So here's what's going down: companies are getting weirdly cocky about firing people in 2025, and they're straight-up blaming AI. But here's the kicker—they're not just trimming fat. They're basically chopping off their own future by axing everyone in the junior ranks first. Like, entry-level jobs, grad schemes, internships? Those are disappearing faster than free pizza at a startup.
The numbers are brutal. Amazon just booted 14,000 corporate employees while simultaneously shouting about investing in generative AI. Accenture, Salesforce, Lufthansa, even Duolingo—they're all doing the same dance. And the data is depressing: entry-level job postings in the US have dropped 35% since early 2023. In the UK, nearly 62% of employers admit junior, clerical, and admin roles are probably toast. Oh, and those precious few grad positions? Last year, 17,000 UK spots got hit with 1.2 million applications. That's not a hiring market; that's a Hunger Games scenario.
But here's where it gets really dumb. Experts are waving red flags everywhere, and companies are just... not looking. Chris Eldridge, who runs a major tech recruitment firm, basically said what we're all thinking: killing your junior pipeline is corporate self-sabotage. "Entry-level roles are the breeding ground for the leadership of the future," he pointed out. Translation? Today's bright-eyed intern is tomorrow's CEO. Or at least, they *would've been*.
Without that bottom layer, you create what Eldridge calls a "talent doom cycle." Picture this: in ten years, your company is full of middle-aged managers with no one to promote. You have to hire external hotshots at inflated salaries, your culture goes to crap, and you're stuck depending on a talent market that owes you nothing. It's like refusing to water a plant and then being shocked when you've got no shade.
Then there's the cultural zombie apocalypse. Fabian Stephany from Oxford Internet Institute put it perfectly: companies that stop hiring young people become "like an elderly homes company." Harsh? Maybe. Accurate? Absolutely. How are you supposed to understand mainstream culture, TikTok trends, or what actual humans under 30 want if your youngest employee is 45? Young people aren't just cheap labor—they're a "generational bridge." They see things with fresh eyes and call out the nonsense that everyone else has been tolerating for years.
Plus, there's this thing called reverse mentoring. You know, where the intern shows the 50-year-old CEO how to actually use AI instead of just talking about it at shareholder meetings? Cloudflare's CEO Matthew Prince admitted this outright: "We need to learn from the next generation." He's planning to hire 11,000 interns specifically to upskill his company. That's not charity—that's survival.
And let's talk about the secret sauce of any organization: the stuff that isn't written down anywhere. The "tacit knowledge." It's the 25-year veteran in the cafeteria explaining why Dave in Accounting hates the finance system, or how to actually get something approved when the official process is a nightmare. Junior employees absorb this stuff like sponges. They're the "culture carriers," the people who keep the unofficial lubricant of your company running. Without them, all that invisible wisdom just... evaporates.
Look, I get it. AI is flashy. Shareholders love hearing about "efficiency" and "automation." But here's the real talk: if you replace every junior employee with a chatbot, you're not just saving money. You're killing your future leadership, nuking your cultural relevance, and ensuring you'll pay triple later to fix the mess you made. You're trading a few quarters of good earnings for a decade of stagnation.
Companies need to wake up. Hiring young talent isn't just a "nice to have" or some corporate social responsibility checkbox. It's an investment. It's how you stay sharp, stay relevant, and honestly, stay in business. So maybe instead of asking "Can AI do this job?" executives should start asking: "What happens when we've fired everyone who remembers how to question the way we've always done things?"
Spoiler alert: Nothing good.