The US economy lost 92,000 jobs in February 2026, and Anthropic measured that AI is actually covering 75% of programmers’ tasks. Meanwhile the creator economy grows 10% a year, creates job roles that did not exist five years ago, and 91.9% of creators actively use at least one AI tool.
McKinsey estimates that up to 30% of working hours in the US could be automated by 2030. Goldman Sachs talks about exposure equivalent to 300 million jobs globally. Anthropic, in its study Labor market impacts of AI from March 2026, does something different. Instead of predictions, it measures real use of its Claude model across millions of work interactions.
The result is a gap. In IT and mathematics, AI could theoretically cover 94% of tasks, but it is actually used for 33%. Programmers have 75% coverage, customer service 70.1% and data entry 67.1%. But 30% of workers have no AI exposure at all. Cooks, bartenders, mechanics. Work that no language model will do.
A white-collar recession
The most exposed workers are 16 percentage points more likely to be women. They earn 47% more than average. They are four times more likely to hold a postgraduate degree. Lawyers, financial analysts, developers. Not warehouse workers.
Fortune called it a potential great recession for white-collar workers. Unemployment has not yet systematically risen. But the job-finding rate for young people aged 22 to 25 in exposed professions has fallen 14% compared with 2022.
February data from the US labour market add context. The economy unexpectedly lost 92,000 jobs in February 2026, unemployment rose to 4.4%, and almost every sector shed jobs, including healthcare. Since October 2024, the federal government has eliminated 330,000 positions, or 11% of its workforce. 2025 was the weakest year for employment since the pandemic. Samuel Tombs of Pantheon Macroeconomics summed it up for BBC: “What stabilisation? The idea the labor market has turned a corner implodes with this report.”
67 million creators and growing
Goldman Sachs estimated in March 2025 that around 67 million people worldwide consider themselves creators. By 2030 there should be 107 million, with year-on-year growth of around 10%. According to Grand View Research, the market reached more than $205 billion in 2024. Goldman Sachs expects $480 billion by 2027. Grand View Research goes further still, to $1.34 trillion by 2033.
Most of the growth goes to amateur and part-time creators. Professionals who earn more than $100,000 a year make up only 3% of the total. Goldman Sachs expects the share of professionals to fall to 2.5% by 2030, because amateur creators are growing faster.
According to a survey by The Influencer Marketing Factory of a thousand American creators, 48.7% earn less than $10,000 a year. 45.6% fall into the $10,000 to $100,000 range, and 5.7% exceed $100,000. However, 51.5% of creators saw their income grow year on year.
Roles nobody planned for
Talent Management. Creator Partnerships. Community Management. Growth Marketing. According to data from Q3 2025, job postings for Talent Management roles rose 93% on the previous quarter. For Creator Partnerships they rose 20%, and for support roles 22%. Total job postings in the creator economy are down 3% quarter on quarter and 35% year on year, but demand for strategic creator-facing roles is growing.
44.9% of creators prefer long-term partnerships with brands. Companies are responding by creating in-house roles that did not exist in corporate org charts a short time ago. Head of Creator Marketing. Creator Acquisition Manager. VP Creator Partnerships.
Private investment in the creator economy reached about $1.5 billion in 2024, after falling from $3.6 billion in 2021 to $950 million in 2023 (Goldman Sachs via NetInfluencer). The money is coming back, but it is heading elsewhere. Not into platforms, but into tools for creators and monetisation models.
Two markets, one world
Anthropic shows that AI could in theory cover most tasks in IT, finance and administration. In practice, it is still far off. But the gap is narrowing. The US labour market lost 92,000 jobs in February 2026, and the job-finding rate for young people in exposed professions is falling.
Creator economy meanwhile keeps growing. 67 million creators today, 107 million within five years. Strategic roles around creators are growing by tens of percent. Investment is coming back. And 91.9% of creators use at least one AI tool instead of fearing it.
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