Ford CEO Jim Farley warns AI will wipe out half of all US white-collar jobs.
Farley spoke at the Aspen Ideas Festival on June 27, pushing a shift toward skilled trades over office work. He pointed to a flaw in the US education system, which focuses on four-year degrees rather than trade skills.
Farley shared a personal note about his grandfather, an orphan who built a career at Ford from an hourly job. He urged people to recognize the value of “essential economy” roles. 
Jim Farley stated:
"Look around the room. At some point, almost all of your families came from these kinds of jobs."
"Artificial intelligence is going to replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the US."
This cautious tone comes as tech hiring plunges. White-collar job postings dropped 12.7% in Q1 2024, with Big Tech slashing new graduate hiring by about 50% since pre-pandemic, per SignalFire.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei backed the warning in May, saying AI could kill half of entry-level office jobs in five years and called on companies and governments to be upfront about these risks.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy also warned of corporate job cuts due to generative AI in June but promised growth in robotics and AI jobs.
Cognizant’s Ravi Kumar and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang offered a different view, saying AI may create more jobs and new creative opportunities despite upheaval.
For now, Gen Z is drifting toward blue-collar jobs, which some see as safer bets in an AI-shaken labor market.
Ford reps have not yet commented on Farley’s remarks.
