AI is wiping out entry-level jobs

We've been through this before. The GFC in 2008 wiped out entry-level jobs for millenials who did everything "right" (or, at least, what they were told to do) by going to college and accumulating student debt [1].

Those graduates ended up doing lower-paid and often non-career jobs like service works. The cliche in the early 2010s was college grads being baristas for a reason.

Those jobs never came back. And it's essentially destroyed that generation who are under crippling debt with no security and no prospects. People in tech did well in the 2010s. Nobody else did. So, on HN a lot of people didn't see this because HN skews towards tech but this was really destructive for society as a whole. We're still feeling the affects of it. It was a key factor in the 2016 election.

It's going to get worse. What people should really understand that there's, so far, only one product for AI and that is labor displacement and wage suppression when we already have historically low savings rate (ie a buffer) [2] and an affordability crisis that is also only going to get worse. How do we have a functioning economy if nobody has any money?

[1]: https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/college-labor-market#--:...

[2]: https://usafacts.org/articles/why-arent-americans-saving-as-...

Re: AI is wiping out entry-level jobs

#8

Post by erfgh » Fri, May 15, 2026, 1:59 PM UTC

The whole article feels like AI slop.

Re: AI is wiping out entry-level jobs

#9

Post by p0w3n3d » Fri, May 15, 2026, 2:01 PM UTC

erelong wrote: post #5

Perhaps rather it is management that is wiping out those jobs But I could see entry level also becoming "internships" more (aka unpaid jobs)

It's the AI companies' fault for boasting that their products are becoming an additional developer.

AI agent is not a developer. It won't answer you questions why your database has been removed. This is sadly far from management's point of concern. They are focused on excel columns

Re: AI is wiping out entry-level jobs

#10

Post by kuerbel » Fri, May 15, 2026, 2:01 PM UTC

"At its core, the goal of education is to prepare individuals for employment and advancement"

No. It should help a person develop into a free, thoughtful, well-rounded human being. Training narrowly for current market demands can become obsolete quickly. The question should not be: Should education have economic value? But rather: Should economic value be the highest or only value of education?

Of course, engineering etc might have more immediately applicable skills but there is so much value in the Humboldtian ideal of education that merely focusing on economic output is intellectually short-sighted and ultimately impoverishes both individuals and society.