AI Exposure Leads to Significant Shrinkage of Entry-Level Jobs
According to a report by Partnership for New York City, since the release of ChatGPT in 2022, there has been a significant decline in entry-level job recruitment in the fields with the highest exposure to AI.
Entry-level positions in design, media, and writing decreased by 40.6%, customer support by 34.4%, clerical and administrative by 30.5%, business management and operations by 26.8%, finance by 23.4%, social analysis and planning by 12.7%, and sales by 10.4%; these fields typically have an AI automation exposure rate of over 50%.
During the same period, the number of entry-level jobs requiring AI skills increased by 55%, indicating that employers are raising the bar for AI capabilities while reducing traditional entry-level positions; AI companies leased over 2.2 million square feet of office space in New York in the first half of 2026, more than double the total for the entire year of 2025, with related startups raising $16.7 billion in 2025.
The private sector in New York is expected to add only about 38,000 jobs in 2025, roughly half of the previous year, with hiring increasingly focused on experienced candidates; analysis from the Center for an Urban Future shows that entry-level tech job recruitment in New York has declined by 49% since 2022, with overall entry-level recruitment in high AI exposure occupations down by about 29%.
The report notes that while AI is not the only factor, there is a clear correlation between exposure and the decline in entry-level jobs; companies prioritize using AI to replace routine junior tasks rather than simply increasing overall hiring.
This change represents a structural adjustment in recruitment driven by technological replacement, with companies compressing demand for entry-level positions and raising skill thresholds, while funding and office expansion concentrate on AI-related entities; the beneficiaries are job seekers with AI skills and AI companies, while young job seekers relying on traditional entry paths into design, support, administration, and finance face pressure.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
Partnership for New York City tracked changes in job recruitment following the release of ChatGPT based on Lightcast data, finding that entry-level positions in high AI exposure fields have seen the largest declines; the Center for an Urban Future further shows that entry-level tech recruitment in New York has decreased by 49%, while entry-level recruitment in low exposure occupations has actually increased, indicating that automation first impacts the junior roles that are scriptable and repetitive.
Resources are shifting from traditional entry-level job training to AI skill requirements and the expansion of AI companies, with $16.7 billion in AI startup funding in New York in 2025 driving significant office leasing, as companies delegate routine junior tasks (such as content generation, customer response, and administrative processing) to models; the motivation is to reduce labor costs and improve efficiency while screening for candidates already capable of using tools, rather than training from scratch.
Similar patterns are observed in research from Stanford's Digital Economy Lab, which found a relative decline of 16% in employment for high AI exposure occupations among 22-25 year-olds, as well as contractions in customer support and content roles in multiple regions; we are currently in the early expansion phase where AI is transitioning from tool assistance to directly replacing junior tasks, with companies yet to significantly lay off experienced employees but tightening entry points.
Essentially, this represents technological replacement and industrial chain restructuring: generative AI allows standardized junior work to be completed directly by models, weakening the first rung of the career ladder; companies are externalizing or shifting training costs to those with AI skills, thereby altering the traditional path of "gaining experience from junior roles" in the labor market, which may lead to a gap in the supply of experienced talent in the future.
ABAB News · Cognitive Law
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