All of a sudden, there’s a theme and meme that entry-level jobs are going away. Even Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, recently told Axios that 50% of white collar jobs may go away, leaving us with a 20% unemployment rate. (video interview below)
Okay, let me get my head screwed on straight here, but I think this is complete nonsense.
First of all, it’s self-serving for a company that makes automation tools to tell us that they’re going to automate all sorts of jobs. Anthropic is not an automation tool, it’s an AI research lab. I doubt their product managers deeply understand what entry level workers do (except in software of course) in retail, hospitality, manufacturing, banking, consulting, and healthcare.
Second, the reason we have entry level jobs is not just to get work done. It’s to build teams that can develop into senior roles in our organization. And companies that hire young people gain tremendous value in many ways. (Including learning how to implement AI.)
Let me make my case.
Why Entry Level Workers Are So Important
First, young people are less expensive to hire than senior people. They’re more easily trained because they don’t have bad habits they may have picked up in another company, so they do “work” that senior people simply won’t accept.
Second, they are facile and ready to use new tools like AI, and probably know more about them than many of us do because they used them in high school and college. So they can show you how to automate faster than you think.
(A large bank just told me their senior bankers are “watching” their entry level workers to figure out how to get the most out of the Microsoft Copilot.)
Third, they are creators and creative, often because they challenge or question assumptions that we may have stopped questioning ourselves. When an entry employee asks “why,” we often get a chance to rethink our assumptions (which is happening every day around AI).
And fourth, they develop quickly if you if you invest in ongoing development. That gives you the pipeline you need to grow.
While some entry level programs were cut in the last slowdown, I don’t believe most companies hire entry level workers to just “do things.” They’re hired to build a talent pipeline for the future, support and complement senior people, and in many cases they outperform people with more experience. And that’s why these programs are not going away.
For example, it appears that the individual who shut down USAID from DOGE is a 28 year old, brilliant engineer. The fact that he’s 28 has nothing to do with his capabilities to learn, because obviously he’s smart enough to overcome an entire federal agency. So don’t underestimate the power of young people.
For some reason the press picks up on these stories and mimics others, but this narrative is the opposite of the information I’m getting from companies.
We had our research conference a week ago and almost every HR leader or head of recruiting told me that they are rebuilding their entry level development programs for young employees. Why? Driven by tightening the budgets and entry hire slowdowns, their talent pipeline was weakened.
So my first advice to employers is don’t overlook young workers, regardless of AI, because they are going to be the ones that teach you how to use it.
My second message is to remember that a culture of multi generational work creates growth, innovation, and new ideas. Frankly, for people my age, it’s much more fun to have young people in the work environment than it is to have only a bunch of 60 or 70 year olds who make a lot of money.
Third, for those of you looking for work, you may be more valuable than you realize. We are in the middle of building a Superworker Assessment, and this science-based tool will help employers understand the complex problem solving skills employees need to take advantage of the new world of AI. You, as a ready learner, may have more of these skills than those of us that have been around for a while.
Finally, remember that careers take time to build. Whatever job you take, whether it be working in an Amazon fulfillment center, driving a truck, working in Starbucks, or perhaps doing entry level work at Deloitte, Accenture, or a bank may not seem like highly fulfilling work, but you are going to learn amazing things.
My first job coming out of college (with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering) was as a project manager in an oil refinery. It was boring in many respects, but I did learn a lot. And I had the opportunity to learn how contractors and project managers and engineers and oil refineries work. (I worked on the repair of a major concrete coke silo, believe it or not.)
While I chose to leave the oil industry, I walked away from that experience well educated on the business world and the complexities of the energy industry. I learned about the things that I like and the things that I don’t like, and the things that I’m good at, and the things that I’m not good at. So an entry level job that may not seem like the perfect job could be the key to a very fulfilling future.
Yes, the unemployment rate for young workers has ticked up a bit, but in some sense that has always been true. I see no slowdown in the need for humans at work, and unless we have a global recession I believe employers will always look for entry level staff.
One of my young relatives has a degree in accounting and wants to get a job as an auditor. His first job as an auditor was fine but he was laid off when the company had a downturn. In the meantime he has been working at Amazon in a fulfillment center driving a truck.
He was so successful at that job he was promoted to manager and he is now managing a fleet of drivers.
He still wants to become an accountant and he’s going to go back to that chosen career. But I told him maybe this opportunity you uncovered is worth thinking about. While you may not want to be a truck operator your entire life, there’s got to be something about that job at Amazon you learned that might be a key to your future. (I didn’t want to crawl around in concrete silos either.)
Despite articles about AI, entry level hiring is critical to company growth, corporate culture, and long term organizational performance.
Let’s not pay attention to articles about the end of entry level work and remember that hiring young people is one of the most important growth investments we can make.
Additional Information
Yes, HR Organizations Will (Partially) Be Replaced by AI, And That’s Good
The Rise of the Superworker: How AI Changes Jobs, Roles, and Organizations
Galileo Learn? – A Revolutionary Approach To Corporate Learning