Artificial intelligence promised productivity miracles. Instead, it’s quietly eroding U.S. payrolls. Goldman Sachs economists calculate AI has shaved 16,000 jobs off monthly employment growth over the past year. That’s nudged the unemployment rate up 0.1 percentage point. Yahoo Finance spotlighted the research from Elsie Peng, who blended a displacement score with an IMF complementarity index to separate roles AI replaces from those it enhances. Telephone operators top the hit list. Insurance claims clerks follow. Bill collectors. Customer service reps. Data entry clerks. Firms in these areas report falling operating costs and fewer job postings. Younger workers bear the brunt. Entry-level white-collar gigs in professional services? Hiring there has cooled sharply. But AI doesn’t just destroy. It creates too. Goldman figures high-augmentation occupations—think education workers, judges, construction managers—have gained 9,000 jobs monthly. These roles demand physical presence, judgment, human touch.…