AI turns up the pressure on youth jobs

Global youth unemployment is climbing again—right as the entry-level jobs that help young people break into the labor market are shrinking. The International Labour Organization warns that artificial intelligence could accelerate the trend.

In 2025, 12.4 percent of 15- to 24-year-olds seeking work were unemployed—about 67 million people. In 2023, it was 12.3 percent.

According to the new report Global Employment Trends for Youth 2026, part of the post-pandemic recovery has now been erased.

The problem goes beyond official unemployment. Roughly 20 percent of young people are neither employed nor in education or training—more than 257 million worldwide.

Conditions worsened between 2023 and 2025 in eight of the eleven regions studied. In Northern, Southern, and Western Europe, youth unemployment averaged fifteen percent.

A key driver, the ILO says, is the erosion of mid-skill jobs. Roles in administration, sales, and certain types of manufacturing long served as on-ramps for recent school and university leavers.

With fewer of these roles available, young people spend longer searching—or are forced to compete immediately for jobs that demand more experience and specialized expertise.

The ILO estimates that 6.1 percent of jobs held by 15- to 29-year-olds are in occupations highly exposed to AI-driven change.

The report models a scenario where ten percent of those exposed roles vanish entirely. In that case, around 5.6 million young workers could become unemployed, switch careers, or exit the labor force—impacts most visible in high‑income countries.

That figure is not a forecast. Exposure to AI doesn’t automatically mean a job disappears. Technology may replace only certain tasks—or make workers more productive.

Nor does the report pin all 67 million unemployed young people on AI. Weak economic growth, geopolitical tensions, and sluggish job creation are also major factors, the analysis finds.

At the same time, jobs are growing in high-skill fields like science, engineering, healthcare, and IT. The catch: not every young person has the training or experience these roles require.

That makes education crucial—but it doesn’t fix the shortage of entry-level roles. Young people need places to build experience before moving into specialist jobs.

Earlier research already showed that young workers can lose jobs faster in AI‑exposed sectors. Other analyses suggest the first clear effects may show up as fewer new postings, not mass layoffs—at least for now.

The new ILO figures sharpen the core risk: if companies use AI to automate the simplest entry tasks, the first step onto the career ladder could get even steeper for young people.