- Young workers hit hardest by layoffs, study finds
- The technology sector is particularly affected, with AI bringing big changes
- Companies seek to hire older workers, ‘turning talent pyramids into diamonds’
Young workers and those looking to enter the job market may soon find it even harder to find jobs, as bosses increasingly turn to AI tools for entry-level tasks, a new study warns.
The global CEO study by consultancy Oliver Wyman finds that employers are willing to focus on recruiting for more senior roles, although most plan to maintain current staffing levels or even lay off workers.
Instead, AI assistants, agents, and chatbots will be used to perform the basic or menial tasks that have until now been the learning engine for new workers.
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Overall, it’s bad news for the tech sector, which the report says is being hit hardest by global job cuts, as nearly three-quarters (74%) of CEOs said they were freezing or reducing their workforce, up from 67% the year before.
Larger companies were more likely to make reductions, the study found, with 39% of “mega-sized” companies planning reductions compared to 28% of smaller ones.
And it’s younger workers who are being hit the hardest, as the number of CEOs saying junior positions should be cut in the next two years has doubled (to 43% from 17%) since 2025 – and, shockingly, only 17% of CEOs said they would focus on hiring more junior positions.
Instead, CEOs are looking to hire older workers, the report finds, with about 30% saying they are hiring more towards mid-level roles – up from just 10% the year before – turning “talent pyramids into diamonds”, the report says.
So, is AI to blame? The study found, unsurprisingly, that technology was a top priority for most CEOs, with more than 90% reporting they are deploying AI in their business – and more than two-thirds (67%) are still in the planning or pilot stage.
“In particular, CEOs with the longest planning horizons are most likely to plan workforce reductions,” the report said. “This suggests that they expect a structurally leaner organization, not as a cost measure but as the destination – the end point of an AI-augmented operating model that requires fewer staff, deployed differently. »
“But this calculation carries risks,” he adds. “Downsizing that outpaces meaningful AI deployment can leave organizations exposed, and over-reliance on systems that are still maturing introduces its own vulnerabilities. The hardest question, which many CEOs are still grappling with, is what their talent pipeline and company culture will look like in three years if the investment in younger employees is not made today.”
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