Across industries, unfilled jobs are more than an HR headache; they are an economic black hole. In the United States, persistent vacancies mean factories run below capacity, services are delayed, and innovation stalls. Yet the economic scale of this issue is vastly underestimated.
Our recent research, submitted and soon to be published as a preprint, quantifies this loss with precision. In August 2025, open positions represented $453 billion in annual labor income foregone. Given that labor typically accounts for 55% of GDP, that translates into an extraordinary $823 billion in potential output locked away, nearly one trillion dollars missing from America’s economy every year.
Two Narratives on AI’s Role in the Labor Market
The debate over AI’s economic impact is heating up. On one side are those who see artificial intelligence as a growth catalyst:
- N. Drydakis (IZA World of Labor, 2025) argues AI is reshaping job markets by creating new roles and boosting competition for high-skill work — benefits that accrue to workers with “AI capital.”
- Kristalina Georgieva (IMF, 2025) emphasizes that AI can help less-experienced workers rapidly improve their productivity, potentially lifting global economic growth.
- St. Louis Federal Reserve (2025) notes that productivity gains from generative AI could spawn new sectors and occupations, offsetting any immediate losses from automation.
But the other side warns that AI could worsen inequality or suppress job creation:
- J. Bughin (2023) finds that AI investment can slow employment growth in specific industries.
- M.R. Frank et al. (PNAS, 2019) warn that rapid AI advances could “significantly disrupt” labor markets.
- White House CEA (2024) reports both positive and negative impacts, which tend to cluster geographically, concentrating risk.
- The Economic Policy Institute (2024) stresses that without strong worker protections, AI’s benefits may primarily accrue to employers and shareholders.
Both views agree on one thing: AI will fundamentally alter the economics of work. The open question is how we will guide AI toward broad-based prosperity, or let disruption run unchecked?
The Novel Solution: Turning Vacancies from Gaps into Capabilities
Most discussions about AI’s impact start with automation: which jobs will AI replace, and which will it enhance? Our research flips this focus. Instead of replacing filled positions, we target unfilled ones, vacancies that are already removing value from the economy.
We propose task‑specific AI agents that can be deployed directly from any job description. Here’s how it works:
- Job Ingestion: The system takes an existing job posting or internal HR description as input.
- Role Decomposition: Functional tasks are mapped into categories: cognitive processing, transactional execution, creative output, and, where applicable, physical coordination (with machine integration).
- Agent Generation: For each category, the system produces an AI agent with the right prompt architecture, paired instructions for human operators, and integration pathways into the workplace.
- Deployment: The agents are rolled out to execute tasks fully or partially, bridging the gap until a human hire is found, or permanently supplementing scarce labor.
This approach reframes a vacancy from “no worker” to “no capability,” and then fills that capability gap computationally. It offers immediate, scalable relief without requiring months-long recruitment drives or population-level labor force growth.
Why This Matters
Consider Professional & Business Services: with around 1.2 million vacancies in Aug 2025, it alone accounts for $189.8 billion in locked GDP. Manufacturing locks up $54.9 billion, while Financial Activities holds $66.2 billion hostage. Even lower-paid sectors, such as Leisure & Hospitality, with 1 million openings, represent a potential $60.4 billion in output loss.
By releasing even a fraction of this locked GDP through AI agent deployment, the U.S. can see extraordinary gains, without displacing existing employees. Instead, AI fills the roles no one is currently performing, keeping production lines moving, IT systems maintained, services delivered, and innovation on track.
Distinct from the Broader AI Debate
This solution diverges from the typical “AI replacing humans” narrative. It doesn’t aim to make human-held jobs obsolete. Instead, it operates in the economic blind spot, the vacancy gap, where there is already zero labor activity.
By focusing on these gaps, we unlock value without triggering new rounds of layoffs or social instability. In fact, frameworks like this can coexist with workforce development programs by:
- Providing interim coverage so projects and outputs don’t stall
- Acting as training scaffolds for new hires, who can work alongside AI agents while building skills
- Informing policymakers about real-time capability shortages, enabling targeted subsidies or incentives
Policy and Business Implications
Agencies like the U.S. Department of Labor could integrate AI capability indexes into workforce planning tools. Economic development offices might incentivize AI Vacancy Fulfillment adoption in critical shortage sectors. For companies, rapid deployment means:
- Minimizing revenue loss from idle capacity
- Maintaining customer service levels during long hiring cycles
- Protecting competitive advantage in innovation-driven sectors
The magnitude is compelling: turning even half of the $823 billion locked GDP into realized output could mean an annual gain equivalent to the GDP of states like Florida or Pennsylvania.
Making “AI Profits for All” a Reality
At Almma.AI, our mission is to democratize AI’s transformative power, AI Profits for All. This research represents exactly that vision: not theoretical projections, but a clear, implementable system to recapture economic value for everyone.
While others worry about AI’s potential to harm the labor market, and those concerns are real, our work demonstrates how AI can add value precisely where the labor market is already failing. The result: a healthier economy, stronger businesses, and accessible tools that allow everyone to benefit from AI’s potential.
Conclusion
In the clash of narratives about AI’s impact, there’s room for a third perspective: using AI not to replace people, nor to hope it “naturally” lifts productivity, but to fill gaps that drag the economy down strategically. If America chooses this path, we can unlock nearly a trillion dollars a year in GDP, not by waiting for labor markets to heal themselves, but by deliberately and intelligently deploying AI agents built for the jobs we can’t otherwise fill.
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