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Entry-level jobs down by a third since launch of ChatGPT

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Re: Entry-level jobs down by a third since launch of ChatGPT

#31
I run a mature software company that is being driven for profit (we are out of the fantastic future phase and solidly in the “make money” phase). Even with all the pressure to cut costs and increase automation, the most valuable use of LLMs is to make the software developers work more effectively, producing the feature improvements that customers want so that we can ensure customers will renew and upgrade. And to the extent that we are cutting costs, we are using AI to help us write code that lets us use infrastructure more efficiently (because infrastructure is the bulk of our costs).

But this is a software company. I think out in the “real world,” there are some low hanging fruit wins where AI replaces extremely routine boilerplate jobs that never required a lot of human intelligence in the first place. But even then, I’d say that the general drift is that the humans who were doing those low-level jobs have a chance to step up into jobs requiring higher-level intelligence where humans have a chance to really shine. And companies are competing not by just getting rid of salaries, but by providing much better service by being able to afford to have more higher-tier people on the payroll. And by higher-tier, I don’t necessarily mean more expensive. It can be the same people that were doing the low-level jobs; they just now can spend their human-level intelligence doing more interesting and challenging work.

Re: Entry-level jobs down by a third since launch of ChatGPT

#32
post #14
post #9

I think it is possible that the widespread introduction of ChatGPT will cause a brief hiatus on hiring due to the inelasticity of demand. For the sake of argument , imagine that ChatGPT makes your average developer 4x more productive. It will take a while before the expectation becomes that 4x more work is delivered. That 4x more work is scheduled in sprints. That 4x more features are developed. That 4x more projects…

I've personally managed to produce roughly 8x the production outages and show-stopper bugs than I did before LLMs, so thing are looking pretty good!

The competitive edge is now knowing how to debug all of those issues. Unfortunately not usually a skill possessed for entry level.

Re: Entry-level jobs down by a third since launch of ChatGPT

#35
post #31

I run a mature software company that is being driven for profit (we are out of the fantastic future phase and solidly in the “make money” phase). Even with all the pressure to cut costs and increase automation, the most valuable use of LLMs is to make the software developers work more effectively, producing the feature improvements that customers want so that we can ensure customers will renew and upgrade. And to the…

So basically compressing the pay scale even further …

Re: Entry-level jobs down by a third since launch of ChatGPT

#36
Soon the meme will be true. Entry level jobs will require 5-7 years of experience and you will need to be an expert in the 23 technologies mentioned in the job req. you will also continue to get spammed by recruiters seeking Java engineers because your resume say Javascript

Re: Entry-level jobs down by a third since launch of ChatGPT

#37
> However, these broader improvements are not benefiting all parts of the workforce equally. Graduate job postings dropped by 4.2% in May and are now down 28.4% compared with the same time last year—the lowest level seen since July 2020.

> More broadly, entry-level roles (including apprenticeships, internships and junior jobs) have declined by 32% since November 2022, when ChatGPT’s commercial breakthrough triggered a rapid transformation in how companies operate and hire.

> Entry-level roles now make up just 25% of all jobs advertised in the UK, down from nearly 29% two years ago.

That's such a poor presentation of the numbers. If only they could have included a small data table with something like date|total-jobs|entry-level-jobs|percentage-entry-level.

Re: Entry-level jobs down by a third since launch of ChatGPT

#38
post #35
post #31

I run a mature software company that is being driven for profit (we are out of the fantastic future phase and solidly in the “make money” phase). Even with all the pressure to cut costs and increase automation, the most valuable use of LLMs is to make the software developers work more effectively, producing the feature improvements that customers want so that we can ensure customers will renew and upgrade. And to the…

So basically compressing the pay scale even further …

Well, many people complain about pay inequality. Compressing scales is the opposite of that, so should be welcomed?

Re: Entry-level jobs down by a third since launch of ChatGPT

#39
post #19

I was talking to the head of accounting for a small biz the other day, and they were talking about buying an AI accounts payable solution. And how typically they would hire a person for this but now they use the AI. Now this solution might not even use an LLM , it existed pre-chatgpt , but I think the word of mouth of chatgpt and AI is causing business people to seek out automations where they would normally hire.

I wonder what happens when their new accounts payable AI starts paying everyone on time and when the contract says they should be paid?

Re: Entry-level jobs down by a third since launch of ChatGPT

#40
Can't help but wonder/predict that this will cause a long-term deflationary trend. Basically labor is going to peak and then get cheaper and cheaper. So those with capital are going to benefit from this (obviously).

Hopefully this transition benefits everyone. I just don't see how those with zero capital are going to survive well. Most of the US economy (sorry to be US-centric but I am American) is people performing services and information based work (or at least _tons_ of it is). This is the portion of the economy that is going to be the most and first affected by AI.

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