoted by the Brexit government - and we are all well aware who those individuals are. Needless to say, your name is not on that list, but on the invoice.
Re: (Score:3)
No, no.
According to the demented/evil/both backers of Brexit, it's not that the UK Brexited, it's that they Brexited wrong.
Of course, that means that people shouldn't have voted for Brexit when clearly nobody knew what it actually meant.
At least Brexit is a useful lesson for the world - don't let stupid people decide complex issues, and half the population are stupider than average. Or 52% of those who voted, in the case of Brexit.
Re: STFU (Score:2)
In what way did brexit do that? It only resulted in the British being fucked over by a smaller set of assholes.
Re: (Score:2)
Got nothing to do with Brexit you retard. And if you actually look at a graph of UK employment and unemployment then following the vote to leave we ended up with record numbers of people in employment and unemployment fell to the point we effectively had full employment and all of this whilst net migration was rising.