{"id":605745,"date":"2026-04-14T07:04:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T07:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/605745\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T07:04:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T07:04:17","slug":"australians-brace-for-ai-job-losses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/605745\/","title":{"rendered":"Australians brace for AI job losses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last month, Tim Toohey from Yarra Capital <a href=\"https:\/\/www.livewiremarkets.com\/wires\/rba-rate-hike-a-study-in-policy-error\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">warned<\/a> that if AI is \u201cdeployed at scale in Australia over the next two years\u201d, then the nation\u2019s unemployment rate could rise to above 6% from 4.3% currently:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AI-impacts.png\" width=\"516\" height=\"660\" alt=\"AI's impact on labour market\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Shortly afterwards, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theaustralian.com.au\/nation\/australian-companies-predict-ai-will-cut-one-in-five-jobs-within-two-years\/news-story\/21078660579bbbf24e0031da4118cb45\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mercer\u00a0survey<\/a> of Australian senior executives, human resources personnel, and employees revealed that 100% of HR managers believed their company would reduce headcount due to AI within two years, with 60% believing that one in five jobs would be lost because of AI.<\/p>\n<p>The above analysis does not include the potential adverse effects on employment arising from the global energy shock and higher interest rates, which would compound the AI impacts.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Deloitte Access Economics has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/politics\/federal\/the-recession-we-didn-t-ask-for-dire-predictions-for-australia-if-fuel-price-spikes-20260410-p5zmt5.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">forecast<\/a> that Australia faces a deep recession if the price of oil rises substantially from its current level of just over $US100 a barrel.<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Crude-Oil-price-1.png\" width=\"660\" height=\"375\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Oil price\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Deloitte modelling based on an oil price of $US150 a barrel would see more than 950,000 people out of work and an inflation rate of 6.6%.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>If the global oil price were to hit $US175 a barrel, Deloitte\u2019s modelling sees Australia with an inflation rate of 7.5% and an unemployment rate of around 6.8%.<\/p>\n<p>Under both scenarios, the manufacturing and tourism sectors would be the hardest hit.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cThe more severe scenarios would tip us well and truly into recession, with a big jump in unemployment. This would be the recession we didn\u2019t ask for\u201d, Deloitte Access Economics lead partner Pradeep Philip said.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>However, Phillip admitted that the modelling did not account for government stimulus measures to cushion the economic impact.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless, Australians face a potential sharp rise in unemployment driven by the combined forces of AI, higher fuel prices, and higher interest rates.<\/p>\n<p>The federal government\u2019s high immigration policy will compound the problem, as the labour force continues to grow at a quicker rate than before the Covid-19 pandemic, with 413,100 working-age adults added in the year ending February 2026:<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Civilian-population.png\" width=\"660\" height=\"473\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Civilian population\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Treasurer Jim Chalmers stated last month that net overseas migration would remain higher for longer, implying that the labour force will continue to grow at a historically high rate in the coming years.<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Australian-net-migration.png\" width=\"660\" height=\"396\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Net immigration\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Strong labour supply growth in an economy with weak demand leads to rising unemployment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last month, Tim Toohey from Yarra Capital warned that if AI is \u201cdeployed at scale in Australia over&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-605745","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}