AI's Impact on Entry-Level Jobs: Stanford Study Reveals Decline in Opportunities for Young Workers

AI Is Eliminating Jobs for Younger Workers

Economists at Stanford University have found the strongest evidence yet that artificial intelligence is starting to eliminate certain jobs. But the story isn't that simple: While younger workers are being replaced by AI in some industries, more experienced workers are seeing new opportunities emerge. Erik Brynjolfsson, a professor at Stanford University, Ruyu Chen, a research scientist, and Bharat Chandar, a postgraduate student, examined data from ADP, the largest payroll provider in the US, from late 2022, when ChatGPT debuted, to mid-2025. The researchers discovered several strong signals in the data -- most notably that the adoption of generative AI coincided with a decrease in job opportunities for younger workers in sectors previously identified as particularly vulnerable to AI-powered automation (think customer service and software development). In these industries, they found a 16 percent decline in employment for workers aged 22 to 25. The new study reveals a nuanced picture of AI's impact on labor. While advances in artificial intelligence have often been accompanied by dire predictions about jobs being eliminated -- there hasn't been much data to back it up. Relative unemployment for young graduates, for instance, began dropping around 2009, well before the current AI wave. And areas that might seem vulnerable to AI, such as translation, have actually seen an increase in jobs in recent years. "It's always hard to know [what's happening] if you're only looking at a particular company or hearing anecdotes," Brynjolfsson says. "So we wanted to look at it much more systematically." By combing through payroll data, the Stanford team found that AI's impact has more to do with a worker's experience and expertise than the type of work they do. More experienced employees in industries where generative AI is being adopted were insulated from job displacement, with opportunities either remaining flat or slightly growing. The finding backs up what some software developers previously told me about AI's impact on their industry -- namely that rote, repetitive work, like writing code to connect to an API, has become easier to automate. The Stanford study also indicates that AI is eliminating jobs but not lowering wages, at least so far. The researchers considered potentially confounding factors including the Covid pandemic, the rise of remote work, and recent tech sector layoffs. They found that AI has an impact even when accounting for these factors. Brynjolfsson says the study offers a lesson on how to maximize the benefits of AI across the economy. He has long suggested that the government could change the tax system so that it does not reward companies that replace labor with automation. He also suggests AI companies develop systems that prioritize human-machine collaboration. Brynjolfsson and another Stanford scientist, Andrew Haupt, argued in a paper in June that AI companies should develop new "centaur" AI benchmarks that measure human-AI collaboration, to incentivize more focus on augmentation rather than automation. "I think there's still a lot of tasks where humans and machines can outperform [AI on its own]," Brynjolfsson says. Some experts believe that more collaboration between humans and AI could be a feature of the future labor market. Matt Beane, an associate professor at UC Santa Barbara who studies AI-driven automation, says he expects the AI boom to create demand for augmentable work -- as managing the output of AI becomes increasingly important. "We'll automate as much as we can," Beane says. "But that doesn't mean there won't be a growing mountain of augmentable work left for humans." AI is advancing quickly though, and Brynjolfsson warns that the impact on younger workers could spread to those with more experience. "What we need to do is create a dashboard early-warning system to help us track this in real time," he says. "This is a very consequential technology."

AI Is a Threat to the Entry-Level Job Market, Stanford Study Shows

There's a lot of fear around whether artificial intelligence will take your job. A recent Stanford study has an answer. Many studies, like Reuters' recent findings, show that Americans are worried that AI will negatively impact not only politics and relationships, but also jobs. "The AI revolution is beginning to have a significant and disproportionate impact on entry-level workers in the American labor market," the study found. "Since the widespread adoption of generative AI, early-career workers (ages 22-25) in the most AI-exposed occupations have experienced a 13% relative decline in employment." Read more: Don't Make the Job Hunt Harder. 9 Strategies to Stay Sane and Get Hired These declines in employment have mainly been in occupations where AI will automate the work, rather than being used to augment people's labor. The study found "substantial declines in employment" for those in their early 20s working in fields most exposed to AI, including customer service and software development. By contrast, employment for more experienced workers in those fields, as well as those working in less AI-exposed fields like nursing, "has remained stable or continued to grow," the study said. Stanford found that while employees aged 22 to 25 saw a 6% employment decline in jobs exposed to AI from late 2022 to July 2025, there was a 6% to 9% increase for older workers despite working in fields with AI exposure. Overall unemployment remains relatively stable, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. July's rate was 4.2% -- slightly up from 4% in May and 4.1% in June.

AI is eating entry-level coding and customer service roles, according to a new Stanford study -- junior job listings drop 13% in three years in fields vulnerable to AI

After tracking payroll data, it found 13% fewer entry-level employment opportunities over the past three years. A new study out of Stanford University suggests that artificial intelligence tools are making it much harder for workers looking to fill entry-level positions in software development and customer service, as per Bloomberg. It noted a significant slowing in employment for younger, inexperienced workers, but found that employment prospects for more experienced workers may have actually improved. Although a recent MIT study suggested that most businesses employing AI didn't see much of an improvement in profitability, it hasn't stopped many companies around the world from pushing to adopt it in some fashion. In some specific industries, that adoption may be harming the career prospects of those seeking entry-level positions. The Sanford study, coauthored by economist Erik Brynjolfsson and researchers at Stanford's Digital Economy Lab, found that over the past three years, employment for people starting out in fields that are more vulnerable to AI had fallen. Entry-level roles for accounting, development, and admin fell by 13%. This particularly affected younger employees in the 22-25 age bracket, although the study did note that other entry-level fields, like nursing technicians, had seen an uptick in employment during that same period. It also found that more-experienced roles and positions at the tracked companies either remained the same or grew in scope, suggesting perhaps that more experienced workers utilizing AI may be able to be more productive, absorbing some of the functions of those entry-level positions in the process. The study reportedly tracked data from payroll processor Automatic Data Processing, and considered payroll statements from thousands of companies, with a collective millions of employees. Since the debut of popular AI chatbot tools like ChatGPT, there's been an ongoing debate about their impact on the workplace. The argument that they can automate simple roles in specific industries appears to be given at least some weight by this study. The counterargument suggests that AI tools may make people more productive, increasing overall output rather than eliminating entry-level roles. This study appears to suggest that the argument may also be true, and indeed, perhaps both can coexist. It does raise the question of how these kinds of roles will be filled in the future, though. If AI makes already-high-performing employees perform even better, but eliminates the roles that allowed them to reach that experience and ability in the first place, where will the next generation of developers, accountants, and admin assistants come from? Some industry leaders believe those roles will simply be taken over by AI, whereas others believe it may lead to more creative endeavours, making humans more suited for the ideation portion of a company's efforts, rather than in the execution.

AI Makes It Harder for Entry-Level Coders to Find Jobs, Study Says

Artificial intelligence is making it harder for entry-level workers in the US to find jobs in fields like software development and customer service, according to new research. In a study released Tuesday, Stanford University researchers said they found that over the last three years, employment has dropped 13% for people who are just starting out in fields determined to be the most exposed to AI -- such as accountants, developers and administrative assistants. Over the same time frame, they said, employment trends have remained the same or improved for more experienced workers in the same fields, even as they slowed for workers ages 22 to 25. Employment trends also strengthened for lower tech jobs, such as nursing aides.

AI adoption linked to 13% decline in jobs for young U.S. workers, Stanford study reveals

A Standford study has found evidence that the widespread adoption of generative AI is impacting the job prospects of early career workers. There is growing evidence that the widespread adoption of generative AI is impacting the job prospects of America's workers, according to a paper released on Tuesday by three Stanford University researchers. The study analyzed payroll records from millions of American workers, generated by ADP, the largest payroll software firm in the U.S. The report found "early, large-scale evidence consistent with the hypothesis that the AI revolution is beginning to have a significant and disproportionate impact on entry-level workers in the American labor market." Most notably, the findings revealed that workers between the ages of 22 and 25 in jobs most exposed to AI -- such as customer service, accounting and software development -- have seen a 13% decline in employment since 2022. By contrast, employment for more experienced workers in the same fields, and for workers of all ages in less-exposed occupations such as nursing aides, has stayed steady or grown. Jobs for young health aides, for example, rose faster than their older counterparts. Front-line production and operations supervisors' roles also showed an increase in employment for young workers, though this growth was smaller than that for workers over the age of 35. The potential impact of AI on the job market has been a concern across industries and age groups, but the Stanford study appears to show that the results will be far from uniform. The study sought to rule out factors that could skew the data, including education level, remote work, outsourced jobs, and broader economic shifts, which could impact hiring decisions. According to the Stanford study, their findings may explain why national employment growth for young workers has been stagnant, while overall employment has largely remained resilient since the global pandemic, despite recent signs of softening. Young workers were said to be especially vulnerable because AI can replace "codified knowledge," or "book-learning" that comes from formal education. On the other hand, AI may be less capable of replacing knowledge that comes from years of experience. The researchers also noted that not all uses of AI are associated with declines in employment. In occupations where AI complements work and is used to help with efficiency, there have been muted changes in employment rates. The study -- which hasn't been peer-reviewed -- appears to show mounting evidence that AI will replace jobs, a topic that has been hotly debated. Earlier this month, a Goldman Sachs economist said changes to the American labor market brought on by the arrival of generative AI were already showing up in employment data, particularly in the technology sector and among younger employees. He also noted that most companies were yet to deploy artificial intelligence for day-to-day use, meaning that the job market impact had yet to be fully realized.

AI Is Crushing the Early Career Job Market, Stanford Study Finds

Warning bells have been ringing for months, and now experts are providing the data to back that up. If you suspected that AI is taking jobs away from young workers, there is now data to back this up. Three economists at Stanford University's Digital Economy Lab -- professor Erik Brynjolfsson, research scientist Ruyu Chen, and postdoctoral fellow Bharat Chandar -- published a paper on Tuesday that found early-career workers aged 22 to 25 in the most AI-exposed jobs "have experienced a 13 percent relative decline in employment." "In contrast, employment for workers in less exposed fields and more experienced workers in the same occupations has remained stable or continued to grow," the researchers wrote. In fact, for occupations that can't easily be replaced by AI, like home health aides, employment opportunities for younger workers seemed to be growing faster than for older workers. The effect was visible even when accounting for firm-specific shocks and other potential causes like changes to remote work policies, the effects of the pandemic on the education system, slowdown in tech hiring, or cyclical employment trends, the researchers noted. "The AI revolution is beginning to have a significant and disproportionate impact on entry-level workers in the American labor market," the researchers claim. The findings are backed up by anecdotal evidence that has been piling up for months. CEOs across industries have been open about their expectations -- and their corporate policies already in action -- to have artificial intelligence handle the work that some new employees would have otherwise. "There is a real fear that I have that an entire cohort, those graduating during the early AI transition, may kind of be a lost generation, unless policy, education, and hiring norms adjust," John McCarthy, associate professor of global labor and work at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, told Gizmodo earlier this month. But while some experts had been sounding the alarms, others had been hesitant to point the finger at AI without tangible data. That's why the Stanford paper is significant. It is a first-of-its kind study and it shows data that can back a trend young graduates had been complaining and worried about for months: that AI is indeed coming for their jobs. The researchers compared changes in employment data from late 2022 to mid-2025, courtesy of payroll processing firm ADP, which is one of the largest in the U.S. and represents over 25 million workers. The results showed that industries that have widely adopted AI, such as software engineering, showed a notable decrease in jobs available for young graduates after 2022. While employment dropped for young graduates looking for work in AI-impacted industries, researchers found that older and more experienced workers were largely spared. While workers aged 22 to 25 experienced a decline in employment since 2022, employment for older workers aged 35 to 49 grew, according to the researchers. This may be because AI is good at basic tasks, one that a recent graduate with less hands-on work experience than an older worker would be expected to handle. But even though automating these basic tasks sounds like a good business strategy, that kind of early career work is crucial for the training of the next generation of the workforce. If these training opportunities are not given to entry level workers, the future of the workforce is bound to look unrecognizable. "I worry that the current generational squeeze might evolve into a permanent reconfiguration of early career paths," McCarthy told Gizmodo earlier this month. "There is a real fear that I have that an entire cohort, those graduating during the early AI transition, may kind of be a lost generation, unless policy, education and hiring norms adjust." Within industries with high AI adoption, whether the firms intend to use AI to automate or augment human labor made a huge difference, according to the paper. Employment declines were largely concentrated in jobs where AI was being used to completely or partially substitute some employees' workloads, rather than complement it. In a previous paper from June, co-author Brynjolfsson argued that AI companies should develop benchmarks that test how well AI models can collaborate with humans to jointly solve tasks, rather than relying solely on existing benchmarks that evaluate AI in the absence of humans. This can help shift the focus of AI integration from automation to augmentation and collaboration, Brynjolfsson and his co-author on the June paper Andreas Haupt argue. AI is being developed as an automation tool first and foremost right now, but the findings suggest that might not be its best use if we wish for AI to be a tool for positive change.

AI could already be stealing jobs from young US workers

Software development and customer service are highly affected A new paper by researchers at Stanford University has uncovered six truths about AI's effects on the workforce, and it might not be so good for younger workers. The data shows that younger workers, aged 22-25, in the most AI-exposed jobs have seen substantial declines in employment since late 2022 - this includes roles like software development and customer support. This, the researchers say, has led to stagnant youth employment overall despite total US employment rates continuing to rise. By July 2025, for example, employment for software developers in this age group was down nearly 20% compared with late 2022. On the whole, employment in the most AI-exposed roles declined by around 6% for this young demographic, but older workers (defined as 35-49) saw a 6-9% increase. The Stanford paper goes some way to explaining why youth employment has been relatively flat despite some overall national growth. Brynjolfsson, Chandar and Chen - the researchers behind the paper - go one sterp further by splitting AI into two distinct categories - automation and augmentation. Younger workers were most affected by AI as automation, which substitutes tasks and leads to declines in entry-level jobs. In contrast, older workers were more likely to be affected by AI as augmentation, where it supports human work. In this case, the researchers saw no decline, and sometimes even growth. They found employment rates to be hit harder than wages in most cases, with headcount reductions more likely to occur than pay cuts. Already this calendar year, the tech industry has seen over 81,000 layoffs, though this is down from a 2023 high of 264,000+ (for the full year). However, the paper suggests that all hope may not be lost, pointing to previous trends such as the IT revolution that "ultimately led to robust growth in employment and real wages following physical and human capital adjustments." With that in mind, it's possible that AI could indeed enhance the labor market all-round, but only after an initial period of turbulence that affects lower-skilled workers disproportionately.

AI's threat to entry-level jobs is real, per new Stanford study

Driving the news: Using ADP payroll data, Stanford researchers found that employment for younger workers (ages 22-25) in AI-impacted jobs -- like software development and customer support -- has dropped by 16% since late 2022. * "There's definitely evidence that AI is beginning to have a big effect," economist and Stanford professor Erik Brynjolfsson told Axios. * What's notable is the speed with which the job impact has gone from theoretical to real and significant. "This is the fastest, broadest change that I've seen," he said, noting the only comparable shift was the one to remote work amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Yes, but: Older workers and those in other fields aren't seeing a measurable hit to job prospects. * Brynjolfsson said that the disparate impact may stem from the fact that AI, like recent college graduates, has more book knowledge than on-the-job experience. * "More senior workers have more tacit knowledge, they learn tricks of the trade that maybe never get written down," he said. "Those are not the things that the AI has been able to learn, at least not yet." The big picture: Even if demand is steady or rising for more experienced workers, industries will struggle to find the next generation of experienced workers if people can't get a first job in the field. * "We're going to have to think about how the labor market adjusts so that everyone gets a chance to be working their way up the career ladder," he said. * Businesses are still struggling to get across-the-board gains from AI, with most benefits concentrated in a few job categories, such as coding and customer service. Between the lines: When Brynjolfsson and his colleagues first looked at the data in aggregate, it didn't appear that AI was having a large overall impact on jobs. But, once they started looking at specific job types and experience, the impact became clear. * The team also tried to rule out other causes, such as changes to remote work policies and the cyclical nature of the tech industry. "You can't know for sure, but it does look like AI is behind these big changes." * Brynjolfsson said that there is also a big difference in job impact based on how companies deploy AI. * Those who seek to use the technology to augment their human workforce are hiring more, while those who view AI as a replacement for human workers, not surprisingly, are hiring less. What we're watching: One of the key unknowns is whether AI will continue to predominately affect entry-level jobs or if higher-skilled workers are also at risk as the technology improves.

AI really is cutting out entry-level jobs for human workers, study claims

Some firms are regretting their choice to replace workers with chatbots Stanford researchers have released a new study which validates many warnings about generative AI's effects on the workplace, claiming the technology is having a 'real and measurable' impact on entry-level workers - and not in a good way. The market has experienced a 13% drop in available jobs for young people in AI impacted fields since late 2022, making this the 'fastest, broadest change' seen in recent years, comparable only to the shift towards remote work during the pandemic. The report note in positions where AI is poised to have the highest impact like software development and customer service, younger workers are increasingly unable to climb the career ladder, which risks a scenario in 10-20 years where senior leaders retire, but have an increasingly small pool of younger leaders to promote and hand their businesses over to. Whilst the wider job market doesn't seem to be experiencing the same level of turbulence, those which would traditionally be listed as 'mundane' or are easily automated are at serious risk - such as secretaries, administrative assistants, and auditors. Whilst we are still in the relative infancy of Gen AI in the workplace, there are bound to be teething problems whilst businesses and workers get to grips with how the technology can be deployed - but research shows that in the UK many have jumped the gun - as over half of businesses that replaced workers with AI now regret their decision. There have been high-profile walk-backs too, with an Australian bank recently forced to issue a public apology and rehire human workers after their AI replacement failed to perform. In spite of this, OpenAI's Sam Altman has warned GenAI could wipe out some job industries altogether, but even he argues there are still some jobs he wouldn't trust entirely with a chatbot, noting "ChatGPT today, by the way, most of the time, can give you better - it's like, a better diagnostician than most doctors in the world." "Yet people still go to doctors, and I am not, like, maybe I'm a dinosaur here, but I really do not want to, like, entrust my medical fate to ChatGPT with no human doctor in the loop."

New Paper Finds Evidence That AI Is Already Killing the Job Market

If you're struggling to sort the AI hype from reality, you're not alone. The seemingly breakneck pace of AI development makes it tough to sort headlines from fantasy, with a constant flood of new products and incremental improvements to old ones combining into a rhetorical mess. Arguably the main economic risk of developing artificial intelligence -- or its biggest draw, if you're a business owner trying to pad your bottom line -- is the prospect of automating jobs. Whether or not AI is currently taking a meaningful number of people's jobs, though, has been exceedingly difficult to nail down. On the one hand, the US job market has taken a nosedive in recent months and the "laptop workers" most vulnerable to AI seem to be getting hit especially hard. On the other hand, even the most advanced AI still struggles to perform alongside humans, let alone replace them. A recent MIT study found that AI initiatives are failing to deliver expected revenue returns at 95 percent the companies that roll them out. But while there's plenty of reason to doubt the AI industry's extravagant claims, there's also reason to worry that the tech is already eating into the labor market. For instance, a recent survey of AI and labor data by a team of researchers at Stanford's Digital Economy Lab uncovered some of the first comprehensive evidence that the AI industry really is throwing the job market into flux. The scholars compiled three years of payroll records on millions of US workers at tens of thousands of businesses, allowing them to identify long-term trends according to jobs and age groups. Their first finding was a dramatic decline in employment for entry-level knowledge workers aged 22 to 25 years old, whose occupations are at the highest theoretical risk for automation -- a metric called "AI exposure." These are workers in office gigs whose day-to-day tasks have a lot of crossover with AI functions, like software engineers, service workers, and marketing professionals. By comparison, older workers in those fields saw their headcount either stagnate or increase slightly. But what gives the study some extra bite is its observation of 22 to 25 year olds in non-AI-exposed job fields -- like industrial workers, nurses, or retail supervisors -- who saw their headcounts grow over the past few years. "[We] find these broad trends not limited to just case studies," said Bharat Chandar, one of the authors of the paper. "For 22 to 25 year olds, employment is falling in the most AI-exposed jobs and rising in the least exposed jobs. For older workers, [we] find small differences in employment trends based on AI exposure." That divergence is ominous. It suggests that AI may actually be cutting into early-career roles that traditionally served as a training ground for longer-term careers. What it would mean if those onramps are getting destroyed could have economic repercussions for decades. At the same time, exactly why AI seems to be impacting the job market is a whole other can of worms. For one thing, previous data has shown that AI tends to be used by CEOs and business executives as cover to reduce headcounts or outsource jobs -- cost cutting measures they might have taken anyway after the post-pandemic hiring boom, even without the AI salesmen knocking at their door. There's also the wrinkle that the job market was already crappy for entry-level workers before AI chatbots hit the market -- meaning it didn't take much for a few AI exposed jobs to start dragging averages down. "Overall, [the] job market for entry-level workers has been stagnant since late 2022, while market for experienced workers remains robust," Chandar continued. "Stagnation for young workers [was] driven by declines in AI-exposed jobs. Of course, lots of changes in the economy, so this is not all caused by AI." Perhaps most notably, the researchers also observed that wages across all ages and compensation have been stagnant since 2022. Unlike entry-level job numbers, this stat is nothing new -- an indication that, whatever jobs AI is or isn't taking, the money saved isn't trickling down to the workers, but being hoarded by those at the top.

Gen Z workers bear brunt as AI starts changing job market

The first tremors of the AI revolution are already shaking the U.S. labor market, according to Stanford University - and young workers are feeling it most. A new study found that employment among 22- to 25-year-olds in the most AI-exposed jobs, such as software engineering and customer service, has dropped 13% since late 2022. The research, based on payroll data from millions of workers, suggests that generative AI is displacing entry-level employees even as older workers in the same roles hold steady or see gains. The findings add hard data to a growing sense of anxiety among Gen Z. Goldman Sachs recently calculated that the value of college degrees is quickly diminishing, while Bank of America Global research has said that the unemployment rate for recent graduates has started to exceed the overall rate for the first time in years. In occupations less affected by AI, hiring patterns for younger and older workers have looked similar to one another. But in roles more directly exposed to the technology, employment among people aged 22 to 25 has slipped about 6% since late 2022. Older workers in the same fields, by contrast, recorded gains of 6% to 9%. Researchers said it amounted to "early and large-scale evidence" of a labor-market shift, and argued that "experience and tacit knowledge are becoming crucial buffers against displacement as AI systems excel at replacing book learning over job-specific, hard-to-codify skills." Job cuts are hitting knowledge workers especially hard. There have been large waves of layoffs at companies such as Microsoft, Duolingo, and Walmart. At the same time, many companies have spent big on the technology. At Duolingo, CEO Luis von Ahn announced an initiative in April to make the language-learning app "AI-first." Not all AI adoption is hurting jobs, however, the Stanford researchers continued. They said declines were concentrated in occupations where AI "substitutes" for human labor, such as in customer service or some basic coding roles. By contrast, "augmentative" uses - such as AI that flags anomalies in medical scans or drafts text for marketers to refine - tend to boost productivity without cutting entry-level jobs, the report said. "These findings are consistent with automative uses of AI substituting for labor while augmentative uses do not," it said. It comes after separate polling by Ipsos and Reuters suggested that as many as 71% Americans are deeply concerned that AI could put swathes of the country out of work. And a recent study by researchers at Oxford University and Deloitte found that about 35% of current jobs are at high risk of automation over the following 20 years. "Our findings suggest that generative AI is not yet having uniform effects across the labor market, but is instead reshaping employment opportunities in ways that disproportionately disadvantage young workers," the Stanford researchers added. "We view these findings as the beginning of the AI revolution in the labor market."

New study sheds light on what kinds of workers are losing jobs to AI

Alain Sherter is a senior managing editor with CBS News. He covers business, economics, money and workplace issues for CBS MoneyWatch. Artificial intelligence is replacing entry-level workers whose jobs can be performed by generative AI tools like ChatGPT, a rigorous new study finds. Early-career employees in fields that are most exposed to AI have experienced a 13% drop in employment since 2022, compared to more experienced workers in the same fields and when measured against people in sectors less buffeted by the fast-emerging technology, according to a recent working paper from Stanford economists Erik Brynjolfsson, Bharat Chandar and Ruyu Chen. The study adds to the growing body of research suggesting that the spread of generative AI in the workplace is likely to disrupt the job market, especially for younger workers, the report's authors said. "These large language models are trained on books, articles and written material found on the internet and elsewhere," Brynjolfsson told CBS MoneyWatch. "That's the kind of book learning that a lot of people get at universities before they enter the job market, so there is a lot of overlap with between these LLMs and the knowledge young people have." The research highlights two fields in particular where AI already appears to be supplanting a significant number of young workers: software engineering and customer service. Between late 2022 and July 2025, entry-level employment in those areas declined by roughly 20%, according to the report, while employment for older workers in the same jobs grew. Overall, employment for workers aged 22 to 25 in the most AI-exposed sectors dropped 6% during the study period. By comparison, employment in those areas rose between 6% and 9% for older workers, according to the researchers. The analysis reveals a similar pattern playing out in the following fields: Older employees, who generally have navigated the workplace for a longer period of time, are more likely to have picked up the kinds of communication and other "soft" skills that are harder to teach and that employers may be reluctant to replace with AI, the data suggests. "Older workers have a lot of tacit knowledge because they learn tricks of trade from experience that may never be written down anywhere," Brynjolfsson explained. "They have knowledge that's not in the LLMs, so they're not being replaced as much by them." The study is unusually robust given that generative AI technologies are only a few years old, while experts are just starting to systematically dig into the impact on the labor market. The Stanford researchers used data from ADP, which provides payroll processing services to employers with a combined 25 million workers, to track employment changes for full-time workers in occupations that are or more or less exposed to AI. The data included detailed information on workers, including their ages, and precise job titles. AI doesn't just threaten to take jobs away from workers. As with past cycles of innovation, it will render some jobs extinct while creating others, Brynjolfsson said. "Tech has always been destroying jobs and creating jobs. There has always been this turnover," he said. "There is a transition over time, and that's what we are seeing now." For example, in fields like nursing AI is more likely to augment human workers by taking over rote tasks, freeing health care practitioners to spend more time focusing on patients, according to proponents of the technology. While entry-level employment has fallen in professions that are most exposed to AI, no such such decline has occurred in jobs where employers are looking to use these tools to support and expand what employees do. "Workers who are using these tools to augment their work are benefiting," Brynjolfsson said. "So there's a rearrangement of the kind of employment in the economy." Workers who can learn to use AI to to help them do their jobs better will be best positioned for success in today's labor market, according to Brynolfsson. A recent report from AI staffing firm Burtch Works found that starting salaries for entry-level AI workers rose by 12% from 2024 to 2025. "Young workers who learn how to use AI effectively can be much more productive. But if you are just doing things that AI can already do for you, you won't have as much value-add," Brynjolfsson told CBS MoneyWatch. "This is the first time we're getting clearer evidence of these kinds of employment effects, but it's probably not the last time," he added. "It's something we need to pay increasing attention to as it evolves and companies learn to take advantage of things that are out there."

Gen Z will be hurt -- and helped -- the most by generative AI in these types of jobs

For years, discussion of how AI might replace tasks, the office, and even employees themselves has dominated the cultural zeitgeist. But until now, there hasn't been much overarching data on how AI is actually changing the workforce. On August 26, researchers at Stanford published what they're calling the "largest scale, most real-time effort" to calculate that impact -- and it includes some bad news for Gen Zers. The study was conducted by Erik Brynjolfsson, Bharat Chandar, and Ruyu Chen, all researchers at Stanford's Institute for Human-Centered AI. They used an administrative dataset from ADP, the largest payroll software provider in the U.S., to track monthly payroll records across tens of thousands of firms from late 2022 to July 2025. That data was supplemented by a calculation of "occupational AI exposure" in a diverse array of fields -- essentially using data from prior studies (see here and here) to categorize how much various professions are being impacted by AI technology.

Entry-level employees face new competition -- chatbots -- when seeking their first jobs

Artificial intelligence is making it harder for entry-level workers in the U.S. to find jobs in fields like software development and customer service, according to new research. In a study released Tuesday, Stanford University researchers said they found that over the last three years, employment has dropped 13% for people who are just starting out in fields determined to be the most exposed to AI -- such as accountants, developers and administrative assistants. Over the same time frame, they said, employment trends have remained the same or improved for more experienced workers in the same fields, even as they slowed for workers ages 22 to 25. Employment trends also strengthened for lower tech jobs, such as nursing aides. The study, co-authored by economist Erik Brynjolfsson and researchers at Stanford's Digital Economy Lab, is the latest in a growing number of reports purporting to shed light on how the explosive popularity of AI is impacting the workforce. The launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot in November 2022 helped kick off a fascination and anxiety over generative artificial intelligence. Since then, people have used chatbots for everything from coding to ersatz therapy sessions, and companies (including OpenAI) have released increasingly powerful AI models to power them. The popularity of the technology has fueled debate over how -- and if -- the rapid adoption of AI would disrupt employment. In the study, the Stanford researchers said they found that drops in employment are most common for jobs where AI is most likely to automate human work instead of helping people to do their work. To help them conduct the study, whose findings have not been peer reviewed, researchers said they looked at data from payroll processor Automatic Data Processing, which included monthly payroll statements for millions of people at tens of thousands of companies.

AI poses greater threat to entry-level jobs, new study finds

Entry-level jobs for workers between 22 and 25 years old have declined by 13 percent since the widespread adoption of generative artificial intelligence (AI), according to a Stanford study. "While our main estimates may be influenced by factors other than generative AI, our results are consistent with the hypothesis that generative AI has begun to significantly affect entry-level employment," wrote the authors, Erik Brynjolfsson, Bharat Chandar and Ruyu Chen. The study finds that declines in employment are happening in jobs that are "most exposed to AI." These jobs include software developers, customer service representatives, computer programmers, receptionists and others. In these jobs, entry-level positions are declining compared to senior-level jobs. In jobs with less exposure to AI, the trend reverses and entry-level employment is growing compared to senior-level jobs. One explanation for these findings is that AI can replace young workers who have not yet gained on-the-job experience. "By nature of the model training process, AI replaces codified knowledge, the 'book-learning' that forms the core of formal education," wrote the authors. However, AI cannot replace soft skills or knowledge acquired through years of professional experience, they noted, adding that this explains why older workers are not being replaced by AI automation. Despite declining employment in jobs where AI automates work, employment is increasing in jobs where AI augments work or helps an individual do their work more efficiently . While the impact of AI on the job market has been the topic of debate, the researchers argue AI is not directly correlated to overall declines in unemployment. Moreover, the study finds that AI does not have a significant impact on wages, just employment. And, AI impacts employment for both college graduates and non-college-educated workers. Although employment overall is growing, employment for younger workers has stagnated since 2022. The study analyzed whether economic effects could impact young, AI-exposed workers, but the decline in employment remains the same even after industry shocks were analyzed. This means that the common denominator is AI and not economic fluctuations, according to the research. The authors also agree that the job market will go through a transition phase during technological revolutions, such as the adoption of AI, before workers shift to other jobs that will have more demand. The researchers analyzed data from the ADP.

A.I. Takes Biggest Toll on White-Collar Workers in Their 20s: Stanford Study

New research reveals young workers face significant job losses in A.I.-exposed fields, while more experienced staff benefit from "tacit knowledge." As if entering the workforce wasn't daunting enough, the rise of generative A.I. is dampening the prospects of young workers across the U.S. Early-career workers aged 22 to 25 have experienced a 13 percent relative decline in employment across jobs most exposed to A.I., such as coding and customer service, according to a new Stanford study. Sign Up For Our Daily Newsletter Sign Up Thank you for signing up! By clicking submit, you agree to our <a href="http://observermedia.com/terms">terms of service</a> and acknowledge we may use your information to send you emails, product samples, and promotions on this website and other properties. You can opt out anytime. See all of our newsletters Concerns about A.I.-driven labor disruption have circulated since the 2022 launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT. The analysis, conducted by Stanford Digital Economy Lab researchers Erik Brynjolfsson, Ruyu Chen and Bharat Chanda, is among the most comprehensive efforts to quantify the impact with data. The economists studied employment trends from late 2022 to July 2025 using datasets from ADP, the largest payroll software provider in the U.S. The datasets contained monthly and individual-level records for millions of workers at tens of thousands of companies. "What really jumped out quickly as we were doing the analysis was we were seeing these big differences by age group," Chandar told Observer. "That result was pretty striking." The researchers found a sharp decline in A.I.-exposed occupations for younger workers. For instance, employment for early-career software developers has dropped nearly 20 percent from its late 2022 peak, with similar declines across other computer and service clerk jobs. Jobs less exposed to A.I., such as nursing aides, have remained steady or even grown. By contrast, more experienced workers have seen employment rise in these same fields in the past few years. Because generative A.I. tends to replace codified knowledge, the researchers suggest that "tacit knowledge," or skills gained over years of experience, may shield older employees. Such expertise "might not be as accessible to A.I. models in their training process, because that might not be written down somewhere or it might not be codified nearly as much," said Chandar. The study also found that job losses are concentrated in roles where A.I. can fully automate tasks with little human input. In fields where A.I. augments work by helping employees learn, review or improve, employment has actually increased. "In the jobs where it's most augmentative, we're not seeing these employment declines and in fact, we're seeing employment growth -- even for the young workers," said Chandar. Chandar and his co-authors used A.I. tools to assist with coding and proofreading during the study. The report coincides with a shift in higher education away from A.I.-exposed fields. Enrollment in computer science, which quadrupled in the U.S. between 2005 and 2023, grew just 0.2 percent this year. If history is any guide, these disruptions may eventually stabilize. Past technological shifts, such as the IT revolution, initially displaced workers but ultimately created new types of employment. "Historically, as work got replaced by new technologies, there was new work that was created," said Chandar, who plans to continue tracking A.I.'s real-time employment impacts. "There are some ways in which A.I. is different from prior technology, some ways in which it's similar -- and we want to be tracking this on an ongoing basis."

AI Is wiping out entry-level roles! Check if your job is safe or at risk

Jobs being replaced by AI: A study shows entry-level jobs are declining in AI-exposed fields. Software engineering and customer service roles are affected. Younger workers face job losses, while older workers benefit from experience. AI is also transforming how work is done. Learning AI skills is crucial for young workers. Entry-level AI roles are growing with increased salaries. Jobs being replaced by AI: Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping the job market and for many young workers just starting their careers, the changes are already being felt and that too in not a good way. The rise of generative AI tools like ChatGPT is no longer just a futuristic concept, it's now actively altering who gets hired and who doesn't. A new study by Stanford economists Erik Brynjolfsson, Bharat Chandar, and Ruyu Chen, found that entry-level employees are taking the hardest hit, as per a CBS News report. The study, based on employment data from payroll processor ADP, which covers 25 million workers, found that since 2022, early-career workers in the most AI-exposed fields have seen their employment drop by 13%, according to the report. These are seen in industries where generative AI can perform many tasks traditionally handled by humans, and it's not just speculation, this trend is already showing up in the numbers, as per the CBS News report. The research found that two fields in particular where AI already is replacing a significant number of young workers are software engineering and customer service, according to the report. The study shows that between late 2022 and July 2025, entry-level employment in those areas dropped about 20%, while employment for older workers in the same jobs increased, as reported by CBS News. ALSO READ: Stop overpaying! The hottest iPhone deals let you score big with trade-ins and new lines Stanford's Erik Brynjolfsson explained that "These large language models are trained on books, articles and written material found on the internet and elsewhere," as quoted in the report. Brynjolfsson added, "That's the kind of book learning that a lot of people get at universities before they enter the job market, so there is a lot of overlap with between these LLMs and the knowledge young people have," as quoted by CBS News. Jobs like accounting, auditing, programming, sales, and administrative roles are also seeing this generational divide. For workers aged 22 to 25 in AI-exposed industries, overall employment dropped by 6%, as per CBS News. Meanwhile, for older workers in the same sectors, employment rose between 6% and 9%, as per the report. ALSO READ: Trump's 401(k) changes leave retirees divided -- here's what they are really saying The study found that this divided happens as older employees have experinence of the workplace for a longer period of time and are more likely to have picked up the kinds of communication and other "soft" skills that are harder to teach and that employers may be reluctant to replace with AI, as reported by CBS News. Brynjolfsson pointed out that, "Older workers have a lot of tacit knowledge because they learn tricks of trade from experience that may never be written down anywhere," adding, "They have knowledge that's not in the LLMs, so they're not being replaced as much by them," as quoted by CBS News. The research also categorized jobs by how much they're impacted by AI. Among those least affected are roles in maintenance, home health care, housekeeping, and freight moving, as per the report. On the other end of the spectrum, the most exposed jobs include customer service representatives, software developers, administrative assistants, and financial managers, according to CBS News report. ALSO READ: Top AI Tools of 2025: Is ChatGPT still leading or is Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek taking over? However, the study makes clear that AI isn't just eliminating jobs, it's also transforming them. In some industries, especially in healthcare, AI is being used to support workers by handling repetitive tasks, giving people more time to focus on the parts of their jobs that require human interaction and care, as per the report. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis' report found that as of late 2024, 23% of employees were using generative AI in their jobs at least once per week, showing that the technology is quickly becoming a standard part of many workplaces, according to the CBS News report. Even though entry-level employment has dropped in professions that are most exposed to AI, this decline has not occurred in jobs where employers are using these tools to support and expand what employees do, reported CBS News. ALSO READ: How AI agents are taking control of your company -- sharing secrets, making costly decisions, and deleting data Brynjolfsson highlighted that, "Workers who are using these tools to augment their work are benefiting," adding, "So there's a rearrangement of the kind of employment in the economy," as quoted in the report. The latest report from AI staffing firm Burtch Works discovered that the starting salaries for entry-level AI workers increased by 12% from 2024 to 2025, reported CBS News. Brynjolfsson suggested that, "Young workers who learn how to use AI effectively can be much more productive," but also warned that, "But if you are just doing things that AI can already do for you, you won't have as much value-add," as quoted in the report. He added, "This is the first time we're getting clearer evidence of these kinds of employment effects, but it's probably not the last time. It's something we need to pay increasing attention to as it evolves and companies learn to take advantage of things that are out there," as quoted by CBS News. Who is most affected by AI in the workplace? Young workers, especially those aged 22-25 in AI-exposed sectors, are seeing the biggest job losses. Can learning AI actually help my career? Yes, a study found that entry-level AI roles are growing and paying more, salaries jumped 12% from 2024 to 2025.

Stanford study likens AI's impact on jobs to 'canaries in a coal mine,' warns entry-level workers face the highest risk, and explains why

A Stanford Digital Economy Lab study, "Canaries in the Coal Mine? Early-Career Job Losses and AI Exposure", reveals AI's early impact on the U.S. job market. Employment for 22 to 25-year-olds in AI-exposed roles like software engineering and marketing has dropped, while older workers remain stable. Non-AI fields show growth, suggesting young workers are shifting careers. Despite AI-driven efficiencies, wages have stagnated since 2022, raising concerns about inequality and long-term workforce disruption.

Looking for your first job? You're AI's prime target

A Stanford study reveals a concerning trend: entry-level positions in AI-exposed fields like tech and customer support are declining due to automation. Younger workers are disproportionately affected, experiencing a 13% employment drop since late 2022. While experienced professionals remain stable, this shift raises concerns about future talent gaps and the need for adaptation in education and policy. Artificial intelligence has long promised to reshape the labour market but new research from Stanford University has just confirmed what many young workers are already feeling. Entry-level employees are among the first to be displaced by generative AI. Led by renowned economist Erik Brynjolfsson, the study used high-frequency payroll data from ADP, the largest payroll processor in the United States. It provides one of the clearest pictures yet of how generative AI is impacting employment in real-time. If you're just starting your career, particularly in fields like tech or customer support, AI might be replacing your job and not helping you do it better. AI is replacing the young and newcomers, for now The Stanford research uncovered a 13% relative decline in employment among early-career workers (ages 22-25) in jobs most exposed to AI automation -- such as software developers and customer service representatives -- since tools like ChatGPT and Copilot started becoming widespread in late 2022. What's striking is that more experienced workers in the same jobs did not see declines. In fact, their employment either remained stable or grew. Likewise, workers of all ages in less AI-exposed jobs, such as nursing aides, remained unaffected. This is not a vague warning about the distant future. This is data-backed evidence that AI isn't just "changing work" but it's already changing who gets hired. Why are entry-level workers being replaced first? The logic is brutally simple. Entry-level workers typically do the kind of routine, process-driven work that generative AI is already good at such as writing code, answering queries, summarizing reports and drafting emails. These are tasks that AI can perform quickly, cheaply, and at scale but with little risk. Meanwhile, experienced workers are more likely to do higher-value tasks such as making strategic decisions, managing teams, mentoring, interfacing with clients, and combining institutional knowledge with judgment. These are still much harder for AI to replicate or replace. Also, when AI is introduced, companies often lean on their seasoned employees to help implement and supervise the technology. Entry-level workers, by contrast, are easier to cut because they're not yet embedded into the core of the organization. As the paper puts it, the job losses are "concentrated in occupations where AI is more likely to automate rather than augment human labor". In other words, if the AI can fully replace what you're doing, and not just assist you, you're far more vulnerable. What this means for young job seekers If you're just starting your career, this should be a wake-up call. In the past, an entry-level job was seen as a stepping stone, a place to learn, grow and move up. But AI is shrinking the number of these stepping stones. Companies are increasingly skipping the junior hires and leaning on AI to fill that gap, leaving fewer opportunities for newcomers to get a foot in the door. Even more concerning is the potential long-term effect. If young workers can't enter these fields now, they won't gain the experience needed to fill senior roles later. Over time, this could create a generational talent gap that comes back to bite companies, and the broader economy. Not all fields are equal The study also reveals that the AI wave is hitting specific occupations much harder than others. Fields like nursing, caregiving, and hands-on trades, where human interaction, physical presence or emotional intelligence are crucial, remain largely untouched. These jobs are less susceptible to automation, at least for now. But roles in tech, customer support, data entry, content creation and other digital or language-based jobs are directly in the AI blast zone. This doesn't mean tech is dead. Far from it. But the type of tech job that's safe is shifting fast. Junior developers and QA testers may be vulnerable, while AI architects, systems integrators and product leads are becoming more valuable. The six takeaways The study makes six observations on the labour market effects of artificial intelligence. First, substantial declines in employment have been observed among early-career workers in occupations most exposed to AI, such as software development and customer support. Second, while overall employment in the economy continues to grow, employment growth for younger workers has remained stagnant. Third, entry-level employment has declined in areas where AI applications automate work, with comparatively limited impact in areas where AI serves to augment human labor. Fourth, these employment declines persist even after accounting for firm-time effects, with a 13% relative decrease in employment among young workers in the most exposed occupations. Fifth, labour market adjustments are more apparent in employment levels than in compensation trends. Sixth, these patterns are consistent across occupations unaffected by remote work and hold under various alternative sample constructions. Brynjolfsson and his co-authors Bharat Chandar and Ruyu Chen frame early-career workers as canaries in the AI coal mine. Their experience might be the first, but it likely won't be the last. As AI continues to evolve, the line between entry-level and expendable may get even blurrier unless workers, educators, and policymakers adjust. AI is impacting 700 professions Another recent study has tried to find out the role of AI in different occupations. Researchers at Anthropic - the AI company behind Claude, one of the most popular AI assistants - recently created a dataset to measure the AI impact on different kinds of jobs, as per a Washington Post report. They looked into 1 million text-based conversations between users and Claude at the end of 2024 and categorized each conversation into either an augmentative or automated task. They then mapped these tasks to more than 700 distinct occupations based on work characteristics. The data show that, on average, AI (in this case, Claude) was already either automating or augmenting some 25 percent of the day-to-day tasks across all jobs by the end of 2024. AI affects different jobs in different ways. Some, such as programmers and translators, are at a higher risk of being automated by AI. Others, such as college professors, could be augmented, the Washington Post report says. Computer- and math-related jobs get the highest automation scores - an average of 23 percent of tasks under this occupation group can be automated by AI. Meanwhile, educators and librarians get the highest augmentation scores - 40 percent of their job tasks can be augmented by AI. However, what can assuage workers' anxieties to some extent is that AI presently does more augmentation than automation. For almost all jobs, the use of AI for augmentation, for now, remains much higher than that for automation, the report says.