Continuous warnings from commentators, including myself, about AI taking our jobs are starting to come home to roost.

A slew of jobs data this week from around the world has confirmed what anyone looking for work has known for some time. It’s a job market apocalypse out there.

On Thursday US time we learned that American firms cut more than 150,000 jobs in October, the largest round of layoffs in 20 years, and a 175 per cent increase compared to the same time last year.

Authors of the report cited cost-cutting and AI-driven changes as the cause for the outsized cuts.

The picture is similarly bleak across the Pacific.

On Wednesday we learned that New Zealand’s unemployment rate hit 5.3 per cent, the highest in a decade.

The country is now in a double dip recession, as more people look for work and housing prices continue to plummet.

Australians should be worried.

New Zealand’s economy and central bank, RBNZ, is often considered a canary in the coal mine for the Australian economy and leads where the RBA follows.

The warning signs are already appearing here at home.

Data reported by Seek employment shows that the number of applications per job ad in Australia continues to break new records, all while the total number of job ads is plummeting.

Unemployment rate, now 4.5 per cent, is the highest since the pandemic, and hitting young people and particularly young men the hardest.

What job growth we do have is heavily concentrated in the public sector.

All states are now heavily reliant on non-market job creation, aka government and NDIS jobs.

The nonmarket sector has been responsible for roughly 80 per cent of the job growth in the past two years, largely in the NDIS and care economy.

The productivity crisis is showing up in the national accounts too.

Australia’s GDP grew 1.4 per cent last financial year. While on paper we’re richer, GDP per capita is down 0.3 per cent – so per person, we’re poorer.

Meanwhile, inflation is back and accelerating at a rapid clip.

Last week Aussie economists almost fell off their chairs when Australia’s CPI came in above all forecasts, mostly due to Chalmers’ band-aid electricity subsidies expiring, and housing costs accelerating (again).

Albanese’s 5 per cent deposits, which he claimed would only increase house prices 0.6 per cent in six years, has already increased house prices 0.6 per cent in its first month.

The result? Australia’s inflation rate is now above the RBA’s target, higher than the UK, United States, the European Union, China, and Canada.

This creates a perfect storm for the RBA. Now AI is deterring hiring, and Labor government spending and housing policy is driving inflation higher.

Normally rate cuts are used to stimulate an economy and prompt firms to hire, but when firms aren’t hiring because they are replacing workers with AI, rate cuts will do nothing to support employment.

It’s the worst nightmare for the RBA.

Does it cut interest rates to prevent the job market weakening, or does it raise them to get ahead of inflation returning?

Australia’s October unemployment rate is due next Thursday, and a further rise will really sound alarm bells in Chalmers’ office, as even his infinity migration policies won’t be enough to prevent a full-blown recession.

It’s going to be interesting to see who Jim Chalmers will blame this time. Sam Altman?