‘Spectacular’ AI growth is creating a serious labor market problem for Fed, Jefferies’ David Zervos warns

Long-time market bull David Zervos is worried the Federal Reserve is overlooking how the artificial intelligence boom will impact the jobs market.

“We could actually have a pretty strong growth economy. Your AI story… [is] something really pretty spectacular. But the job growth side of it is not nearly as comfortable as you would like it to be,” he told CNBC’s “Fast Money” this week. “That’s a dilemma for the Fed.”

Zervos, a CNBC contributor, alluded to the central bank’s full employment and price stability mandate.

“Imagine a world maybe where we’re [the economy] growing at three and a half or four [percent.] Things are really good, but the unemployment rate keeps ticking up,” he said.

Zervos, who has been considered one of the potential candidates to ultimately replace Fed Chair Jerome Powell, contends the central bank should be more focused on the labor market right now than inflation.

“The smartest AI guys I know, the guys who have made the money in the largest amounts, and you know them. You have them on these shows. They’ve been saying for a while [that] they’re early in all the stocks,” he said. “These are the people that are telling me in meetings we’re going to lose three to five million jobs in the next three to four years. Maybe even faster.”