Not a surprise, but here's some actual data about what CEOs are planning.
https://gizmodo.com/the-young-are-being-battered-by-ai-as-hiring-shifts-to-older-workers-2000759608
Job prospects for early-career workers took a turn for the worse last year.
In the first quarter of the year, the job market for 22-to-27-year-olds “deteriorated noticeably,” according to a New York Fed report. Later, Fed Chair Jerome Powell admitted that AI might be partly to blame. Companies that would have ordinarily hired recent graduates are now increasingly trying to have AI assistants automate that work, Powell explained. By the end of the year, the job market for these young workers was at its harshest since the worst days of the pandemic.
Now, a global survey of CEOs by consulting firm Oliver Wyman indicates that things could get even worse over the next two years.
According to the survey, the share of CEOs saying that they were looking to reduce junior roles over the next year or two doubled to 43% from 17% just last year. Only 17% of CEOs said they are shifting hiring to focus on more junior positions.
Instead of young workers, executives are increasingly focusing on hiring older workers. Roughly 30% of respondents said they are shifting hiring to more mid-level roles, up from only 10% last year.
The change is AI-driven, the report concludes.
“Notably, the CEOs with the longest planning horizons are the most likely to plan headcount reductions,” the report said. “That suggests they expect a structurally leaner organization not as a cost measure but as the destination — the endpoint of an AI-augmented operating model that requires fewer people, deployed differently.”
(more)
Any younger person who wants a good paying job, should look into the trades. Good money and AI can't wire a building.
True. There are lots of things AI cannot do, and trades aren't going away anytime soon.
As time goes on, though, robots, humanoid (and otherwise), will become dextrous and smart enough to begin doing many things a tradesperson does.
Elon Musk and many others are working hard on making that happen.
And, shockingly better (and still, I believe, not AI generated) -
I don't know where it'll all end, but I suspect it's going to be more of a change than most people expect.
I think the key isn't that AI/robotics will be directly replacing plumbers, electricians, etc in current housing.
New houses will be designed specifically to accommodate machine assembly and maintenance. I don't know what that will look like, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was also designed specifically so humans can't easily build and maintain with that new generation materials and designs.
It will be a brave new world...
I feel the good work ethic has deteriorated with younger workers. Makes AI an easier more dependable choice maybe.
It’s less AI on its own. It’s more of a series of factors. AI is only one of them. It’s just at the moment, with all the anger over data centers, it is a convenient boogeyman the Corporate Manager class can get the peons to blame all their problems on. Instead of acknowledging the plethora of complex factors and the areas where their own ineptitude contributed.
The Boomers as one example commanded one of the largest shares of Capital in the investment markets. The Boomers are now either moving into retiring en-mass. Or are several years into retirement or more. Meaning vast sums are moving into safer investments. Meaning there’s less available capital for riskier investments into businesses. And some industries relied heavily on investors to keep their heads above water and people on staff. Without periodic infusions of investor bucks. They need to cut weight.
There’s also been a lot of market consolidation, over expansion and buyouts that realistically should not have happened over the past few decades. But the ease with which excess Capital could be accessed by Businesses made some firms far too ambitious.
American Businesses also grew addicted to Globalization and outsourcing everything. Even today they maybe laying off Americans and telling us one thing. While turning around and hiring foreigners for pennies on the dollar and allowing them to telecommute from whatever Mumbai Slum they’re living in. It doesn’t help that Indians once they work their way into management often tend to only hire Indians.
A lot of places also just way overhired during COVID. So they’re shedding weight.
College Degrees and some certifications also don’t mean much outside of specific niches anymore. As far too many have them and some colleges will pass them out to anyone with a pulse who can show up mostly on time. For decades a Degree was the accepted credential substitute for the competency testing Companies and Government agencies were no longer allowed to do. When everyone has one. And the act of having is no longer a guarantee of basic grasp of fundamentals. Their worth correspondingly plummets. And attention turns to the older generations who’ve already proven themselves. As opposed to the young up and comers who could very well be mouth breathing retards.
That’s just a few of the many factors playing into things. AI is only part of it.
Yes, I agree. Nice summary, too.
In Bentonville Arkansas, Walmart has buildings full of lawyers. I would imagine those folks are gonna be walking the unemployment line pretty soon because AI will be able to figure out a case better/more efficiently than humans. When self driving trucks come about they will begin laying off their truck drivers, too.
I'm not seeing that here in FL. It doesn't matter which age group you are in. If you're looking for work, you're experiencing issues with getting hired. Companies are keeping job postings up, but aren't hiring like they used to. And those that are hiring, can afford to be as picky as they want due to the large numbers of people looking for work. Another problem is these companies are now using "AI" to filter and screen out resumes. It sounds good on paper to use them, as it saves H.R. Mgrs time and effort scrolling through hundreds or thousands of resumes, but these programs are filtering them in a way that requires "perfect" candidates to check off even the smallest of useful boxes. So, these HR Depts are screening a lot of good candidates right out of the system without realizing it.
As for the trades, I am a knowledgeable tradesman in many areas, yet I can't find a job because these companies are requiring years of experience ON TOP of schooling. AND they're using "AI" to help screen for candidates. I know a bunch of companies that say they are hiring in the areas I'm knowledgable, yet I'm not being contacted. On top of those reasons, these companies are also still only paying at wages that have been the same for at least 10 yrs, some of them with wages that have been stagnant for 2 decades or more.
It's all one big farcical event, imho. I've applied to hundreds of job postings, for months now, and have only had a handful of interviews. And each email after those interviews has been the same.
Even the Federal Govt is playing games with the public in how they report "new jobs." Most of those jobs are underpaid, or are jobs that 10-15 yrs ago would've been considered part time.
I know this sounds like complaining, but I've had real conversations with people on both sides of the hiring lines, and almost every one has acknowledged that these problems exist and no one knows how to fix them. So here we are.
The more complicated your computer gets, the more people you need to know everything about it so it can be fixed when something goes wrong. When I retired, we were spending just as much time learning new computer demands, entering data to feed the computer, and cranking out computer reports as we were spending on actually doing the job.
Got news for ya...
Every age group is getting "battered" right now...and deep fried
Related:
https://gizmodo.com/ex-google-ceo-eric-schmidt-fails-to-read-room-on-ai-gets-booed-to-oblivion-2000759763
This was my niece's graduation, so I was watching it online. Was hilarious.
I been telling people for years to put themselves in the position to mind the robots. I was right .
I believe this is part of the plan actually.
We will need blue collar workers in Trump's bring back manfacturing.
This is a way to get young people back into the trades.
Then slowly let mid and senior people help with the white collar work. The replacements of white collar work will be smaller due to automation.
Maybe others in IT can back me up, but there's still a plethora of legacy equipment and software out there that, for whatever reason, isn't, can't, or won't be moved to the "cloud" and can't be AI-ified because nobody knows how it works to tell AI how to redesign it.
It really doesn't make sense for the next generation to learn how to maintain these systems, as most will get phased out eventually - usually it's a question of getting funding, TBH.
May as well let us oldsters take care of that stuff since we know it and as it gets retired out of service, so will we to a certain extent.
In my job, I spend half my time with Salesforce administration, and half trying to keep an old IBM i-Series with outdated software from dying before we can migrate the customers into the newer systems. When I was hired on six years ago, i was told that old system was going to be gone "in about a year". Five years later, and it's still going to be gone "in about a year". For perspective, I could retire in less than four years...
I am a software engineer.
I hear you.