How Big Is the AI Job Apocalypse? And What Can You Do About It?

As of October 28, 2025

High-paying entry-level jobs are quickly evaporating. White collar hiring is freezing. This is very different from the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC). Layoffs occurred as companies shrank or shut down. Now, layoffs are occurring as company growth accelerates. These jobs are not coming back.

41% of large global companies plan to make job cuts due to AI over the next 5 years. The total number of high-paying skilled jobs in the world is going to shrink over the next 5 years, despite significant economic growth. Those entering the workforce in the next 5+ years will be entering an unprecedentedly competitive job market. 

How will you launch your career with a powerful early role?

Jobs Are Evaporating: The Numbers In Brief

AI will severely contract or eliminate many industries. This is true of all industrial revolutions. In the case of the AI revolution, many companies are beginning layoffs as their industry growth accelerates. Below are noteworthy examples of moves made in 2025. 

AI’s capabilities will continue to grow, meaning more cuts are coming in the future. We are optimistic that AI will have a long-term positive impact on humanity, as all revolutionary production technologies have done. In the medium-term, we expect AI adoption will be a net headwind for those seeking employment. 

Software Tech

In 2025, a total of 157,000 employees in 540 tech-forward companies (2.5% of the entire US tech industry workforce) have been laid off as companies begin to use AI in earnest. Among the big players in tech this year:

• Amazon has cut 30,000 corporate jobs and plans to eliminate or avoid 600,000 jobs in the next 5 years

• Salesforce has frozen hiring

• Microsoft has cut 15,000 jobs

• Meta has cut 3,000 jobs (5% of its workforce)

• IBM has cut 8,000, including most of its HR department

• Klarna has cut 2,500 employees (40% of its workforce)

• Accenture has cut 11,000 jobs

• Tata has cut 12,000 jobs

Supply Chain / Manufacturing

31% of manufacturing companies in the US have frozen hiring; another 13% claim they probably will do so in 2025.

• Intel has cut 25,000 jobs (25% of its workforce) despite massive chip demand

• Proctor & Gamble: will have cut 7,000 corporate jobs by 2026

• GM has frozen engineering hiring and cut 200 jobs

• Applied materials has cut 1,444 jobs (4% of its workforce)

Finance & Banking

Bloomberg predicts 200,000 banking jobs will have been eliminated by 2030.

• JPMorgan Chase has frozen hiring

• Goldman Sachs has laid off 5% of its workforce

• Citigroup is laying of 20,000 jobs (10% of its workforce) by 2026

Retail

• Target has cut 1,800 jobs (8% of its workforce)

• Walmart has cut 1,500 corporate jobs and has frozen hiring

• Kroger has cut 1,000 corporate jobs and has frozen hiring

Other Sectors

Over the next 5 years, much of white-collar labor will be automated in many sectors where you may be considering employment. These sectors may have few entry-level job openings in the next five years. The most disrupted sectors will be:

1. IT & software development

2. Finance, banking, insurance, accounting

3. Sales

4. Operations

5. HR

6. Marketing

7. Legal

8. Supply Chain

What Can You Do to Become Employable?

In your parents' day, a strong base of knowledge was sufficient to gain good employment. Often a college degree was a strong enough advantage to win a good starting job. This will no longer suffice. 

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has been very clear that AI is going to cause great workforce churn in the next decade. It predicts that 92 million jobs will be eliminated. Entry-level white-collar jobs will be hit hardest. It also predicts that 170 million new jobs will be created, though these jobs will lag, and the top job creation categories are nearly all manual labor. 

WEF is very clear that those entering the workforce require a new set of core skills to be employable::

1. AI fluency and digital literacy

2. Autonomy and the ability to learn on their own just-in-time

3. Critical thinking and systems thinking

4. Resilience, flexibility, and agility 

5. Curiosity and a lifelong learning mindset

6. Leadership, social influence, and emotional intelligence

7. Motivation and self-awareness

Over the next 5-10 years, the job market will be very frothy and unpredictable. College graduate unemployment is high and will grow. To land a strong entry-level position, you will need to stand out by demonstrating proficiency in the skills of the future, and the skills that employers test for in their recruiting processes.

How can you develop this? WEF says, “A transdisciplinary systems mindset in education is essential to create a pipeline of graduates with the necessary skills..” WEF is clear that the current high school and column curriculum are not serving this, and would require “a curricular overhaul with project-based modules that fuse physics, materials, computation and engineering. Alongside this, convergence hubs should promote team-based breakthroughs and challenge-driven learning should embed students in real-world problem-solving.

How likely is it that high schools and colleges will quickly overhaul their entire curriculum? How long will it take schools to begin even adopting AI rather than fighting it? To be employable in the very near future, you will need to develop those skills, in an environment with this “transdisciplinary systems mindset.” Traditional schooling will not provide it, so you will need to find it on your own.