By John Q. Hosedrinker 
Since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, the number of new entry-level UK jobs has decreased by nearly a third, with roles for graduates, apprentices, and junior positions experiencing a significant drop. This decline coincides with businesses increasingly adopting AI to enhance efficiency and reduce staff numbers. Experts warn of the potential for AI to eliminate entry-level jobs, while also acknowledging the possibility of AI-driven creation of new roles. The technology secretary urges workers and businesses to embrace AI to avoid being left behind in a rapidly evolving job market.
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Number of new UK entry-level jobs has dived since ChatGPT launch – research, and it’s a complex situation, even if the headlines make it sound straightforward. There’s a real sense of unease, particularly when you consider the future facing the younger generations, Gen Z and Gen Alpha. It’s hard not to feel for them, caught in the crosshairs of this technological shift.
The introduction of AI, particularly tools like ChatGPT, feels like a double blow. It’s like the very skills these young people need to build – critical thinking, reading comprehension, even basic problem-solving – are being eroded by their reliance on AI. They’re essentially training these programs to replace them, often for free. The impact on literacy, on the ability to retain information, is going to be something we’ll see play out over the coming years, and the early signs aren’t promising. You start to wonder, if AI can do it all, why would anyone choose *your* business?
Now, the whole AI bubble is a bit of a head-scratcher, truth be told. The number of errors, the constant need to fix and correct AI-generated output, is a bit much. And as soon as a third-party AI service has an issue, it can take down the businesses that rely on it. Security and privacy are other concerns. If your business values these things, why hand over your data to something designed to collect it? It’s a fun toy, sure, and potentially as useful as a calculator. But replacing real people? I don’t see it. It’s hard not to feel a little sad when you think about the future these kids are facing.
What’s even more interesting is how quickly this all seems to be happening. It takes only a few moments to see how the current direction we’re headed is like an ice slide. There’s no need to overthink the situation; it’s clear where things are headed. We need young engineers and professionals to learn and grow through experience. Instead, companies are trying to cut them out, all to boost short-term profits, leaving society to deal with the long-term consequences. Without new entrants, what will these fields look like in a decade or two? Desolate, potentially.
And here’s a sobering thought: millennials like myself could be the last generation of experts in many fields. The generations below us, already smaller, are going to yield even fewer experts. Who will fix things when they inevitably go wrong? Who will even have the skills to tackle these problems?
The reality is, this isn’t entirely new. The talk of technological displacement, of machines taking jobs, has been around for ages. But AI is different, because it’s more powerful. Now, combine that with incompetence and complexity, and the timeline for the predicted negative impacts has sped up significantly. The aim seems to be to allow the wealthy to accumulate more wealth, while diminishing the opportunities for the less fortunate. This creates a new grad dilemma.
Of course, the big issue isn’t *just* ChatGPT. It’s the wider economic picture. There have been tightening of the UK job market since 2022, as well as macroeconomic factors and government decisions, like the recent rise in employer National Insurance. The “Cyber First” campaign of the Conservative government has aged like milk, for instance. Businesses using AI are in for a shock when they realize its limitations and its diminishing returns. When senior staff retire, taking all their experience with them, who will be there to replace them?
And let’s be honest, a lot of jobs that are being automated away might not be thanks to something as sophisticated as ChatGPT. It’s likely simple automation that’s doing the work. You have someone with a little bit of know-how automating repetitive tasks, and before you know it, whole departments are gone.
For all the fear, there’s also the argument that AI is ultimately a tool, like other technologies. While it might have negative effects on certain sectors in the short term, like cars impacting horse breeding. In the long run, it will open up new economic opportunities we can’t even imagine yet.
However, there’s a growing perception that entry-level jobs are disappearing, with some data suggesting a significant drop in vacancies for graduate and junior positions. Companies are betting that AI will be able to take over increasingly complex tasks. It’s a gamble on the evolution of AI, on whether it can climb the ladder higher and higher. This is banking on LLMs evolving to climb higher and higher up the rungs of the ladder. A few years ago it could’ve performed basic menial tasks. Now it can replace an entry-level employee. They’re hoping that this trend continues, that in ten years they’re not lamenting their lack of ten-year trained employees because AI is capable of performing that level of work.
The argument, made by many, is that entry-level jobs in particular are at risk. You see, if you understand a company’s processes and can prompt AI to produce similar outputs, there’s no reason to use the business. Businesses are betting you can’t. They are rolling the dice on their business’s future existence that LLMs will evolve to the point where they don’t need those experienced workers. It’s not going to happen the way they think it will, but corporations are apparently pathologically unable to look beyond the next quarter, and not paying employees is the easiest route to making higher profits in that quarter. It’s a sort of LLM suicide pact in a way.
So, what are we going to do? It would appear that the companies that survive will be those who retained enough of their experts and hired new people to become the future experts while using enough of the LLM capabilities to augment those employees. We will be better off without those who don’t look further ahead I think.
It’s not just AI, either. There’s a bigger picture of society failing. Everything has become commodified, creating more stress and instability. Then you have the algorithmic brain rot engines.
The challenge for universities and other academic institutions is to find ways to teach and encourage learning with the introduction of genAI.
So, there’s definitely a lot to unpack here. It’s a complex situation, and the potential impact of AI on the job market is a serious concern. One thing’s for sure: we need to be having these conversations, and we need to be thinking long-term.