We have the most powerful technology in history, and we’re using it to stop hiring young people

We hold the most powerful technology in human history, and so far corporate America is mostly using it to write marketing copy and cut headcount. Through September, U.S. employers announced 573,195 job cuts. Artificial intelligence was cited in 120,136 of them, more than any other reason this year, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas . The bigger effect is on hiring. Using ADP payroll data, Stanford economists Erik Brynjolfsson, Bharat Chandar and Ruyu Chen found that as of June, employment among 22- to 25-year-olds in the most AI-exposed occupations was about 19% below where it would be if it had kept pace with young workers in less-exposed jobs. They write that the adjustment works “primarily through reduced hiring of young workers rather than increased separations.” Companies aren’t firing junior workers; they are simply not hiring them. By tying public incentives for AI investment and data-center build-out to measurable entry-level hiring and apprenticeship commitments, AI will create efficiency and jobs. Tie public AI incentives to net-new paid apprenticeships and entry-level jobs, with payments after six and 12 months of verified employment and not simply after a training course. In July, the Labor Department awarded nearly $162 million through an apprenticeship program that links payments to verified retention and progression milestones. Reward employers for being job creators and builders.