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Newsweek
4 days ago
- Business
- Newsweek
Entry-Level Jobs For Gen Z Are Disappearing: Experts
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The AI revolution isn't just on its way; it's happening, and the impacts of this new technology are quickly being felt, particularly by Gen Z. Born between 1997 and 2012, Gen Z is expected to make up approximately 30 percent of the global workforce, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But the workforce they're entering is rapidly changing. According to a YouGov survey from March 2025, the majority of Americans (56 percent) use AI tools, and 28 percent use AI tools weekly, while a recent study from KPMG found that 66 percent of people regularly use AI. One impact of AI is that it is quickly coming for entry-level jobs, meaning that they don't just look different; soon, they may not exist at all. Newsweek spoke to the experts to find out more. Are Entry-Level Jobs Being Replaced By AI? Millions of students will be graduating this spring. But the mood as they do so may be a trepidatious one, as experts are continuing to sound the alarm on a decline in entry-level jobs. Photo-illustration by Newsweek/Getty/Canva Aneesh Raman, LinkedIn's chief economic opportunity officer, likened the shift to the decline in manufacturing in the early 1980s in an op-ed for The New York Times, while a report from Signalfire said that entry-level jobs are "collapsing," and a "generational hiring shift is leaving new graduates behind." So, why are entry-level jobs being hit hard by AI? "Entry-level jobs tend to involve routine, well-defined tasks—exactly the kind of work current AI systems are best suited to automate," Professor Daniela Rus, the Director of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT, told Newsweek over email. Keri Mesropov, founder of Spring Talent Development, shared a similar sentiment. Speaking to Newsweek over email, she said, "AI is rapidly reshaping entry-level jobs, automating repetitive tasks, streamlining workflows, and, in some cases, eliminating roles entirely." Mesropov said that this technological leap could open the door to work that is more strategic and engaging. But "it also removes many of the formative, tacit-knowledge building experiences that previously shaped early career development." A Changing Workplace Culture Newsweek also spoke to Josh Bersin, a global industry analyst and CEO at The Josh Bersin Company. Bersin told Newsweek that entry work is not going away. However, it is changing. "Entry-level hiring has slowed," he told Newsweek, but said that this is "largely because of the economy." And economic concerns are high. President Donald Trump's economic agenda, particularly the imposition of tariffs on dozens of American trading partners, has sparked fears that the economy will tip into a recession, marked by weak growth, job losses and further inflation. It's not the easiest environment for young people to be graduating into. However, Bersin told Newsweek that the large companies he speaks to tell him they are, in fact, hiring college graduates for two key reasons. Part of the reason companies have entry-level roles is to "build a talent pipeline," pointing to younger people as "candidates for future growth." "Great employers succeed by retaining workers and developing them into leaders," Bersin said. And, this isn't the first time that the workplace has been transformed by new technologies. Bersin likened the shift to the digital revolution of the 2000s and said, "As with all technology evolutions, the AI revolution creates many new careers," including "building AI systems, managing AI data, training and administering AI platforms, and then the higher level jobs of "leveraging" and using AI in legal, HR, design, sales, creative work." To Rus, it's about evolution. "Rather than eliminating the need for early-career professionals, AI shifts the nature of their contributions," she said, adding, "We still need people to understand how these systems work, to adapt them to specific contexts, to troubleshoot unexpected behavior, and to build the next generation of tools." "We need a strong pipeline of talent that starts with entry-level roles, internships, and hands-on learning opportunities," Rus said. "These early experiences remain essential stepping stones, helping people build technical confidence, domain fluency, and problem-solving skills. And soon, the skills companies will be looking for in entry-level workers is how well they can make the most of AI tools." Though it's easy to forget through the noise of alarms sounding about the AI revolution, AI requires human interference. Mesropov highlighted this, noting that the technology needs "sophisticated human input context-heavy prompts and judgment calls only developed through lived experience." A New Gen, In A New Gen Workplace According to YouGov's March data, adults under 30 are more likely than older Americans to use AI tools (76 percent vs. 51 percent) and are more likely to use AI at least weekly. Newsweek also spoke with Professor Melissa Valentine, a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI. In a phone call with Newsweek, she highlighted how tech-literate Gen Z is. "Their skills are changing," she said. Valentine said that when you've had technology integrated into your life, "It's a different mechanism." And according to Valentine, the onus isn't on Gen Z to figure out how to optimize this best. "It's up to companies to be ready to figure out how to make use of kids who are so good at technology." Valentine shared a real-world example of this, explaining that she had a young man join her team who was "so digitally savvy." "He just came in and picked up all the internal tools to make the AI agent for himself," she said. "People on his team who were in their forties, they were using Gen AI," she said. But not like the younger colleague could. "He was one of the most AI power users that I've seen. Rus echoed this. "The advantage Gen Z has is that they are digital natives. They are well-positioned to work alongside AI, not in opposition to it," she told Newsweek. "Young people today are using AI to solve problems and even have fun by creating stories and images." This isn't just an era of digital natives then, but AI natives, according to Rus. Gen Z's "Comfort with rapid technological change makes them ideal candidates to help shape how we use these tools ethically, inclusively, and creatively." For Bersin, the prevalence of AI literacy in young people is a key part of what makes them attractive to employers. "They see tremendous skills in using AI and bringing new ideas in younger workers," he said. Looking Ahead The future then is unclear but not necessarily bleak. "There's an optimistic path: if we rethink what early-career roles look like, we can design new kinds of "onramps" that blend learning with production—such as AI-assisted engineering apprenticeships, project-based learning environments, and hybrid human-AI teams," Rus told Newsweek. Mesropov told Newsweek that the remaining jobs in five years will demand "more than technical talent." "They'll require emotional intelligence, communication, adaptability and critical reasoning," she said. Mesropov highlighted the importance of building these skills alongside AI, noting that without this, "Gen Z will fall behind not just in how to use AI, but in how to lead with it." Valentine told Newsweek that there is an "opportunity for business models to evolve and shift" where "information is more readily at our fingertips." "What if we solved problems better?" Valentine said. "That's my hope. And I do think it's possible."
Independent Singapore
12-06-2025
- Business
- Independent Singapore
‘No one can beat you at being you': LinkedIn exec shares advice for young job seekers in the age of AI
As the job market rapidly evolves and artificial intelligence is rewriting the rules of work, Aneesh Raman, LinkedIn's Chief Economic Opportunity Officer, believes young professionals can still be optimistic. In a story published by the Business Insider, Raman shared his insights drawn from a career doing war reporting, political speechwriting, tech, and now shaping the future of work. In that interview, Raman offers valuable points of view that job seekers and those currently working can learn from. Tougher job market, but not a hopeless one According to a recent story published by Business Insider , current statistics depict a challenging picture for job hunters. The New York Federal Reserve revealed that the unemployment rate for new college graduates (ages 22–27) hit 5.8% in March, more than the national average of 4%. However, Raman sees this moment not just as an obstacle, but as a chance to reconsider how people must view career-building, that they must approach it and begin with a profound 'personal exercise.' Discovering your 'story of self' Raman suggests that entry-level workers start by creating what he dubs a 'story of self.' This is not a planned-out pitch for recruiters, but an account entrenched in one's distinct blend of abilities, experiences, and passions. 'The most important—and hardest—task for young workers is defining what makes them unique,' he says. 'It's about identifying the skills built through both lived and learned experience, and turning that into a compelling, confident narrative.' His path, which includes roles as a war journalist, a speechwriter for President Obama, and a tech leader, is anything but linear. Yet with these roles, a common strand surfaced – a flair for descriptive storytelling. It's that unswerving aptitude, not job titles, that eventually moulded his present role at LinkedIn. 'Your job might not make sense on paper, but your skillset can,' he says. 'That's how you build toward a job no one else can do better than you.' Make learning a daily habit—starting with AI Beyond defining one's story, Raman says young people must create a routine of learning every day, with AI mastery at the forefront. 'The tools are out there, but how are you using them in service of your goals? How are they helping you master the skills you want to build?' he asks. 'Over time, your curiosity will guide your learning—and that's what creates long-term value.' He believes that AI, notwithstanding existing disruptions, offers a huge advantage for young people in the workforce. Since businesses are still trying to figure out how to effectively implement and adapt to technology, this creates an opportunity for early-career professionals to proliferate and take on more purposeful work. A new age of career ownership Raman sees a future where individuals will have extraordinary autonomy over their careers, particularly if they advance non-technical 'human' capabilities such as communication, flexibility, and collaboration. 'The knowledge economy we've known is fading,' he clarifies. 'In its place, we're seeing a rise in the value of uniquely human capabilities. These are now the real hard skills.' Employers and educators must swing their focus accordingly, he added, with special concentration on AI knowledge and entrepreneurial outlooks. Naturally, not everyone will need to launch a startup, but every worker should espouse the attributes of an entrepreneur: inquisitiveness, flexibility, and imagination. See also Malaysia considers social media licence requirement for LinkedIn Embracing the challenge and the possibility While Raman admits that at present, getting into the workforce is exceptionally tough, he recommends that young people should not allow fear to take over. 'This is a different moment than any other generation has had,' he says. 'You have the tools to build a career on your terms. AI can help you grow, scale ideas, and learn faster than ever before.' The future of work, he believes, will be demarcated by people who can do what no one else can —be themselves. 'No one can beat you at being you,' he says. 'And that's the career you should build.'
Time of India
07-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
AI versus first jobbers: Here are six tips for bright young students as AI threatens entry-level jobs
ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT founder Dario Amodei has set the cat among the pigeons by predicting that AI could eliminate half of all entry-level, white-collar jobs within five years. Aneesh Raman, a senior leader in LinkedIn, sees 'the bottom rung of the job ladder breaking', with entry-level coding, para-legal and consulting analyst jobs under threat of being 'replaced with AI'.Molly Kinder of Brookings says, 'These tools are so good that I no longer need marketing analysts, finance analysts and research assistants.'Even in my tiny company, we have 'replaced' a couple of junior researchers with deep research AI agents from OpenAI and phenomenon of entrylevel jobs being under AI threat is not only anecdotal. Raman sees hard evidence of this on LinkedIn, with 63% of VPs and above agreeing that AI might eventually take on some of the entry-level roles and tasks. The latest US job data reveals that the unemployment rate for college grads has risen by 30%, compared with about 18% for all by big tech and consulting firms support this assertion. PwC recently laid off 1,500 US employees, most of them recent hires. Microsoft got rid of about 3% of its workforce, most of them software engineers and project managers. A now-famous memo by the Spotify CEO froze all hiring, insisting that employees must first prove that AI can't do that job before they hire a human has always impacted jobs, destroying many old ones, but also creating new, unexpected ones. The IT wave put old-school clerks and stenographers to pasture, but created millions of software developers and search engine marketers. Manufacturing went through a similar however, is different in the sense that it is a cognitive technology—one of the brain, rather than of the hand. So, it squarely takes aim at the knowledge worker and the creative seems different with AI is how it is impacting first jobbers and entry-level workers. This is dangerous, as it is in the formative years that youngsters learn skills and gain basic code and debugging are how they rise to become great software engineers; junior paralegals and associates draft clauses and contracts that prepares them for partner-level tasks; and retail and customer service agents learn the basics before they can rise up the hierarchy. These are, coincidentally, the tasks that AI can do best. Deep Research can do the job of researchers; vibe coding with Cursor AI of entry-level software; while Harvey AI and NotebookLM draft excellent curiously, AI seems to be favouring the older people—with their human qualities of judgement, experience, institutional memory and collaboration, sharpened over years. It is in these human skills that young people need to be groomed. But if entry jobs go away, it will create a massive unemployment and educational crisis, and choke the pipeline of young people who can replace the our obsession for software and STEM, it was not only computer or software engineering graduates who joined tech firms as software engineers. Legions of mechanical, electronics and even civil engineers did the same. There is a whole world to build out there outside of software. Manufacturing firms desperately need engineers to run their machines, there are bridges to be built, roads to be repaired and data centres to be run. For instance, Google recently announced a $10 million grant, among other things, to train electricians for the power plant and data centre boom that AI has sowed. This huge shortage means electrical engineers in data centre clusters in the US are earning significantly more than software engineers do. Simply put, say hello to the revolutionary idea that mechanical engineers do mechanical definition of literacy has changed. It was about reading, writing and arithmetic; now it is beyond that to working naturally with AI tools and agents. Young people, including those I teach at Ashoka and other universities, are fast adapting to be AI literate and use AI tools in everything they do, to get a leg up in their job search. At KPMG, recent graduates are reportedly leveraging AI tools and handling tax jobs that used to be done by employees with three-plus years' experience. Big legal firms are encouraging early-career lawyers to work on complex contracts that once senior people will have to rediscover humanities with subjects of logic, grammar, ethics, philosophy and literature to keep our competitive advantage. With AI agents increasingly handling the technical 'how-to' of tasks, the human edge will lie in the 'why' and the 'what next'. The 'humble' subjects of humanities like language, philosophy, grammar and the arts are the ones that provide us critical frameworks for understanding context, ethics, human motivation, creativity and critical judgment —skills that are inherently difficult for AI to replicate meaningfully. As answers become commoditised, questions or prompts become important, and increasingly employers will prefer graduates with a mix of humanities and technical and SMEs build economies, not large monolithic organisations. More and more first jobbers will choose to become entrepreneurs. The New York Times writes about how at Stanford University, fewer grads are considering tech and finance careers, and more of them are plunging into starting companies — 'on the theory that if humans are about to lose their labor advantages to powerful AI systems, they had better hurry and do something big'.There is no rule that people must do only one job at a time. As AI rolls in, multiple skills will become much more important. Be a software engineer and a chef; qualify as a designer and run a pet foster home; build websites as well as toys for children. Think of your career not as a linear progression in a single industry, but a portfolio you are before this era, young people entered jobs as apprentices. They would pay a master blacksmith or surgeon to teach them their craft, before setting up a practice of their own. The modern corporate organisation reversed that trend; young people were paid to learn during their initial years. As AI replaces basic skills and reinvents work, there could be a reversal. There could be a future where humans would invest to do our first job, before we claim the right to earn.
CBS News
06-06-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Experts offer advice to new college grads on entering the workforce in the age of AI
Futurist explains how AI will change the way we live and work New college graduates this year face an especially daunting task — putting their degrees to work just as "generative" artificial intelligence technology like ChatGPT is beginning to change the American workplace. "We are entering an entirely new economy, so the knowledge economy that we have been in for the last 50 years or so is on the way out, and a new economy is on the way in," Aneesh Raman, Chief Economic Opportunity Officer at LinkedIn, told CBS MoneyWatch. The impact of AI on Americans recently out of college is already visible across a range of industries and jobs, from technology and finance to media, legal fields and market research. As a result, for the first time unemployment among fresh grads recently surpassed the nation's overall jobless rate — a shift some experts attribute in part to the creeping influence of AI. "There are signs that entry-level positions are being displaced by artificial intelligence at higher rates than the roles above them," said Matthew Martin, senior U.S. economist at Oxford Economics. With the adoption of AI at work only expected to accelerate, we asked three experts across academia, recruitment and consulting for advice on how new college grads should navigate this new normal. Here's what they said. Become fluent in AI Perhaps most important, young job-seekers start using gen-AI tools — today. "Almost anybody in that audience, irrespective of the job that they're pursuing, will be expected to use AI with some facility right away," said Joseph Fuller, a professor at Harvard Business School and founder of the Managing the Future of Work project, comparing the task to learning how to use Microsoft Office for a previous generation of grads. To get the ball rolling, experts encourage those who are starting to hunt for work to familiarize themselves with the array of tools at their disposal, such as Anthropic's Claude or OpenAI's ChatGPT. That means learning how to engage with such tools beyond simply using them as a search engine. "You want to get in a dialogue with it," Fuller said. "You want to ask it to take different perspectives." Emily Rose McRae, an analyst at research and advisory firm Gartner, said learning how to use AI apps can also be a good way to develop transferable skills. For example, asking AI to summarize documents and then validating its findings to ensure accuracy. Meanwhile, although AI can be helpful when it comes time to filling out job applications, users should proceed with caution given that recruiters can often spot AI-generated language, experts note. Nearly two-thirds of job candidates today use AI at some point in the application process, according to a report from recruitment firm Career Group Companies. "If you're using it to write your cover letter and your resume and you did not review it, everyone can tell," McRae said. Another way to gain potentially valuable experience with AI, while also seeking work, is for interview practice. For example, users can ask the chatbot both to provide sample questions they might face in an interview and then rate the quality of their responses. "If you are using it as a tool to get your own understanding of self in interviews, you're going to start being leaps ahead of everyone else," Raman said. Hone your soft skills Experts say that as AI surpasses humans in executing certain tasks — think actuarial math or corporate compliance, for example —more attention will shift to job candidates' so-called soft skills, such as problem solving and communication. "You cannot outsource your thinking to AI," LinkedIn's Raman said. "You have to continue to hone critical thinking and complex strategy thinking." The focus will be less on your pedigree — where you went to school or even whether you have a college degree — he added, and more on what he calls the "5 Cs": curiosity, compassion, creativity, courage and communication. To improve their soft skills, Fuller encourages entry-level job candidates to work on turning what they regard as their biggest weakness into a strength. For instance, if you typically shy away from public speaking or talking in groups, push yourself to get comfortable in those situations. "The inability to do that is going to be penalized more severely in the work of the future than it has been in the past," he said. The Harvard professor also suggested highlighting examples of advanced social skills directly on your resume to help paint a picture for recruiters of how you can contribute to the workplace. Choose your employer wisely Beyond skills development, experts say college grads should be thoughtful about the type of company they choose to work at, knowing that AI could drastically alter the business in the coming years. "The most important thing, if you're a new grad, is where you work — not what you do at the place you're going to work," Raman told CBS MoneyWatch. He encouraged college graduates to seek out employers that are integrating AI responsibly and with respect for their workforce — as opposed to embracing it chiefly to replace people. Companies that are adapting to what is a major technological shift in real time will typically offer the best opportunities for learning and growth, Fuller said. In evaluating a prospective employer, young job candidates should try to gain an understanding of how they fit into the company's future. For example, McRae recommends asking hiring managers up front what types of investments the organization is making in its employees and what the room for growth looks like. "What are they telling me they care about? What do career paths look like for this role like now? How do you help people develop the skills they need to become experts?" she said. In researching companies, McRae also encouraged recent college grads to look for places that offer apprenticeship or rotational programs, which can offer ways to quickly ramp up their knowledge base, especially if traditional entry-level roles are in short supply.
CNN
06-06-2025
- Business
- CNN
Worried AI is coming for your job? Here are 3 tips
Aneesh Raman, chief economic opportunity officer at LinkedIn, says AI is already coming for entry-level professional jobs. Raman says there are three things every college grad and new worker should know as AI becomes more advanced.
