'It's the beginning' — Cramer warns the weak payroll report shows AI-related job losses are here

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Friday expressed concern about the surprisingly weak February jobs report . The line that Cramer focused on most: the information sector of the economy lost 11,000 jobs last month. Over the past 12 months, it had lost an average of 5,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This broad employment group includes telecommunications, software publishing and the media, among others. Cramer said when he saw that above-trend 11,000 decline, his conclusion was: "OK, that has to be AI. “Enough. Enough.” Cramer said he hears so many companies talking about their growing adoption of artificial intelligence in areas like call centers and for tasks that junior employees might traditionally do. “Here it is. It’s the beginning,” Cramer said. “I just say, OK. That’s it. People don’t want to hire, and they’re letting people go. They’re doing some firing.” Nonfarm payrolls in February dropped by 92,000 and the unemployment rate rose to 4.4% from 4.3% in the prior month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists polled by Dow Jones had expected an increase of 50,000 jobs in the month. To be sure, some of the February job losses in areas like health care were likely related to a now-resolved strike at Kaiser Permanente. Cramer said he sees other parts of the jobs report that suggest growing adoption of technology. He pointed to employment in transportation and warehousing declining by 157,000 jobs since its peak in February 2025. “That’s robots. They’re starting to use robots,” Cramer said. “It’s happening. Stop saying, ‘When’s it going to happen?’ This is a happening,” Cramer said. “No one wants to admit it because it’s not cyclical. It’s secular.” He added, “This is the agentic economy.”