- Younger workers hit hardest by layoffs, study finds
- The technology sector is particularly affected and AI brings big changes
- Companies seek to hire older workers, “turning talent pyramids into diamonds”
Younger workers and those looking to enter the workforce could soon have even more difficulty finding a job as bosses increasingly turn to artificial intelligence tools for entry-level tasks, new research has warned.
The global CEO study by consultancy Oliver Wyman found that employers will focus on hiring for higher positions, even as most plan to keep staffing levels as they are, or even lay off workers.
Instead, AI assistants, agents and chatbots will be used to complete those entry-level or menial jobs that have until now been the learning material for new workers.
Labor struggles
Overall, it was bad news for the tech sector, which the report said was hardest hit by global job cuts, with nearly three-quarters (74%) of CEOs saying they are freezing or reducing their workforce, up from 67% a year earlier.
Larger companies were more likely to make cuts, the study found, with 39% of “mega-sized” companies planning reductions compared to 28% of smaller ones.
And younger workers are bearing the brunt of the punishment, as the number of CEOs saying junior roles will be reduced over the next year or two has doubled (from 17% to 43%) since 2025, and surprisingly, only 17% of CEOs said they would shift their focus to hiring more junior positions.
Instead, CEOs are looking to hire older workers, according to the report, and about 30% say they are shifting hiring to more mid-level roles – up from just 10% the previous year – turning “talent pyramids into diamonds,” the report says.
So is AI to blame? The study found, perhaps unsurprisingly, that technology was a top priority for most CEOs, with more than 90% saying they are implementing AI in their companies, and more than two-thirds (67%) are still in the planning or pilot stages.
“In particular, CEOs with longer planning horizons are the most likely to plan workforce reductions,” the report says. “That suggests they expect a structurally more agile organization not as a cost measure but as the destination: the end point of an AI-enhanced operating model that requires fewer people, deployed differently.”
“But this calculation carries risks,” he adds, “headcount reduction that outpaces significant AI implementation can leave organizations exposed, and over-reliance on systems that are still maturing introduces its own vulnerabilities. The tougher question, one that many CEOs are still grappling with, is what will their talent pipeline and company culture be three years from now if the investment in junior employees is not made today?”
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to receive news, reviews and opinions from our experts in your feeds.
