Census Finds 95.7% of Firms Saw No Employment Change From AI as Adoption Reached 18%
Updated
Updated · Marginal Revolution · Aug 31
Census Finds 95.7% of Firms Saw No Employment Change From AI as Adoption Reached 18%
3 articles · Updated · Marginal Revolution · Aug 31
Summary
95.7% of businesses reported no change in total employment from AI use in the Nov. 2025-Feb. 2026 Census supplement, while 2.3% reported increases and 2.0% reported decreases.
Those results barely changed from Dec. 2023-Feb. 2024, when about 5% of firms used AI and 94.6% reported no employment effect, suggesting adoption has risen faster than workforce impact.
18% of firms reported AI use after Census broadened the question in November 2025 from production only to any business function; under the earlier measure, usage had climbed from 3.7% in 2023 to about 10% by late 2025.
44% of AI-using firms said the technology mainly supplemented existing work, while 10% said it performed tasks employees used to do and 11% said it created entirely new tasks.
Only about 1% of adopters hired workers with AI skills, and although task substitution intensified among a small subset, Census said the overall employment picture was essentially unchanged across firm sizes.