Jonathan Haskel, chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility, says AI will displace some jobs and that the transition could be painful for workers. His warning puts the question of support for people affected alongside the promised productivity gains.
Watch Desk analysis
What happened
Speaking on an Institute for Fiscal Studies podcast, Haskel said AI could improve productivity and help produce advances such as better medicines. But he also warned that people whose jobs are displaced will need help moving into new work. The Telegraph reported his comments on 13 November.
Haskel did not describe a specific forecast of how many jobs AI will remove. His point was that displacement and new opportunities can arrive together, and that the change may still cause real harm along the way.
Why it matters
The argument about AI and work often jumps from grand productivity promises to predictions of mass unemployment. Haskel’s comments put the less tidy transition between those two outcomes in view: even if new roles emerge, that does not mean workers can move into them easily or without support.
That makes the practical policy question less abstract. What help will people need to retrain or find work, and who should provide it? Haskel’s warning is not a job-loss estimate, but it is a clear call to take the disruption seriously rather than treating future job creation as an automatic safety net.
Our read
The OBR chair is not saying AI will only destroy jobs, or that the eventual balance is already known. He is saying that a productivity dividend does not cancel out the cost to people caught on the wrong side of the change. A better debate would ask how workers can make that transition, not just whether the economy might eventually grow.
What to watch
- What support Haskel and other policymakers propose for workers displaced by AI.
- Whether future OBR analysis puts numbers on the expected effects across jobs and productivity.
- How quickly businesses turn AI investment into measurable gains in workers’ output and living standards.
Discussion spark: If AI creates new jobs while displacing existing ones, what should count as adequate support for workers who cannot make that transition unaided?
Sources and evidence
- OBR: Britain faces ‘very very painful’ job losses from AI – The Telegraph (13 November 2026, 13:02 UTC)
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