Entry-Level Jobs Still Exist, But The Skills Needed For Them Have Changed

For years, we’ve heard concerns about entry-level jobs disappearing, but what if that’s not entirely accurate? What if these jobs still exist, but we simply aren’t preparing people with the right skills to succeed in them?

In the last few decades, we’ve built education systems that prioritized technical skills. Students were encouraged to learn coding, engineering, robotics, and other STEM-related fields, while liberal arts and humanities were largely deprioritized.

Philosophy majors, for instance, became the epitome of career jokes. The promise was simple: technical expertise would secure safe and well-paying jobs.

But now, artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the game. Machines are capable of writing code, analyzing data, and completing other tasks once seen as safe career choices.

Alarmingly, the jobs we spent decades training people for are among the first to be automated.

The uncomfortable truth is this: we spent years preparing people to act like machines, just in time for machines to replace them.
 

The Shift in Entry-Level Roles

Entry-level jobs haven’t disappeared entirely, but they’ve undergone a dramatic transformation. Roles that once gave young workers their first professional experience—analyst positions, software development, marketing assistants—are increasingly being performed by AI.

Employers now use technology to complete these tasks faster, cheaper, and without the need for ramp-up time.

Data from Revelio Labs shows a sharp decline in postings for entry-level positions. Over the past year, new listings for early-career white-collar jobs dropped by 12.7%.

Business analyst and software development roles saw even steeper declines, closer to 25%.

Dario Amodei, CEO of the AI company Anthropic, cautioned that AI could potentially eliminate up to 50% of entry-level knowledge jobs in the next five years, including junior roles in industries like tech, media, law, and finance.

This shift doesn’t signify the collapse of the job market for young workers—it signals a correction, exposing not only what is changing but also what skills are missing.
 

The Mistake: Training For the Wrong Advantage

Artificial intelligence excels at technical tasks but falls short in areas requiring human nuance. Machines lack the ability to navigate ambiguity, make ethical decisions, build trust among coworkers, or read interpersonal dynamics in a tense meeting.

These skills—experience, judgment, and emotional intelligence—used to be developed through years of on-the-job exposure. But as AI claims the roles that traditionally taught these abilities, workers need to develop them earlier.

In an AI-powered world, technical expertise alone isn’t enough. What’s valued now are skills such as creative thinking, big-picture reasoning, and the ability to lead others through uncertainty. These are qualities AI struggles to replicate—and they’re the very ones we haven’t been teaching effectively.

While curriculums have continually emphasized math, coding, and science, the share of humanities degrees has dropped significantly.

In the U.S., degrees in subjects like English, history, philosophy, and foreign languages have been nearly halved since 2000. As of 2022, humanities degrees only make up 8.8% of all college degrees—down from over 17% in the late 1960s.

This shift toward STEM-focused education was seen as practical and forward-thinking. But now, in 2025, it’s clear that deprioritizing the humanities may have been shortsighted.
 

Why Human Skills Matter More Than Ever

The skills most valued today are often misunderstood as “soft” skills—traits like empathy, storytelling, critical thinking, and adaptability. But they are anything but soft. These skills are foundational and pivotal in a world increasingly automated by AI.

Human qualities like negotiation, cultural awareness, ethical decision-making, and innovative problem-solving are what will set professionals apart in the modern job market.

These aren’t fostered through coding boot camps or technical certifications—they’re developed through the very subjects we’ve sidelined, such as literature, sociology, political science, and philosophy.

If AI can answer almost anything, the real strategic advantage lies in knowing what questions to ask, framing ideas effectively, and understanding their importance. Young people need to learn not just how to use data but how to interpret it and connect it to broader contexts.

To prepare for a future defined by AI, we need to rebuild our educational foundations. Humanities and social sciences shouldn’t be optional electives—they should be core elements of career preparation.

Ethical reasoning, systems thinking, and human insight need to serve as counterbalances to technical efficiency.
 

A New Direction for Workforce Preparedness

Society optimized a generation for technical skills just in time for AI to make those skills abundant. Now, we need to pivot. The future of work demands us to focus on what makes humans unique: creativity, emotional intelligence, adaptability, and vision.

Machines can take over repetitive tasks, but they can’t replicate what it means to be human. The value will lie in the minds that find meaning—and the hearts that know why that meaning matters.

This adjustment isn’t about returning to the past. It’s about embracing what the future of work truly requires and ensuring young workers are ready to thrive in a world defined by AI innovation.

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