Unemployment among Gen Z in the tech sector is rising at a faster pace than other age groups, due to a combination of slowing industry hiring and the growing influence of artificial intelligence which has left no room for AI proof jobs amongst this generation.
According to senior global economist at Goldman Sachs Research, Joseph Briggs, younger tech employees are among the most vulnerable to being displaced by AI technologies leaving no room to alter AI and employment law.
Speaking on an upcoming episode of the Goldman Sachs Exchanges podcast, Briggs explained that individuals aged 20 to 30 seeking tech roles have seen AI mass unemployment jump by nearly three percentage points since early 2024 over four times the national average.
“If you look at the tech sector’s employment trends, they’ve been basically growing as a share of overall employment in a remarkably linear manner for the last 20 years,” Briggs said about AI job loss. “Over the last three years, we’ve actually seen a pullback in tech hiring that has led it to undershoot its trend.”
This slowdown of AI proof jobs coincides with the widespread launch of generative AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which some experts believe is reshaping white-collar employment dynamics hasn’t left room for jobs that are AI proof.
Goldman Sachs report, “Quantifying the Risks of AI-Related Job Displacement,” co-authored by Briggs, notes that only 9% of businesses have actively adopted AI employment warning in their production workflows so far.
But even with this limited integration, the effects on tech hiring on jobs that won’t be replaced by AI is yet to be seen
Will AI Cause Unemployment for Youths?
The fear of how AI will cause mass unemployment is growing, particularly for entry-level positions. Young professionals, who typically hold such positions, will likely be the victims of early automation.
“Younger workers have less experience and often perform tasks that are easier to automate,” said Briggs, pointing to a structural shift in how companies are rethinking early-career hiring.
Recently, Microsoft founder Bill Gates expressed these concerns once again regarding creating AI job market depression among youth workers in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria. Gates warned that the pace of AI development is picking up so quickly that smart workers will be replaced “suddenly,” leaving no time to adjust.
Even as career strategies in AI era adoption are still relatively in their infancy, the signs of disruption are already visible. The tech industry, the symbol of growth and promise for past generations, is currently grappling with uncertainty at a structural level.
As companies weigh efficiency of the sample AI policy for employers against numbers, it is a matter of how will the next generation adapt to a future increasingly framed by algorithms?
The answers to how the youth job market crisis due to AI may depend on how quickly the schools, the employers, and the policymakers are able to prepare the workforce for the future of AI proof jobs.
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