Beyond the Algorithm
Mindset Shift Leads to Success in the Current AI-Driven Job Market
As a Maths student at Imperial working through problem sheets, coding labs, and club activities, I’ve noticed AI assistants becoming part of my daily routine. Within minutes, the AI suggested a corrected loop structure, recommended vectorised NumPy operations, and even drafted clear comments.
At first, I felt like I’d discovered a magic wand—debugging issues in seconds usually taken hours. But when the AI handled most of the “grunt work,” I began to worry: If AI can already generate code for these complex projects, what does that mean for all of us when we graduate and enter the job market?
That concern become even worse when a recent alumnus on a virtual career panel mentioned that over 30 % of their entry-level assignments now start with AI-generated code, leaving new hires to focus on refining and integrating rather than writing everything from scratch.
Should We Still Focus on Tech?
Before diving into how AI is reshaping entry-level roles, it’s important to recognise that even without AI, finding a first job right out of university has become increasingly challenging worldwide. The following sections lay out both the broader job-market context and AI’s specific impact.
The Job Market for Undergraduates Has Never Been This Tough
UK Youth and Graduate Unemployment
In mid-2024, the unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds in the UK climbed to 14.2 %, with 597,000 young people out of work—its highest level since the pandemic.
On the graduate front, 2024 saw a 12.7 % unemployment rate among recent degree-holders—meaning over 96,000 UK graduates struggled to find roles matching their qualifications.
US Recent-Graduate Underemployment and Unemployment
By the first quarter of 2025, US workers aged 22–27 holding a bachelor’s degree faced a 5.8 % unemployment rate—the highest since 2021—while underemployment (working in jobs below their skill level) jumped to 41.2 %.
In late 2024, the unemployment rate for US degree-holders aged 22–27 hovered around 5.3 %, up about 1.3 percentage points from two years earlier, already exceeding pre-pandemic levels.
European Employment Pressures for Recent Graduates
In 2023, Eurostat reported that 83.5 % of recent EU graduates (ages 20–34) were employed—but that average hides stark contrasts. In Malta, nearly 95.8 % of grads found work quickly, whereas Italy, Spain, Romania, and Greece hovered between just 62 % and 68 %.
By Q1 2025, unemployment for 15–24 year-olds across the Eurozone sat at 12.9 %, compared to 4.9 % for all ages.
Global Youth Unemployment Trends
As of 2023, the ILO reported a 13 % unemployment rate among young people (ages 15–24) worldwide—more than double the global adult rate of around 5 %. Even in technology hubs, graduates sometimes find themselves up against a tidal wave of applicants for every entry-level position.
In many advanced economies, youth unemployment still sits above 10 %, even as digital roles skyrocket in demand. It’s a strange paradox: everyone wants tech skills, but there simply aren’t enough beginner-friendly openings.
Application Volumes and Vacancy Rates
During 2023–24, UK employers reported an average of 140 applications for each advertised graduate position—a 59 % jump year-on-year.
In the US, the Bureau of Labor Statistics noted that for every 100 recent grads seeking jobs in tech fields, only about 60 positions were available in late 2024—so even with fancy project portfolios, you’re still competing with more people than openings.
Across the EU, total vacancies fell for the 33rd consecutive quarter—down to 781,000 in Q1 2025—dropping below pre-pandemic levels and making it harder for new grads to find suitable roles.
Together, these data show that even before accounting for AI’s impact, graduates in the UK, US, and Europe face unprecedented competition. Landing that first job often means sifting through dozens—or even hundreds—of applications just to get noticed.
The Truth About AI and Job Loss
In this challenging landscape, two dominant views about AI’s role in employment compete:
“AI Will Automate All Roles”
Popular headlines warn that tools like ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, and other generative models will replace routine coding, data-entry, and basic analytical tasks—leaving new graduates with slim job prospects.“AI Will Augment Human Work”
Industry experts argue that AI excels at automating repetitive, well-defined tasks but still requires human oversight for context, creativity, and ethical reasoning. They emphasize that roles involving critical thinking, domain expertise, and interpersonal skills will remain in demand.
From some simple online research, I’ve found out that:
Massive Tech Layoffs & AI Investments: In 2024, over 150,000 tech positions were cut globally as companies reallocated budgets toward AI research and automation. By May 2025, an additional 22,000 + roles were eliminated—major players like Microsoft and Amazon cited “streamlining around AI and cloud services” as primary reasons.
AI Productivity Still Requires Human Checks: Even cutting-edge models hallucinate about 15 % of the time. In my Python project, the AI’s suggestion to vectorise a nested loop improved runtime but introduced subtle rounding errors because it didn’t account for integer overflow. My team spent extra hours debugging those mistakes.
In other words, AI is reshaping the nature of entry-level technical work, but it cannot yet replace an adaptable undergraduate who can interpret ambiguous requirements, catch hidden errors, and iterate on solutions.
A Comprehensive List of 2025 Tech Layoffs
To grasp how entry-level hiring is being affected, it helps to review recent layoff figures:
150,000+ Roles Cut in 2024 (Across 549 Companies)
Between January and December 2024, 549 tech firms worldwide announced workforce reductions totalling over 150,000 roles. These cuts spanned early-stage startups and established giants alike, reflecting a strategic pivot toward AI and cloud investments.
For example:
Meta:
In March 2024, Meta announced it would eliminate approximately 21,000 positions—around 13 % of its global workforce—to redirect budget into AI research (including its Metaverse initiatives).Salesforce:
Starting in June 2024, Salesforce revealed plans to cut about 10 % of its workforce (≈8,000 roles). The company described this as “workforce optimization” intended to increase investment in AI-driven CRM and automation tools.Oracle:
In September 2024, Oracle disclosed cuts of roughly 2,000 jobs, mainly in hardware and support divisions, aiming to streamline operations and allocate more resources to cloud services.
22,000+ Layoffs by May 2025
From January through May 2025, more than 22,000 tech positions were eliminated globally. February 2025 alone saw about 16,000 layoffs, marking one of the largest single-month declines since mid-2024.
Microsoft Cuts 6,500 Positions (≈3 % of Global Workforce)
On January 18, 2025, Microsoft announced plans to eliminate around 6,500 roles—roughly 3 % of its ~220,000 employees. The bulk of these cuts affected mid-level management and support functions within Windows, Azure, and Office divisions.
Microsoft stated these reductions would “simplify areas of overlap” and free budget to expand AI initiatives—particularly on Azure’s infrastructure and funding new Copilot integrations. Initial layoffs began in February 2025 and concluded by April 2025.
By breaking down each layoff announcement into specific subheadings and numbered points, it becomes clear how widespread and targeted these cuts were—underscoring that multiple companies restructured around AI-driven priorities. And these figures demonstrate that internships and new-grad roles more competitive than ever.
Soft Skills + Hard Skills is the KEY
Given the increasingly competitive job market and AI’s growing presence, soft skills—our “human advantage”—are now essential for undergraduates. A recent DZone survey found that while AI can handle roughly 60 % of basic technical tasks, hiring decisions still based 70 % on candidates’ communication, adaptability, and teamwork. The following sections outline four critical soft-skill areas where undergraduates can gain—and maintain—an edge.
Communication: Clearly conveying ideas—whether in writing, speaking, or presenting.
Teamwork: Collaborating effectively—understanding roles, sharing responsibility, and integrating AI contributions—enables smoother project execution.
Problem-Solving: Diagnosing issues, questioning AI suggestions, and iterating on solutions demonstrates value beyond automated “first drafts”.
Time Management: Organising priorities and meeting deadlines—especially when balancing lectures, labs, and AI‐assisted work—signals reliability.
Leadership: Inspiring and guiding peers—whether in study groups or hackathon teams—helps rally everyone toward a shared goal.
Adaptability: Adjusting quickly when tools, priorities, or AI outputs change keeps you ahead of evolving tech landscapes.
Critical Thinking: Objectively evaluating information, questioning AI-generated answers, and making reasoned judgments prevents errors from slipping into your work.
Emotional Intelligence: Recognising and responding to emotions—your own and others’—builds trust in group settings and helps identify biases in AI systems.
Creativity: Generating novel ideas—whether for a research question, a project feature, or a data visualisation—allows you to envision opportunities AI overlooks.
Other valuable skills to explore include conflict resolution, active listening, networking, and resilience, which further enhance your ability to stand out as AI handles more routine tasks.
Conclusion
Entering the tech and finance landscape as undergraduates in 2025 is more challenging than ever—between a tight global job market and AI’s rapid integration into entry-level workflows, it’s easy to feel frustration. However, this isn’t simply an “AI eliminates jobs” story; it’s about how work is evolving and which human skills remain irreplaceable.
Although AI accelerates prototyping, data summarisation, and boilerplate coding but still struggles with nuanced context, creativity, and ethics. Even the best models hallucinate about 15 % of the time, requiring human oversight.
As undergraduates, we bring adaptability, communication, creativity, and ethical judgment to the table—qualities AI cannot replicate. Employers will continue to seek graduates who can interpret AI outputs, identify edge cases, and co-create solutions with diverse teams.
Justin Ju
| AI Engineer at Chelsea AI Venture | justin@chelseaai.co.uk |
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