As new college grads face elevated rates of unemployment, concern about AI's impact on jobs is spiking among young Americans

Nearly three in four Gen Z-ers now say they think AI will lead to fewer jobs over the next two decades, up from 61% in 2024.

Generation Z's enthusiasm about artificial intelligence is cooling fast. The share of adults ages 29 and younger who are more concerned than excited about AI jumped to 55% in the latest poll by Pew Research Center, up from 39% in 2024.

Much of this is related to job worries: 73% of Gen Z-ers now say they think AI will lead to fewer jobs over the next two decades, compared with 61% who said the same in 2024.

"Adults under 30 are most likely to think AI will be bad for society - and for them," the report said. "They largely think it will make connection and creativity harder to come by. And though most say they use chatbots, they're just as likely to say these tools hurt their own creativity as help it." The Pew researchers declined to comment further on why young adults have grown more concerned about AI over the last two years.

AI executives themselves have been clear that they expect entry-level jobs in particular will be affected by the technology. In one particularly alarming comment, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said in an online post last year that "AI could displace half of all entry-level white collar jobs in the next 1-5 years, even as it accelerates economic growth and scientific progress."

While AI can "be great for economic growth," Amodei said, it is "not so great for the labor market or those who are left behind."

Some researchers have responded that such apocalyptic statements about AI's near-term impact on employment are grossly overstated and ignore the impact of new jobs that will be created.

Even so, displaced workers will need access to education to learn new skills, Emil Barr, co-founder of the education platform Flashpass, said recently in a post on X. He cited estimates that 40 million to 80 million Americans will need training for new career fields, but "the cashiers, warehouse staff, and entry-level workers who are most likely to face displacement can't afford skill development courses on the private market. That's a recipe for the largest unemployment crisis since the Great Depression."

Since the pandemic recovery, the unemployment rate for recent college graduates ages 22 to 27 has been elevated compared with the rate overall, pointing to softening demand for educated entry-level workers. In June, for instance, 5.7% of recent college grads were unemployed, compared with 4.1% of all workers, according to data from the New York Federal Reserve.

Even among new grads with jobs, 42% are underemployed, meaning they are working jobs that typically do not require a college degree.

For now, young workers are trying to adapt in this challenging job market. They are relying more heavily on their networks, learning how to use AI and sharpening their communication skills and personal qualities - such as coachability, curiosity and reliability - to find work and stay employed.

Although the broad impact of AI on jobs is not yet clear, workers should prepare for potential widening of income inequality if mid-wage work is disproportionately disrupted, economist and MIT professor Daron Acemoglu recently said on a podcast. "It's the simpler, cognitively more predictable jobs," he said, such as "customer service, back office," that will likely be replaced, and not the highly-paid workers who could easily find new jobs.

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-Venessa Wong