Intro
Welcome to What in the World, the podcast for all of your news, trends
and talking points from the BBC World Service.
Applying for jobs is really tough.
You’ve got to scour the internet for ads
and then put in all of that time and mental energy on an application,
and that’s before you’ve even found out if you’ve got an interview.
But some people have been finding that process even harder than normal.
They’ve been putting in loads of applications and never hearing back.
And we’ve all heard the chat about AI taking our jobs.
And there have been some recent studies that suggest that AI is making it harder
for younger people and grads to get their first jobs.
So is AI after your job and what can you do to adapt?
I’m speaking to Nathalie Jimenez, a BBC reporter in New York.
Hey, Nathalie. Welcome back. Hi. Thank you so much for having me.
Okay, so firstly this chat about AI taking entry level jobs.
Jobs AI is taking over
How big of a problem is it? What do the studies say?
So I mean the quick answer is yes.
We’re going through an AI disruption phase.
That’s the phrase that you’re often going to hear.
So yes, AI is starting to replace jobs and particularly entry level jobs.
Those are the first on the chopping block.
And that’s because they’re often administrative,
they’re digital, they’re repetitive.
They’re basically jobs that AI can learn quite easily,
make more efficient, go faster.
That’s very attractive to companies that are starting to look to cut costs.
So yes, young people are suffering the most.
And we see that in the numbers too. Stanford did a study and it said that
since late 2022, right when ChatGPT went big, people aged 22 to 25
have seen a 13% drop in jobs in roles that are easy for AI to handle.
So I’m talking software development, marketing, customer service.
Meanwhile, older workers are not affected in the same way.
So that’s why the study essentially calls
young people ‘canaries in the coal mine’.
There’s a real problem because if people aren’t being accepted
at entry level, then they can’t progress up the chain
and then they can’t get the expertise to get to those kind
of more secure mid and top level jobs, the ones where they have
those soft skills that can’t be imitated or replaced by AI.
And of course, this isn’t the only thing that’s affecting
the US job market at the moment.
Why it’s harder to find a job
What are some of the other things that have been going on for young people?
Right. So this is kind of part of a bigger shift.
So we obviously have macroeconomic factors.
So after the pandemic there was a chilling in the job market.
Basically people are hiring less.
So that’s one of the issues that we’re dealing with too.
There is an oversaturated market. More people have college degrees
so there are more people applying for administrative jobs,
less so, you know, jobs in in retail. Those jobs in retail,
in healthcare, the ones that need a little bit more human interaction,
they’re still going, people are still hiring.
Whereas the ones that need maybe,
you know, a college degree in the sense of computer science,
that was a job that was very, very in demand
a few years ago, now that’s starting to decline.
So, yeah, the macroeconomic shifts right now in the economy, it’s not great.
And then AI and then an oversaturated market, it’s like the perfect storm.
People impacted by AI while job hunting
And let’s hear from some of you guys who got in touch
and are looking for work. This is Zola in France.
I work in the fields of arts and culture.
I hold two master’s degrees, one in political and social sciences
and another one in cultural policy and administration.
I have now been looking for a job for a year
with more than 200 applications sent.
I think that on my part. There are several frustrations
that I’d like to highlight within this job hunting process.
The lack of formal answers from employers,
the disregard for experiences linked to internship
or traineeships, or even voluntary contexts.
I do not believe that AI should or can truly replace an artist or a playwright,
but it has been increasingly used to do so in several cases.
And so for me, it is a growing political and ecological concern.
And we got this from Laura in the US.
I just know so many people applying to jobs right now.
And right, like every company, not even tech anymore, right?
The federal government, entertainment, media,
consulting, finance, they’re all laying off people.
So every industry is, you know, getting impacted.
And right when more people are laid off, more people are looking for jobs,
but there just aren’t enough spots for everyone.
I think it’s so tough for young people to find jobs right now.
Because right when companies are laying people off,
they’re usually laying off the most junior people, right?
So they lay off the 20 somethings who just started working, right?
That’s what happened to me. When they laid off my team at Google,
it was all the newest hires, right?
So everyone, basically everyone in their 20s got let go.
I feel like most people I know have been impacted by layoffs
at least once, if not twice, if not twice.
And here is Tiffany, a recent graduate from New York.
The company that I worked at, I worked at Apple
when I was an intern last summer.
They didn’t have the headcount for another, like a full time employee.
