AI is slashing graduate jobs as firms axe entry-level roles amid automation surge. Big names like Deloitte and EY have cut graduate hiring by 18% and 11% respectively. Data from job site Adzuna shows entry-level finance jobs down 50.8% and IT roles down 54.8% since 2022.
Companies are using AI to handle junior tasks, wiping out the need for many new hires. Students and recent grads who nailed intense interview processes are now hitting a wall — fewer jobs exist, and AI screening tools reject applications before humans see them.
Interviewing with AI systems is taking a toll on graduates, who often face impersonal webcam setups controlled by algorithms. Creative careers and human-focused roles like doctors and nurses remain safer, but even arts jobs risk devaluation as AI-generated content floods the market. 
Conservative voices argue practical degrees hold more value, but what good is an accountancy degree if the jobs vanish? Degrees training critical thinking and transferable skills may offer better long-term prospects than fields AI can easily replace.
Graduation in 2025 means facing a tougher labor market changed by AI. Long-planned career paths are evaporating fast. For many new grads, AI isn’t just a workplace tool — it’s a barrier to starting their careers.
“Once, graduates who had toiled through multiple rounds of interviews, battled it out with other applicants at an assessment centre, and made it through to the final round, could hope to get a job in a sector such as consultancy or accountancy. These historically secure, solid and (some would say) boring options guaranteed you gainful and well-paid employment and a clear career path.”
“Should a student or recent graduate apply for one of these elusive opportunities, their application will frequently be evaluated and often declined by an AI system before a human even reads it. Friends who have recently graduated tell me of the emotional toll of talking to their webcam during an AI-generated interview in the hope that the system judges in their favour, a process that can be repeated again and again.”
“But what use is a degree in accountancy if you can’t then get an accounting job at the end of it? Why is this course more valuable than studying something that teaches you critical thinking and transferrable skills – anthropology, say, or (in my case) Arabic and Islamic studies?”
Demand for college grads with “secure” jobs is tanking fast as AI eats entry-level roles. The fallout is hitting new professionals hard, rewriting the post-university job game in real time.
