AI Is Dramatically Decreasing Entry-Level Hiring at Big Tech Companies, According to a New Analysis

Key Points

• Big tech firms saw entry-level hiring fall to just 7% of new hires in 2024, a 25% drop from 2023 and more than 50% below pre-pandemic levels, while startups’ graduate hiring slid from 30% in 2019 to under 6% in 2024.
• AI is a major driver of this decline, with research suggesting automation of routine tasks like coding and financial analysis is replacing many traditional entry-level roles.
• Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warns that within one to five years, AI could eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs and push unemployment up to 10%–20%.
• Brookings Institution research finds AI could automate over 50% of tasks in entry-level positions—five times the risk faced by more senior roles.

A new report shows that the biggest tech companies have significantly reduced their hiring of new graduates in recent years, and AI could be to blame as the technology takes over entry-level tasks.

SignalFire, a venture capital firm that analyzes the job movements of over 650 million employees and 80 million companies on LinkedIn, noticed in a recent report released last week that established tech companies, including Meta, Microsoft, and Google, recruited fewer recent graduates in 2024 compared to previous years.

Related: The CEO of $61 Billion Anthropic Says AI Will Take Over a Crucial Part of Software Engineers' Jobs Within a Year

New graduates accounted for just 7% of new hires in 2024, down 25% from 2023 and over 50% from pre-pandemic levels in 2019. Meanwhile, at startups, the rate of new graduates hired dropped from 30% in 2019 to under 6% in 2024.

Asher Bantock, SignalFire's head of research, told TechCrunch that there's "convincing evidence" that AI is a significant reason for the decline in entry-level tech roles. He explained that entry-level jobs are more vulnerable to automation because they consist of routine tasks that AI can easily take over. For example, AI can code and conduct financial research.

Dario Amodei, the 42-year-old CEO of $61.5 billion AI startup Anthropic, told Axios on Wednesday that within the next one to five years, AI could eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs and cause unemployment to rise to 10% to 20%. Earlier this year that AI could write "essentially all of the code" for big companies within the next year.

"On the jobs side of this [AI], I do have a fair amount of concern," Amodei said at a Council on Foreign Relations event in March, per Business Insider.

Related: How Much Does It Cost to Develop and Train AI? Here's the Current Price, According to the CEO of an $18 Billion AI Startup.

AI will impact industries like technology, finance, and law, Amodei predicted. Most workers won't recognize the dangers caused by AI until it has taken their jobs, he said.

"Most of them are unaware that this is about to happen," Amodei told Axios. "It sounds crazy, and people just don't believe it."

^{Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Photographer: Benjamin Girette/Bloomberg via Getty Images}

Research from American think tank The Brookings Institution shows that AI could replace more than half of the tasks carried out by entry-level roles, including market research analysts, graphic designers, and sales representatives. In comparison, more senior roles have up to five times lower risks of automation.

Meanwhile, Harvard Business Review estimates that AI will affect 50 million jobs within the next few years, automating some roles while adding to workers' abilities in others.