Resolution Foundation announces new project to develop and pilot first of-their kind tools measuring AI’s labour market impacts

The Resolution Foundation announces a new Economic and Social Research Council funded project, Measuring AI's Impact on the UK Labour Market: New Tools and Evidence. Carried out in collaboration with The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), the Institute of Directors, the British Chambers of Commerce, and Burning Glass Institute, the project will develop and pilot new approaches for measuring AI’s impact on the UK labour market. A publicly accessible online dashboard bringing together these indicators will be a central output of the project, available from April 2027 and updated regularly.

Greg Thwaites, Research Associate at the Resolution Foundation, said:

“The current policy debate on AI and the labour market is driven by prediction owing to a current gap in the data on this critical issue. Through developing the measurement tools needed to track AI’s actual, real-time impact as it unfolds, the project announced today will directly inform policymakers and researchers, while establishing new standards for monitoring technological disruption in future.’’

Find out more

The launch of this new project has been announced as part of the London School of Economics and Political Science’s 2026 Global Forum for AI and the Social Sciences. To build momentum and unlock new forms of coordinated and collective action, selected organisations from around the world have been invited to use the Global Forum as a platform for releasing work, launching new initiatives, or making commitments related to the Forum's annual focus.

Statement from Resolution Foundation

The current policy debate on AI and the labour market is driven by prediction. But the reality is, we lack the measurement tools to track AI’s actual, real-time impact as it unfolds. To address the current gap in existing data, this cutting-edge project will be the first to combine multiple real-time data sources into an integrated measurement framework. This will include:

• “Conversations at Scale” involving deploying AI-led qualitative interviewing to capture how thousands of workers and employers are experiencing AI-driven change, alongside Xavier Jaravel, Professor of Economics at the LSE, beginning this autumn
• Applying large language model-based classification to large-scale job advertisement data to track shifting employer skill demands
• Analysing career trajectory and skills data to examine how workers are adapting to AI exposed roles
• Exploiting private payroll data to measure earnings and employment dynamics in AI-exposed occupations, to provide high-frequency evidence on displacement and reallocation.

A publicly accessible online dashboard bringing together these indicators will be a central output of the project, available from April 2027 and updated regularly. This will directly inform policymakers and provide a foundation for future research on AI and inclusive growth, while establishing new standards for real-time monitoring of technological disruption.

About Resolution Foundation

The Resolution Foundation is an independent think-tank dedicated to lifting living standards in the UK. We focus particularly on households with low and middle incomes; those on low pay or in precarious work; and those vulnerable to financial shocks. They also investigate fairness between the generations in our Intergenerational Centre.

About the Global Forum for AI and the Social Sciences

The Global Forum for AI and the Social Sciences is an annual flagship event bringing together leaders across government, industry, academia, and civil society from around the world. Organised by the LSE Data Science Institute, the Global Forum aims to convene international dialogue at the intersection of AI and the social sciences and to mobilise expertise, resources, and partnerships to ensure AI serves human and societal needs.

The inaugural edition of the Global Forum will take place on 16 and 17 September 2026 with a thematic focus on how AI is reshaping work and what governments, firms, and workers must do to prepare for the changes ahead.