AI is killing jobs for those just starting out

According to the State of Talent Report 2025 of SignalFirethe hiring of profiles with less than a year of experience plummeted by 25% between 2023 and 2024. And this despite the fact that the tech job market has recovered in general terms. While the juniors leave through the back door, the seniors enter through the front door.

The data? Cold and worrying, although not definitive because it is too early to know what may be happening. But, but, but… startups have reduced the hiring of profiles with less than a year of experience by 10.7%, and big tech has done so even more: an alarming –24.8%. In contrast, profiles with between 5 and 10 years of experience have seen growth of +33.9% in big tech and a modest +1.3% in startups. For professionals with more than 10 years, the numbers remain the same or even grow. The implicit message: if you don’t come with experience, don’t bother. Or as a poorly trained algorithm would say: “Your request has been discarded due to lack of prior data.”

AI not only automates tasks, it also automates expectations: why invest time and resources in someone with no experience, if a predictive model generates an increasingly accurate report, a finer Filipino line of code or a more or less decent presentation in seconds?

Some global figures could be confirming this trend: total hiring growth in startups was just 0.4%, compared to a solid +15.2% in big tech, concentrated almost exclusively in established talent. That is to say, the world of work seems to be rewarding those who are already in it, and making access increasingly difficult for new ones.

Although there is not enough historical data to be able to conclude that AI kills the first jobs of people who have recently graduated, the paradox that could be generated is brutal: companies need innovation normally linked to young people, but they eliminate the spaces where it is cultivated. We forget that no senior professional was born knowing, and that even the most brilliant were once somewhat clumsy interns. If this phenomenon is happening with the first jobs aimed at young people, a new pact is urgently needed: assume that training is difficult, that learning takes time, and that not everything that is not profitable today should be discarded. Just as there were artisan workshops and guilds before, perhaps we should return to a more patient logic: investing in people, not just in quarterly results and technology.

If all “entry” jobs are eliminated, how will anyone start their career? With an accelerated AI course and a portfolio of fictitious projects?