Latest news with #newgraduates
Forbes
2 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
AI May Be Erasing Entry-Level Jobs
Purple ID card holder on black background with text Entry-level worker - refers to starting jobs ... More require little or no professional experience allow first jobbers just graduating to enter workforce There's a new report out on jobs this month, and it's not reassuring a lot of people who were worried about job displacement, especially for new graduates and less experienced workers. We know intuitively that that is a hard time to come of age as someone pondering a career. There are a lot of question marks around what AI is going to do to the job market. However, the wide-ranging report from Signalfire is showing us some early visions of what might come to pass in the years ahead. The scope of the study is impressive: it uses data from 650 million professionals, and 80 million organizations. There are breakout statistics for smaller groups of companies and workers, but the study in general relies on a pretty good survey of market data. One of the most sobering parts of the report is the idea that there's a generational shift taking place, and that it largely has to do with decreases in entry-level opportunities for new workers. For somebody just graduating from college, entry-level work is the name of the game. They can smooth the path with an internship or some kind of freelance position, but essentially, new career professionals have always faced that challenge of needing a job to get experience, and needing experience to get the job. However, what the study suggests is that this struggle has just gotten leaner and meaner – with a rise of 5.8% in unemployment for new college grads, and similar other harbingers of doom for Gen Z as a labor force. Other cited statistics include increases in certain law school admissions, with report writers theorizing that young professionals often put off job searches by attending law school when markets are tight. New graduate hires, the report shows, are down 50% from pre-pandemic levels. There's also the suggestion that non-technical job roles keep shrinking, and demand for high-tech positions (filled by experienced people) keeps growing, where senior people may be hired to fill junior positions. There's the question of whether college educations are keeping up with the skill sets employers are looking for. Fundamentally, the question that this asks is: if AI can do all of the go-fering, what happens to the go-fer jobs that have springboarded careers for decades? The study also analyzed where jobs are being created in the tech world. What they found is in increases in regional hubs like Miami and San Diego, lower hiring rates in parts of Texas, and continue dominance in San Francisco and New York where over 65% of the software engineers are located. The report explains it in this way, which to me seemed a little obtuse: 'More companies are embracing hub-and-spoke models, and tailoring compensation philosophies to ensure they secure the right talent mix across diverse locations.' The move toward larger hiring hubs makes sense in co-locating the talent with the infrastructure, and growing the economy of major cities, while emptying American small towns that weren't doing very well anyway. Economists and even public planners would presumably find it pretty easy to imagine how these trends will exacerbate the hollowing out of secondary or tertiary communities, and the building of massive metropolitan areas around hub cities. In other parts of the study, there's more analysis of how this could affect both workers and companies. I listen to an explication of the study from Nathaniel Whittemore at AI Daily Brief, where he went over a lot of the cultural aspects in play. He noted study suggestions that there may be other reasons for lower entry-level hiring, like higher interest rates and different company budget realities. But he also cited cultural business decisions, for example, in consulting and other areas, where some companies may just demand more from workers as a result of higher AI productivity. Whittemore cited engineers working for Amazon, where some of them have said that their job roles start to seem more like working in an Amazon warehouse, with the kinds of tight quotas and productivity mandates that you would associate with the word 'sweatshop'. 'I think that we're experiencing is an example of how challenging transitional periods can be,' he said, unpacking all of the uncertainties around how productivity gains will be handled. 'If you are a regular listener to this show, you'll know that I am net bullish on how all of this shakes out, I think that AI is going to bring massive disruption to the way that we work. ... I think that the market absorbs a huge amount of talent that would have otherwise been absorbed into these big companies in new and interesting ways. But that doesn't mean that it's not going to be extraordinarily painful along the way.' While companies, he notes, could train people better, they may just raise output goals, and be less forgiving of deadlines. Whittemore quotes a Harvard professor predicting a 'speed-up for knowledge workers,' which would represent the more partisan approach by employers – and unfortunately for new workers, that's not without precedent. There's a need, Whittemore suggests, for leadership, to determine whether there's a 'dehumanizing' or 're-humanizing' of human workers in the AI age. For that more targeted content from the report, here's an example, where in a study of the top 15 tech companies from 2019 to 2024, we see that there's almost a night and day difference on the chart lines between those with two or less years of experience, and others with more. It's scary for people who lack those first few years of career experience. In conclusion, I wanted to just post the last section of the report verbatim, because I think it speaks for itself: 'What it means for the road ahead: - For new grads: The training wheels are gone. With fewer entry-level roles, the path forward will rely on bootcamps, open-source, freelancing, and creative projects. It's not enough to just master the latest AI tools; learn to fix their flaws—debugging messy, machine-generated code may be your superpower. - For employers: AI might reduce the short-term need for junior hires, but skipping them entirely risks breaking the long-term talent pipeline. The industry's future depends on equipping the next generation with skills that grow alongside the evolving technology landscape.' So basically, doing too much in this area can hurt both the company, and the workers. Will we be able to find a solution that works for everybody? Anyway, this is a lot to take in for new hires or potential career professionals who are just graduating and entering the workforce. As Whittemore concedes, we are going to have to figure this out, and things could get messy before we end up with a solution for how to integrate AI changes into this aspect of our lives.
New York Times
4 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
The A.I. Jobpocalypse, Building at Anthropic with Mike Krieger and Hard Fork Crimes Division
Hosted by Kevin Roose and Casey Newton Produced by Rachel Cohn and Whitney Jones Edited by Matt Collette Engineered by Chris Wood Original music by Dan PowellRowan Niemisto and Diane Wong This week, we dive into Kevin's recent column about how A.I. is affecting the job market for new graduates, and debate whether the job apocalypse is already here for entry-level work. Then Mike Krieger joins us to discuss the new Claude 4 model, the future of work and the online chatter over whether an A.I. system could blackmail you. And finally, it's time to open up the case files for another round of Hard Fork Crimes Division. Guest: Mike Krieger, chief product officer at Anthropic Additional Reading: For Some Recent Graduates, the A.I. Job Apocalypse May Already Be Here Another Suspect Is Charged in Bitcoin Kidnapping and Torture Case Elizabeth Holmes's Partner Has a New Blood-Testing Start-Up 'Hard Fork' is hosted by Kevin Roose and Casey Newton and produced by Rachel Cohn and Whitney Jones. This episode was edited by Matt Collette. Engineering by Chris Wood and original music by Dan Powell, Diane Wong and Rowan Niemisto. Fact-checking by Ena Alvarado. Our executive producer is Jen Poyant. Special thanks to Paula Szuchman, Pui-Wing Tam, Dahlia Haddad and Jeffrey Miranda.
CBS News
5 days ago
- Business
- CBS News
Recent college graduates need more than degrees to get noticed
What new graduates need as they enter the job market What new graduates need as they enter the job market What new graduates need as they enter the job market For recent University of North Texas Dallas graduate Myles Chung, it's been a relatively short trip from the commencement stage to the workforce. He double majored in chemistry and biology and has already started his first "real" job in his field. "You know, being able to have that job security coming out of college is a big relief," said Myles Chung. Chung is among a fresh crop of college graduates hitting the job market right now. Experts say that having an "in-demand" degree will help in that search, but so will polishing those so-called "soft skills." "You know, the degree gets you the interview," said North Texas-based CEO Scott Allen Curley. "Your soft skills get you the job." Curley owns Finishline Tax Solutions. He said recent grads are already tech savvy, so he's urging applicants to get back to the basics. "We do look for folks who come in who have good, strong communication skills that are able to look us in the eye when they have a question," said Curley. "To understand the importance of being assertive, but not aggressive, and understanding the difference." So, how has that transition been for Myles Chung? "It feels fast paced," Myles Chung said. "It's very fast paced." Myles Chung said he was prepared, though, and even more grateful for the extra hands-on experience he got with professors on a small campus like UNT Dallas. "And that really did help me experience-wise, and really helped me be able to plug into the workforce much easier," said Myles Chung. With constant talk of tariffs and a possible trade war, there is an air of uncertainty that hangs over the economy, and some companies are responding by keeping hiring flat. What can recent graduates do to stand out in the job market? Along with polishing the soft skills like communication and collaboration, experts urge job seekers to tap into those social networks. One never knows where a conversation may lead. Myles Chung's younger sister, Isabelle Chung, convinced him to follow her to UNT Dallas. So, she's been watching his job search as she prepares to apply for medical school. And yes, job experience can even help those applications stand out. "You have to get that experience and then keep applying to the next thing," said Isabelle Chung. A less-than-perfect job could be seen as a tradeoff for invaluable work experience to be gained. "Instead of waiting around, take action and really move forward," said Myles Chung.
