On September 7, when Cardinal Robert McElroy, the archbishop of Washington, took the dais on US Labor Day Mass at St. Matthew’s Cathedral, the mood was palpable, as he asked a poignant question– in the age of AI, would meaningful work remain?
Cardinal McElroy made his observations on AI’s impact on labor market after his recent visit to the Silicon Valley to interact with scientists and engineers at frontier AI labs.
“They spoke very openly about the state of AI-where they are going, what their strengths and challenges. Many blessings will come from this (AI) but there are also many destructive elements to it. AI will have a tremendous dislocation of workers in the next 20 years and the key question remains, would meaningful work exist,” said Cardinal McElroy.
AI and its impact on jobs and worker rights remained a flashpoint on US Labor Day on Monday as union workers, Anti-AI activists, policymakers and tech CEOs anticipate a major shift in work sector due to widescale AI adoption.
Various labor unions marched on the streets asking for greater rights against automation adoption even as Dan Maloney, president of Rochester Labor Council said that rapid advances in technology is posing a threat to workers.
Senator Bernie Sanders referred to the current AI industry as an “oligarchy run by the Big tech billionaires” and said that “we can’t allow a handful of greedy people to play God and determine the future of humanity.”
The most pressing issue of our time is oligarchy & the power of Big Tech billionaires over AI.
We can’t allow a handful of greedy people to play God & determine the future of humanity—our economy, environment, democracy, privacy & more—without public input.
CONGRESS MUST ACT.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) September 7, 2026
Meanwhile, David Sacks, Co-Chair, President’s Council of Advisors on Science & Technology, accused politicians and lobbyists of running a narrative against AI.
Narrative violation: According to the Economist, AI has created 1 million new jobs in the U.S. https://t.co/Iu8Yj7EW1u pic.twitter.com/0Do4es4lxO
— David Sacks (@DavidSacks) September 8, 2026
The Labor day was observed in the backdrop of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics releasing the latest August 2026 data which claimed an additional 162,000 jobs were created last month. It further mentioned the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.1 percent in August standing at 7 million unemployed adults in the country.
The report also stated that the US information industry lost 23,000 jobs this month with sectors like computing infrastructure providers, data processing, web hosting and related services in publishing, broadcasting and content getting hit.
The year 2026 has seen over 100, 000 tech jobs cut globally in the first three months itself with Oracle, Block, Meta, Cloudflare and Amazon firing their staff en masse, attributing the cost cutting directly to AI infrastructure expansion.
A recent International Labor Organization (ILO) report had cited studies reporting employment declines among early-career workers in AI-exposed occupations, including a 16% relative decline among workers aged 22 to 25 in highly AI-exposed fields in the United States and a 4.5% decline in workforces at highly AI-exposed enterprises in the United Kingdom, with the effect concentrated almost entirely in junior positions.
The report titled “Global Employment Trends for Youth 2026″ by the International Labor Organization (ILO), a United Nations agency revealed that global youth unemployment rose from 12.3% in 2023 to 12.4% in 2025, with 67 million young people unemployed worldwide, an increase of 2 million from 2023. Youth unemployment worsened or remained broadly unchanged in 8 of the 11 subregions.
Pic Credit: Better Images of AI – Entry Level by Janet Turra and Digit
Also Read: “I Helped AI Learn My Work”: Ex Oracle Employees on the Layoff They Never Saw Coming
