Apollo Economist Sees No Evidence of AI Job Losses

In a May 29 blog post on Apollo Global Management's "The Daily Spark," Torsten Sløk, Apollo's partner and chief economist, wrote there is "zero evidence of job losses because of AI," and displayed weekly ADP employment charts to support that point (Apollo blog). The Apollo post stated that many firms are hiring "AI implementation experts" and that the ongoing data-center buildout is putting upward pressure on salaries for AI experts and on prices of semiconductors, equipment, and energy (Apollo blog). The Apollo presentation also said nonfarm payrolls for May could come in significantly higher than the 95,000 consensus estimate (Apollo blog). Business Insider and other outlets republished Sløk's claims and noted reaction from technology and finance figures on social media, including posts from Aaron Levie, Michael Dell, and David Sacks (Business Insider).

The Apollo note relies on high-frequency ADP weekly payroll series as the primary empirical input; ADP data capture private payroll trends at a higher cadence than monthly BLS figures but use different coverage and methodology. Industry-pattern observations: short-run employment effects from productivity-enhancing tech often show composition shifts, with demand rising for implementation, operations, and infrastructure roles even as some task-level automation occurs. The Apollo post invoked the economic concept of Jevons paradox to frame a mechanism where cheaper inputs increase aggregate demand, a historical argument that has precedent but also varying applicability across sectors.

The debate over AI and employment now features contrasting interpretations of early labor-market signals. Reporting by Business Insider and others places Sløk's view against high-profile cautionary statements from AI leaders; for example, Business Insider cites past commentary from Dario Amodei and Sam Altman warning about risks to certain job categories (Business Insider). For practitioners, the practical takeaway in public reporting is not a settled empirical verdict but a set of competing narratives: one emphasizing near-term hiring around AI deployment and infrastructure, the other emphasizing potential medium-term disruption in specific white-collar tasks.

For observers: follow weekly ADP payrolls and the monthly BLS nonfarm payrolls for divergence in levels and sectoral composition; track corporate hiring announcements for data-center, cloud, and AI-ops roles; monitor wage growth in software, systems engineering, and semiconductor-related occupations; and watch how companies frame AI in layoff announcements and earnings commentary. These indicators will clarify whether early hiring around AI deployment scales into broad-based employment growth or instead masks concentrated displacement in particular tasks or roles.

The factual claims about quotes, charts, and payroll projections are taken from Torsten Sløk's May 29 Apollo blog post on "The Daily Spark" (Apollo blog). Coverage and contextual reporting referenced Business Insider, Yahoo Finance, Seeking Alpha, and aggregated outlets summarizing the same Apollo material (Business Insider; Yahoo Finance; Seeking Alpha).