Hassett says A.I. causing quite labor mkt and prices have not gone down

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Artificial intelligence could be increasing worker productivity so much that companies slow hiring, top Trump administration economic advisor Kevin Hassett said Monday.

“I think that there have been mixed signals in the job market,” the National Economic Council director said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” adding that he has seen “really, really positive signals in the output markets.”

After noting U.S. gross domestic product rose at a strong pace in the second quarter of 2025, Hassett said, “there could be a little bit of, almost, quiet time in the labor market, because firms are finding that AI is making their workers so productive that they don’t necessarily have to hire the new kids out of college and so on.”

He maintained, however, that any AI-induced softness in the market would be temporary.

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Hassett said on Monday that overall grocery prices have not come down during Trump’s second term, despite the president’s claims otherwise.

“People still are trying to dig out from the big hole that was dug by the previous administration’s policies,” he said.

The cost of an average monthly grocery haul shot up during the Biden administration and “it’s gone up almost not at all” since Trump returned to the White House, he said.

He added that “purchasing power has gone up.”

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