THE 5-MINUTE TEST
The honest answer is not one number. It is five questions about your own week.
Checked Aug. 2026 · every figure sourced
THE SHORT ANSWER
The US is adding about 61,000 jobs a month, and announced layoffs just hit a two-year low.
19%
How far behind 22-to-25-year-olds in AI-exposed desk jobs now are. A year ago it was 15%.
QUESTION 1 OF 5
How much of your day is reading or writing text and data on a screen that someone else then uses?
70%+ = 3 · 30–70% = 2 · under 30% = 0
QUESTION 2 OF 5
Can a machine tell whether your output is right, without a person judging it?
yes = 3 · partly = 1 · only a person can = 0
QUESTION 3 OF 5
Does the work require you to be physically somewhere — a patient, a panel, a site, a machine?
never = 2 · sometimes = 1 · always = 0
QUESTION 4 OF 5
Must someone be legally or professionally on the hook for your call — a licence, a signature, liability?
no = 2 · yes = 0
QUESTION 5 OF 5
Are you in your first three years in this occupation?
yes = 2 · no = 0
ADD THEM UP
0–4
Complement zone
AI makes you faster. The risk is the colleague who learns the tools first.
5–8
Watch zone
Your task mix is shifting. Move toward judgment within a year.
9–12
Exposure zone
Your tasks go first. Get closer to the customer or the machine now.
THE FULL PIECE
Where the layoff counts come from, why rehiring is the number nobody searches for, and what to do if it already happened to you.
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