this post was submitted on 04 May 2026
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38
Productivity gains from AI are appearing in many of the same fields where entry-level employment is starting to decline (hai.stanford.edu)
submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by avidamoeba@lemmy.ca to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Productivity gains from AI are appearing in many of the same fields where entry-level employment is starting to decline. Employment among software developers aged 22–25 has plummeted nearly 20% since 2024, even as their older colleagues' headcount grows. The pattern repeats in other jobs with higher levels of AI exposure, like customer service. Meanwhile, firm surveys indicate executives expect this trend to accelerate, with planned headcount reductions outpacing recent cuts. Translation: The disruption is targeted and just beginning.

I posted this in one of the Sam Altman threads but I think it probably deserves its own post. There's some other interesting things in the report.

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[–] mabeledo@lemmy.world 19 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Correlation doesn’t imply causation.

If you lay off 10% of your workforce, mostly juniors, and your KPIs are loose enough, there’s no reason to think that companies won’t succeed in pushing senior employees to meet them, mostly through overwork.

Also, certain companies track AI usage as a KPI in itself, so there’s a circular logic component to it.

[–] masterofn001@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 days ago (3 children)

If i produced 1000 widgets with zero defect and my replacrment produces 1000000, but they all have severe defects, is that counted as an increase in productivity?

[–] Jrockwar@feddit.uk 8 points 2 days ago

Depends on what the targets are for the C-Suite, but in 2026 one could assume yes.

[–] mabeledo@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

Given that some tech bros are measuring AI productivity in lines of code, yes, yes it does.

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 days ago

Then no. However if the replacement produces 1000000 widgets with 1000 rejects, then the boss might say - alright, we need more QA to catch those rejects and we're still X ahead, then yes. Productivity isn't measured by the output of one person of particular widget but the output of the unit as a whole, or more importantly the profit of the firm altogether divided by its workers. So if the boss can get more output while controlling the quality to the point of the customer not noticing too much from our replacement, we both get a pink slip.