McKinsey: 11 million US workers may have to change occupation by 2035 as AI removes demand for 36 million jobs

The McKinsey Global Institute said in a report covered by CNN Business on 29 September 2026 that automation and artificial intelligence could push about 11 million American workers, roughly 6.5 percent of the current labour force, into entirely different occupations by 2035. Its base estimate is that automation reduces labour demand by 36 million jobs over the period, while growth in AI-related fields and the wider economy generates demand for 40 million, so the headline is net growth. About 25 million of the 36 million affected workers should be able to stay in their current occupations because growth in their own industries offsets the automation. The remaining 11 million may need to switch occupations entirely, the researchers wrote, and getting them there "may require the largest and most sustained workforce transformation in US history." Their framing: "The next decade's challenge is mobility, not scarcity." This is a forecast, not a layoff, and none of it enters the verified job-loss count. It matters because McKinsey is the firm whose 2017 automation estimates set the terms of the last decade's debate, and because a 36 million reduction in demand is the same order of magnitude as the cuts CEOs are now describing one company at a time. CNN Business reported the findings.