Are jobs cooked?

May 12, 2026|● ~16 min listen|Solo investigation

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16,000US jobs erased by AI
every month

192,000Jobs in 12 months.
Payroll data, not forecast

700Klarna jobs replaced,
then humans rehired

40%The white-collar
wipeout question

The numbers in this episode · Goldman Sachs, April 2026

the setup

About this episode.

→ The hook

16,000 American jobs. Erased by AI. Every single month for the past year. 192,000 jobs in 12 months. Not a forecast. A payroll measurement (Goldman Sachs, April 2026).

Episode 2 of Are We Cooked? zooms into the work question. With numbers. With named experts. With the 2026 plot twist nobody saw coming, including Klarna’s reversal: it replaced 700 jobs with AI in 2024, then quietly hired humans back because AI failed on quality.

inside the investigation

What this episode covers.

The Goldman April 2026 hook stat that breaks the labor market
Stanford AI Index 2026: entry-level software dev jobs down 20% since 2024
The optimist case: jobs evolve, they do not end (Brynjolfsson, Madgavkar, Autor, Hoffman)
The pessimist case: the career ladder is breaking (Acemoglu, Korinek, Susskind, Klotz)
What both sides miss, including the Klarna reversal and the India-specific question nobody is asking
The split Anurag is watching on his own team: who is adapting, who is quietly drowning
Three sharper questions for anyone trying to figure out their next 3 years

skip around

Chapters.

00:00The 40% No One Is Talking About▶00:30Meet Your Host▶01:38Why Jobs, Why Right Now▶02:34The Optimist Case▶07:55The Pessimist Case▶09:40What Both Sides Miss▶12:07Are We? You Decide.▶

louder proof

Sources cited.

Goldman Sachs (Elsie Peng), ‘AI Labor Market Update’, April 2026: 16,000 US jobs/month erased, 192,000 in 12 months

Stanford AI Index 2026 (HAI): entry-level software developer jobs (22-25) fell 20% since 2024

World Economic Forum, Future of Jobs Report 2025: 41% of employers planning AI-driven workforce reduction, 77% upskilling

McKinsey, ‘The State of Organizations 2026‘: $2.9T annual US economic value from AI agents by 2030

Klarna case study: replaced 700 customer service jobs in 2024, reversed course in 2025-2026

Erik Brynjolfsson and Daniel Rock (Stanford) on automatable jobs

not a hype show. not a doom show…

Don’t miss the next investigation.

Are We Cooked? is a thinking show about what AI is really doing to humans: work, parenting, creativity, relationships. New episodes weekly.

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