The chief executive of America’s biggest bank says consumers continue to show resilience.
This is in spite of a cooling job market and ongoing inflation, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said Sunday (Dec. 7) in an interview with Fox News.
“In the short run, it looks like the American consumer is doing fine, is chugging along, companies are making profits, stock markets are high. That could easily continue,” he said, while also pointing to areas of concern.
“There are little small negatives: Jobs are weakening, but just a little bit, inflation is there and maybe not going down,” Dimon told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo.
As covered here last week, recent labor reports — spanning government, private sector data and PYMNTS Intelligence findings — demonstrate rising uncertainty among hourly workers, even as these consumers keep spending.
Jobless claims are at their lowest level in three years, though companies are planning more layoffs, and wages for the 60 million workers who make up the Labor Economy have fallen..
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PYMNTS Intelligence’s Wage to Wallet Index™ research has found that “these consumers are still shopping, although earnings reports illustrate that they are trading down and concentrating spending in value channels instead of pulling back entirely,” the report added.
The interview also touched on concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) could lead to widespread job cuts. Dimon contended that pressures on the workforce were there even before the technology skyrocketed in popularity.
“Look, I don’t think AI is going to dramatically reduce jobs like unbelievably next year. And for the most part, AI is going to do great stuff for mankind, like tractors did, like fertilizer did, like vaccines did. It’ll save lives,” Dimon said.
Still, he stressed that AI needs to be properly regulated as adoption grows, saying that there were “downsides” to AI the way there is to a variety of products.
“So assuming that the government figured out some way to put guardrails around AI … but it will eliminate jobs,” said Dimon. “It doesn’t mean that people won’t have other jobs.”
Additional research from PYMNTS Intelligence has shown that among people who use generative AI, a third are worried that the technology could threaten people’s jobs.
That concern is most pronounced among members of Generation Z, with 38% of the gen AI users in that age group concerned about the impact on employment. The research shows that Gen Z users tend to have — or are looking for — the kinds of entry-level jobs that the technology can most easily replace.