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The rise of artificial intelligence and an oversupply of graduates threaten entry-level white-collar jobs, creating a jobs apocalypse for young degree holders. Government policies and the decline of vocational education worsen the crisis.
The negative impact of the original Industrial Revolution fell most heavily on the working class. Through the 18th and 19th centuries, as machines took over the roles of humans, it was manual and semi-skilled workers who bore the brunt of the job losses.
Today, we are at the start of a very different - but no less seismic - revolution in the world of work. This time it's white-collar staff and the educated young whose futures are most threatened.
Owing to the rapid spread of artificial intelligence, entry-level jobs are disappearing fast, as company bosses ask themselves: Why bother to have juniors carrying out basic research, reviewing documents or drafting standard letters when AI can do it faster and at a fraction of the cost? The landscape looks particularly bleak for graduates coming into the workplace, with James Reed, chairman of multi-national recruiter Reed Employment, warning that automation is wiping out the lower rungs of their career ladders.
The number of graduate openings on his sites has plummeted from 180,000 to 55,000 in recent years, he says. Yet instead of encouraging firms to take on more staff, the Government actively discourages them with higher taxes and a soaring minimum wage. The extent of the looming jobs apocalypse is further laid bare today in a study from the Policy Exchange think-tank. James Reed, chairman of recruiter Reed Employment, warned the number of graduate openings on his sites has plummeted.
(File image) It shows nearly half of graduates are not in full-time work 15 months after leaving university and, after five years, the median wage of most is still lower than the overall national median. For those with degrees in some arts, design and social sciences subjects the picture is worse still, with more than a quarter earning less than the full-time living wage five years after graduation.
At the same time, the typical graduate leaves university with a £50,000 debt and needs to earn £66,000 a year just to cover the interest. Is it any wonder they feel cheated by the system? The truth is that far more young people are now attending university than the traditional graduate jobs market can accommodate. In the 1960s, just four per cent of school leavers went, rising to 14 per cent by 1979.
It is now, thanks to Tony Blair's ill-conceived experiment in social engineering, nearly 50 per cent. Many would once have gone to technical colleges or other vocational establishments. But most have long since disappeared or morphed into second-rate universities, offering a broader but shallower and less work-focused prospectus.
Meanwhile, even our more illustrious universities are accused of feeding young minds on a diet of wokery, cancel culture and censorship. This was underlined by a newly posted video from Oxford showing a gender law lecture having to be abandoned because of a protest by trans activist students. If they don't want to listen and learn, they should be invited to leave the university.
Yet too often they are indulged and allowed to continue blighting the educational experience of the majority. Students have already suffered Covid, which saw face-to-face tuition almost extinguished, and remote learning is still more prevalent than it should be. Vice-chancellors should stop bellyaching about lack of funding and think more about giving their customers value for money. University was once the pinnacle of educational ambition.
Today's school leavers are asking themselves if there is any point in going. For a rapidly growing number, the answer is no
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Artificial Intelligence Graduate Jobs Automation University Vocational Education Tony Blair Minimum Wage Taxes Policy Exchange James Reed Living Wage Student Debt
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