Bipartisan Nonprofit RAISE US Launches to Cushion AI-Driven Job Disruption

Former U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, a prominent Democrat, is co-founding a new nonprofit organization aimed at mitigating the massive workforce upheaval expected from rapid advances in artificial intelligence.

The group, RAISE US, is launching with more than $500 million in initial funding. It will focus on innovative education, training, and workforce programs developed in partnership with states and major employers, rather than relying primarily on federal government action.

Raimondo is teaming up with former Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb, a Republican, to lead the effort. Their goal is to help American workers transition into new careers as AI automation reshapes industries from manufacturing and transportation to office work, law, and medicine.

“We’re talking about a certain level of unemployment that could destabilize our country and our democracy,” Raimondo said in an interview. “If you want to lead the world in AI, you have to take action to make sure our democracy doesn’t crumble.”

Pilot Programs in Four States

RAISE US will initially roll out programs in Arkansas, Connecticut, Maryland, and Utah. The nonprofit plans to strengthen connections between schools and employers, test new incentives, and explore policy changes such as adjustments to corporate taxes to encourage job creation and retention.

“Good things tend to happen when you convert have-nots into haves,” Holcomb said.

Anchor corporate partners include Amazon, Microsoft, Anthropic, the OpenAI Foundation, and Bank of America. Additional participating employers are UPS, General Motors, Eli Lilly, Mastercard, AMD, Cisco, and IBM.

Raimondo, who served as Rhode Island’s governor before leading AI policy efforts in the Biden administration’s Commerce Department, will serve as CEO of the organization. Its advisory board features a broad range of influential figures, including former Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, and prominent economists David Autor, Erik Brynjolfsson, and Raj Chetty.

AI’s Expected Impact on Jobs

Recent analyses underscore the scale of the challenge. A Boston Consulting Group report from April estimated that roughly half of U.S. jobs could be reshaped by AI in the coming years, with as many as 25 million positions potentially eliminated over the next five years. Separately, Goldman Sachs projected that a quarter of U.S. work hours could be automated.

While AI backers highlight the potential for new wealth and economic growth, critics warn of widespread disruption. President Donald Trump has downplayed immediate risks, emphasizing job opportunities tied to AI infrastructure such as data centers and power plants.

However, experts note that current education systems and labor policies were designed for an earlier era and may not adequately prepare workers for the speed and breadth of AI-driven change.

Neuroscientist Vivienne Ming, author of Robot-Proof: When Machines Have All the Answers, Build Better People, emphasized the need for skills like curiosity and intellectual flexibility that go beyond traditional trades.

Raimondo hopes the nonprofit’s state-level experiments will generate successful models that Congress can later adopt at the federal level.

“I don’t have a lot of hope for bold action by Congress in the next few years on this issue, and I don’t think we can wait a few years,” she said.

The initiative reflects a rare bipartisan effort to proactively address one of the defining economic and social challenges of the AI era.

California Debuts First-in-the-Nation Tracker to Monitor AI-Driven Job Losses

California Governor Gavin Newsom has unveiled a pioneering statewide tool designed to monitor unemployment claims tied to artificial intelligence, marking the first initiative of its kind in the United States.

The California AI-Unemployment Tracker was developed through a collaboration between the governor’s office, the state’s Employment Development Department, and the University of California’s nonpartisan California Policy Lab. Updated monthly, the dashboard analyzes unemployment insurance data across various demographics, breaking down trends by region, industry, age, education level, race, ethnicity, and gender.

The launch is a direct result of an executive order Newsom signed in May, which directed state agencies to formulate policies that protect workers vulnerable to AI-induced job displacement.

“California has always been a place that embraces innovation while taking seriously the responsibility that comes with it,” Newsom stated in a press release. “As AI advances, we aren’t just watching from the sidelines; we’re reimagining how we prepare California through strong governance and innovative policy.”

Early Findings and Broader Context

The tracker arrives amid widespread anxiety over AI's impact on the workforce. According to Layoffs.fyi, the tech sector alone has seen over 121,000 job cuts this year. While some industry leaders dismiss AI as a convenient excuse for corporate restructuring, others acknowledge its direct impact. Oracle, which recently slashed 21,000 jobs, explicitly noted in its annual report that the "deployment of AI technologies" has led to workforce reductions and may continue to do so.

Despite these high-profile cuts, the tracker’s inaugural report reveals no evidence of a massive, statewide spike in layoffs specifically among workers in AI-vulnerable roles. This aligns with broader national data suggesting that, so far, very few U.S. workers have been directly replaced by large language models, with many companies using AI as a smokescreen for other underlying business decisions.

However, the report does highlight early warning signs of localized and industry-specific disruption. For instance, unemployment claims have risen notably among highly educated workers in AI-exposed fields. Master’s and PhD holders in these roles saw their average monthly claims jump from 13,000 in November 2022 to between 16,000 and 22,000 by mid-2023.

Similarly, San Francisco has seen elevated claim rates for AI-exposed workers, though the Bay Area's unemployment baseline was already high prior to the generative AI boom.

An "Early Warning System"

The creators of the tracker emphasize that it is not meant to be a definitive metric of AI's total impact on employment, but rather a proactive monitoring tool.

“This tool helps us see early signals of AI-driven change as they happen, giving policymakers a chance to respond before disruptions spread,” explained Till von Wachter, a UCLA economics professor and co-author of the report. “As AI evolves, timely data will be critical to helping California stay ahead and adjust key workforce programs to meet the moment.”