The bottom rung of the UK career ladder is buckling. Research circulating this week puts graduate job openings at their lowest level in seven years, the latest sign that entry level work is absorbing the brunt of a labour market reshaped by AI, weak growth and rising employment costs. Entry level postings are now down by close to a third since ChatGPT launched in late 2022.
Tech takes the hardest hit
Nowhere is the squeeze sharper than in technology. Industry analyses point to a 46 percent fall in tech graduate roles since 2024, with some projections warning of a further steep decline through 2026 as employers automate the junior tasks, from data cleaning and scheduling to basic coding, that once trained new staff. Estimates suggest AI can now handle something like half to two thirds of typical entry level workloads, hollowing out the apprenticeship of doing before delegating.
Not AI alone
The honest reading is that AI is an accelerant, not the sole cause. Britain's sluggish growth, a post pandemic normalisation in hiring and a wave of cost pressures, including higher employer national insurance and minimum wage rises, have all made firms warier of taking on unproven juniors. Total vacancies fell by around 54,000, or 7.1 percent, year on year in the spring, leaving roughly two and a half unemployed people for every opening.
A quiet shift to apprenticeships
There is a more hopeful counter current. As graduate hiring slips, apprentice hiring has been rising at a similar pace, with reports of graduate intakes down around 8 percent while apprenticeships climb about 8 percent. Employers appear to be substituting earn while you learn routes that build firm specific, AI complementary skills for the traditional graduate scheme. It is a reallocation, not simply a contraction.
The warning from the high street
Business leaders are not mincing words. The boss of retailer Next is among those warning publicly that entry level jobs will shrink as AI scales, and bodies such as the British Chambers of Commerce have flagged a growing threat to the first jobs that turn students into workers. The policy worry is structural: if the lowest rung disappears, the country risks a missing generation of mid career talent a decade from now. For 2026's graduates, the immediate advice is blunt: lead with AI fluency, and treat apprenticeships and smaller employers as live options, not fallbacks.
