The Job Market Looks Great for Robots

 Connor Hsuan

Professor Horgan

HST 401

25 April 2026

I pledge my honor that I have abided by the Stevens Honor System.

The Job Market Looks Great for Robots

For New Grads, Not So Much

The biggest problem on any student's mind currently in college is what their future employment will look like. Many new grads have struggled to find a job out of college and being even one year out of college without any employment is almost a death sentence for your career. These difficulties are only increased even further with the introduction of Artificial Intelligence and the diversion of company resources from the creation of new jobs. In 2025, only 181,000 jobs were added to the United States labor market, which is a massive decrease from the 1.46 million jobs added in 2024. This makes 2025 the worst year for jobs since 2020, which was famously the year that the pandemic started. While hiring has increased recently, with 130,000 jobs created in January, unemployment still sits at 4.3%, which is only 0.1% lower than 2025 [2]. AI is already disrupting the labor market, and it has the potential to do far more damage.

AI has disrupted almost every major industry in the United States, though some have been disrupted more than others. In march of this year, Anthropic released a report on the impact of AI on the labour market and potential job displacement. In this report, they reviewed several industries on their current and maximum potential use of AI. Currently, AI covers 33% of all tasks in the Computers and Math category, with similar coverage seen in the Office and Administrative category. However, more worrying information comes from what they predict. The Computer and Math category are expected to 94% of all tasks to be performed by AI. The Business & Finance category is expected to see a similar level of coverage at 90%. Other categories that also see massive amounts of potential AI coverage are Management, Architecture and Engineer, Legal, Arts and Media, and Office & Administration. It is important to note that categories such Transportation and Grounds Maintenance, have not seen much displacement by AI. These same categories are also not predicted to see a lot of displacement in the future. Interestingly, jobs that saw the most gain in 2025 were in similar categories, such as Construction, and Social Assistance.

If we look at the individual occupations that are most heavily displaced by AI, we can see similar results to before. Jobs such as computer programmers, customer service representatives, and data entry keyers are predicted to have a lot of their work load replaced by AI. If we look at the demographics that are most affected, people that have gone through higher education are much more likely to be affected by AI as opposed to those that have not. As an example, people with graduate degrees are 4.5% of the unexposed group, which is the group not heavily affected by AI. However those with graduate degrees make up 17.4% of the exposed group, which is those most affected by AI [4]. As a general trend, higher earning occupations also tend to be more exposed by AI. Another notable point is that AI displacement has less of an effect on workers with more experience. This refers to workers that have already established themselves within their respective industries and are generally on the older side. This of course means that those without that established work experience, those that are currently in or have just recently graduated college, are the most affected by AI displacement. This is backed up by data showing that hiring has slowed the most in the 22-25 age group, which is about the age of those just entering the work force [4]. This is only just the beginning when it comes to AI’s impact on the labour market. AI has only just started to be implemented into several industries, and it has the potential to grow and displace even more jobs.

The technology sector is currently the biggest investor in AI, with many tech companies diverting large amounts of resources towards its research. In the last year, big tech companies like Microsoft and Amazon have cut 15,000 thousand and 30,000 employees respectively [1]. Oracle, a company that mainly focuses on  web services, is set to layoff thousands of employees in an attempt to meet its performance obligations. In an attempt to compete with other cloud companies, Oracle has invested large amounts of resources into creating infrastructure for AI workloads. Co-Ceo Clay Magouryk has stated that “Demand for AI infrastructure, both GPU and CPU, continues to exceed supply”, when on an earnings call [5]. Oracle has committed themselves to AI and is willing to spend massive amounts of money and other resources to fund it. Their performance obligation with OpenAI is valued at $300 billion, which is a part of the $553 billion dollar overall performance obligations. Oracle is planning to finance its performance obligations  by leaning on the debt market. In January, Oracle had announced that they will raise $50 billion in debt and equity. However, Oracle is also leaning on layoffs to generate immediate revenue in a pinch. In March, Oracle internally announced to its employees that it would be cutting thousands of jobs. An analyst from TD Cowen wrote that cutting 20,000 to 30,000 employees will lead to $8-10 billion in incremental cash flow [5]. Risky investments like these promise an unspecified and uncertain return in the future, with the cost being massive employee layoffs and hundreds of billions of dollars of debt. Decisions like these are extremely desperate moves in an attempt to keep up with competitors like Amazon or Microsoft.

Job creation has been severely hurt when it comes to internships and entry level jobs. Earlier, I mentioned that hiring was slowing in the 22-25 age group, which would be the prime hiring age for entry level jobs. The slowing number of jobs created for potential interns and new grads can easily be seen on hiring websites. On Indeed, internship postings were down from the past 5 years. This has led to each position receiving far more applicants than ever before. On Handshake, the average position now receives 109 applications, which is nearly double from the prior year. [3] The ever increasing hostility of the job market robs new graduates of their first real opportunities in the work industry, which could potentially stunt the growth of their career. Daniel Zhao, chief economist at the job search company glass door, says that disruptions like these could “permanently knock them (new grads) off of their career trajectory where they end up working in a different field entirely than what they had originally planned on” [3]. The rise of AI has contributed to a slowdown in the creation of entry-level jobs, which are often the most susceptible to automation. As companies adopt these technologies, they are reducing the number of beginner roles available, making it more difficult for recent graduates to gain initial work experience.

With how much of an investment many big name companies are putting into Artificial Intelligence, it is clear that it is not going away any time soon. At this point, measures need to be put in place so that a significant amount of people are not knocked off of their career path permanently. There are a number of things that could be done at either the state or federal level. For some possible solutions, the government could provide some type of tax incentive for keeping entry level positions open. The government could also set up a safety net to buy new graduates some time for finding a job. We could also see an increase in government jobs in the areas where it is needed. The future for many college students seems to be up in the air now, with many taking an absurd amount of time to find a job in their field. It is important that we pave a path for new graduates so that they can build the future they want.

Work Cited

1. Abril, Danielle. “Tech Companies Are Cutting Jobs and Betting on AI. The Payoff Is Far from Guaranteed.” The Guardian, 6 Apr. 2026, www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/apr/06/tech-layoffs-ai-work

2. Kopack, Steve. “January Jobs Report Shows Revisions and Slower Hiring.” NBC News, www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/january-jobs-revisions-trump-rcna258398. Accessed 16 Apr. 2026.

3. Mena, Bryan. “The Job Market Is So Tough That Young People Are Struggling Just to Land Internships.” CNN, 6 Apr. 2026, www.cnn.com/2026/04/06/business/job-market-internships-squeeze

4. Massenkoff, Maxim, and Peter McCrory. “Labor Market Impacts of AI: A New Measure and Early Evidence.” Anthropic, 5 Mar. 2026, www.anthropic.com/research/labor-market-impacts.

5. Novet, Jordan and Seema Mody. “Oracle Cutting Thousands of Jobs as AI Spending Ramps Up.” CNBC, 31 Mar. 2026, www.cnbc.com/2026/03/31/oracle-layoffs-ai-spending.html.