There was a time in America when a college degree meant a head start. You studied hard, borrowed tens of thousands of dollars, and walked across a stage with the confidence that, somewhere on the other side, a career was waiting. Entry-level jobs, once the traditional bridge between academia and adulthood, offered modest pay but priceless experience. You started small, learned the ropes, and climbed.But for today’s college graduates, that bridge is crumbling. And they’re standing on the edge with nowhere to go. Across the United States, artificial intelligence isn’t just transforming industries, it’s quietly dismantling the bottom rungs of the labor market. And in doing so, it’s threatening to break the very pipeline that once fueled American white-collar success.
The collapse of the American career start
For generations, the US economy operated on a simple contract: young workers offered time, energy, and low-cost labor. In return, companies offered experience and a foothold. That exchange launched millions of careers, from Wall Street to Silicon Valley.Today, that contract is dissolving.AI tools are now handling tasks once reserved for new hires: Generating reports, creating marketing copy, reviewing legal documents, and debugging code. The kind of “gruntwork” that helped fresh graduates learn by doing is now being done, in seconds, by machines.And as a result, companies across America are hiring fewer young people.At one major recruiting firm in Chicago, requests for entry-level marketing staff have nearly disappeared. In Columbus, Ohio, a consulting firm opted not to hire an intern this summer, choosing ChatGPT to manage social media copy instead.In the tech world, it’s worse. Among the 15 largest U.S. tech companies by market cap, the share of entry-level hires has plunged by 50% since 2019, according to SignalFire. In 2024, only 7% of their new hires were recent graduates.These jobs haven’t moved overseas. They’ve moved into algorithms.
Fewer jobs, more competition
Recent US college graduates are now in the worst position in years. According to federal data, the national unemployment rate hovers around 4%. But among new bachelor’s degree holders, it’s far higher, 6.6% over the past year. That number doesn’t include the underemployed, graduates working in retail, hospitality, or food services while searching for roles they trained for.Applications per job posting have surged. On the popular student job site Handshake, the number of entry-level roles posted this school year fell by 15%, while the number of applicants per position jumped by 30%.It’s not just that there are fewer doors; it’s that more people are now banging on them, including recently laid-off junior workers trying to get back in.
The gruntwork was the training
To outsiders, automating menial tasks might seem like progress. But in practice, it’s gutting the process by which American workers have traditionally learned.If AI is eliminating the work that once helped young Americans build careers, then the workforce may soon find itself without a bench.
The experience catch
US employers are shifting expectations, too. What used to be considered “entry-level” now demands experience, AI fluency, and the ability to supervise tools that barely existed three years ago.But college curricula haven’t kept pace. Most graduates haven’t been trained in how to work with or around generative AI tools. And now, they’re being asked to prove themselves in a workforce that no longer provides the space to learn.It’s a system out of sync: A fast-moving job market, and an education system playing catch-up.
Not just a job market crisis, a generational one
The loss of entry-level jobs isn’t just a temporary setback. It threatens to fracture the long-term health of America’s workforce. Without that foundational experience, the future pool of mid-career professionals, managers, and executives will shrink. The economy may remain productive in the short term, but brittle in the long term, with fewer workers capable of strategic thinking, leadership, or institutional memory.It’s a slow erosion of upward mobility. And for the US, a nation built on the belief that hard work can get you ahead, it’s a profound challenge to the American Dream itself.
Searching for a new on-ramp
Some US companies are experimenting with fixes. The Tulsa-based energy firm Williams launched a two-day business fundamentals bootcamp for new hires, trying to substitute AI-lost learning with intentional mentoring.Others, like Carlyle, train new analysts in how to work alongside AI—having them check and refine machine-generated analyses, rather than building them from scratch.But these examples are exceptions. Most companies continue to reduce headcount at the entry level, benefiting from AI-driven efficiency without reimagining how young professionals will be developed.
A system at risk of abandoning its future
America’s most ambitious, educated young people are increasingly being told: There’s no seat for you at the table.It’s a problem that transcends employment statistics. It touches everything: Student loan debt, mental health, family formation, entrepreneurship, and national competitiveness. If a generation cannot start, it cannot grow. And if it cannot grow, neither can the country.AI was never meant to replace ambition. But unless the US rethinks how it integrates young workers into the future of work, that’s exactly what may happen.
