The New York Times published a new article Friday asking whether artificial intelligence tools have caused disruptions in the number of Americans who are employed. Incredibly, the article never mentions the word “wages.”

The piece, titled “A.I. Was Supposed to Come for Our Jobs. So Far, Evidence Is Mixed,” was written by Ben Casselman and starts with the question we all have:

It’s arguably the single biggest question facing the labor market right now, all the more so after Tuesday’s midterm elections showed widespread public animosity toward A.I. and data centers, in particular.

Casselman notes that Microsoft recently offered voluntary buyouts to about 60,000 employees, but white-collar industries like accounting, legal services, and finance mostly added jobs in October.

The article is mostly fine, even if it’s filled with way more questions than answers. Nobody knows long-term whether AI will put a significant dent in jobs:

Even if A.I. is taking a toll on hiring, it isn’t quite clear what that means. Are companies using A.I. to replace workers? Or merely pressing “pause” on hiring while they figure out where these new tools will be most useful? Or are they spending so much on tokens and A.I. infrastructure that they are looking to cut costs elsewhere?

The U.S. economy added 165,000 jobs in October, much higher than expected, and the unemployment rate fell to 4.1%. By these measures, it seems that Americans are doing okay. There’s no double-digit unemployment as we’ve seen in historically bad times.

But the New York Times article completely misses one of the most important functions of AI in the job market of 2026.

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