By , Detroit Free Press
Publication Date: 2026-02-28 11:03:00
Feb. 28, 2026, 6:03 a.m. ET
Wall Street began the week with a shock.
A research note from Citrini Research sketched an unsettling future: mass unemployment among white-collar workers as AI agents replace human labor at scale. In Citrini’s scenario, the U.S. jobless rate surges past 10% by 2028, with weekly unemployment claims approaching half a million.
The report exploded across trading desks and social media. Economists quickly pushed back, arguing the assumptions stretch economic logic and underestimate the labor market’s ability to adapt to technological disruption.
But markets trade on fear before they trade on models. The Dow Jones just logged its worst week of 2026.
Even Nvidia — the poster child of the AI boom — couldn’t steady nerves.The company delivered a blowout earnings beat and upbeat guidance. It didn’t matter. The stock fell more than 5% the next day, a striking signal that investor psychology may be shifting from euphoria to skepticism.
Then came corporate confirmation.
On Thursday, Feb. 26, Block announced it will slash its workforce from more than 10,000 employees to under 6,000. CEO Jack Dorsey said AI tools and leaner teams are fundamentally redefining how companies are built and run. For some investors, that sounded less like innovation — and more like validation of the disruption Citrini warned about.
The tremors are not confined to tech.
