A Changing Workplace: How AI Is Influencing Youth Careers
Author
Laura Adkins-Hackett, Senior Economic Advisor at Labour Market Information Council
Introduction
For young people trying to start a career, AI is arriving at an already uncertain time. The conversation about the future of AI is split between excitement for the opportunities to increase productivity and worries about potential job losses. All this talk about change makes it difficult to plan, creating additional anxiety in an already challenging labour market.
To understand what AI may mean for young workers, we first need to understand the challenges they face today. We can then explore how beyond broad claims about jobs disappearing and examine how AI aligns with specific occupations, tasks, and early-career pathways.
Youth are facing a difficult labour market today
Youth, aged 15-24, is an exciting and important time of life, filled with change and growth. For most Canadians, this is the phase where you enter adulthood, finish school, and enter the labour market. In our youth, we make important decisions that can affect the rest of our lives, such as what to study and which early-career jobs to take on. These decisions lay the groundwork for your future career.
In recent years, the labour market has begun to tighten, marked by a reduction in job vacancies and an increase in unemployment. Youth unemployment rates are even more elevated, with an average of 13.8% in 2025, which is the highest annual youth unemployment rate in the last decade, excluding 2020 (Statistics Canada, 2026c).
As unemployment has increased, the number of entry-level vacancies has declined. Figure 1 shows vacancies in Canada by experience level. Following COVID, there was a surge in vacancies, particularly in entry-level roles requiring minimal experience (Statistics Canada, 2026b). Since the peak in 2022, the availability of entry-level roles has declined dramatically, falling 25% below the pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
Figure 1: There were 25% fewer entry level vacancies at the end of 2025 compared to 2019
While the labour market is tighter, there are still opportunities available. In the last quarter of 2025, there were over 450,000 vacancies in Canada, of which almost 190,000 were considered entry-level. Additionally, organizations remain concerned about accessing labour, with 10.5% reporting that recruiting skilled workers was their biggest challenge in the first quarter of 2026 (Statistics Canada, 2026d). While the labour market may be tighter, there is still demand for more trained workers.
Early career sets the stage for future success
Lower entry-level vacancies and more youth in the labour market mean increased competition for entry-level jobs. This makes it harder for today’s youth to find opportunities to build the experience required to advance in their careers. History has shown that those who enter the labour market during downturns, like the 2008 financial crisis, see lower wages for up to a decade and slower career advancement (Agopsowicz, 2023).
There are ways to mitigate these risks, such as offering work-integrated learning or other training opportunities that provide an alternative for students to learn the skills required in the workplace (Billy-Ochieng and Arif, 2024). Expecting youth to navigate a difficult labour market on their own is not setting them up for success, but as an ecosystem, we can work together to find alternative ways to help youth develop the skills and experience required for the future.
AI adds uncertainty for those planning their careers, as more firms adopt the technology and debate continues over which jobs will remain available. To understand what this means for young workers, we need to look beyond broad claims about disappearing jobs and examine what research and data are actually saying about AI’s impact on specific tasks, occupations, and early-career pathways.
New technology, old uncertainty
Time and time again, new technologies bring innovation and questions about how the world will change. Consider the advent of cars, computers, or robotics; each brought innovation and opportunities for productivity growth, but also changed the demand for workers who previously performed the same tasks. AI is no different; it brings opportunities for advancement and can take on tasks that previously required human input. However, it can also perform more complex tasks, opening new possibilities.
The Industrial Revolution is a classic example of how technology changes the way we work and how advancement can be a cause of concern for some workers. The industrial revolution was a long process; at times, there was so much concern about the future of specific jobs that workers actively protested the adoption of new technologies. In the end, the industrial revolution did lead to the loss of some specific jobs but also to a rise in specialized professions, increased wealth, and improved quality of life for the average worker (Rafferty, 2025). While AI may lead to the loss of some jobs, there is reason to expect that it will also have overall benefits for people’s quality of life.
Change is not one size fits all
As AI takes over conversation, it can feel like it will change everything. However, just like the technologies that have come before, AI has limited reach and many parts of the labour market will be minimally exposed.
When estimating the impact of AI, researchers typically examine the relationship to tasks and then identify which jobs are at greater risk based on their typical task profiles. To understand the potential reach of AI, two primary concepts are used to discuss its relationship to tasks and jobs: exposure and complementarity.
- Exposure is related to the share of occupation-specific tasks that are AI-compatible. Low exposure means AI has a limited ability to perform the task, while high exposure means there is a greater opportunity for AI integration.
- Complementarity looks at the alignment of AI with specific tasks. High complementarity means AI enhances humans’ ability to perform the task, while low complementarity suggests that AI can replace humans in performing the task.
Current research estimates that only 60% of jobs in advanced economies are highly exposed to AI. (Cazzaniga et al., 2024). Additionally, approximately half of the occupations exposed to AI are highly complementary, meaning they are poised to capitalize on AI. Mehdi and Morissette (2024) found that these estimates were consistent in Canada, with 31% of workers in high-exposure, low-complementarity jobs and 29% in high-exposure, high-complementarity jobs. It’s important to note that there is still no concrete evidence suggesting that high-exposure, low-complementarity occupations are facing widespread job losses.
What do organizations say about AI and employment?
Research into the adoption of AI is reassuring that job losses will not be significantly widespread. This is further validated by the expectations of Canadian organizations. A survey from the third quarter of 2025 found that only 14.5% of Canadian organizations planned to use AI over the next year (Statistics Canada, 2026e).
Figure 2: Most organizations expect the adoption of AI to have no change on employment
When asked how AI would affect employment levels, only 12.2% of organizations planning to use AI expected it to reduce employment. Further, 7.3% expected the technology to support the creation of new jobs (Statistics Canada, 2026a). Clearly, organizations that plan to use AI do not expect it to lead to widespread job losses. Of course, these expectations vary across industries, but as shown in Figure 2, most organizations planning to adopt AI expect no change in employment.
Reenvisioning the career ladder
AI may not be changing the face of the labour market as we know it, but we should still prepare for there to be a shift in the jobs available as tasks are reallocated and optimized by AI. This does create risk for entry level work if businesses choose to reallocate tasks from junior staff to AI.
AI’s impact on entry level jobs is one area that there is a lot of discussion. For example, you have Anthropic’s CEO predicting that generative AI could eliminate up to half of entry-level office jobs (Williams, 2025). However, this is an extreme position, and the data has yet to back it up.
On the other hand, there is evidence that organizations expect AI to bolster their demand for entry level workers. (Hanson and Escobar, 2026). Instead of AI removing entry level jobs the survey found organizations see AI as a tool to allow junior staff to take on more complex tasks, exposing them to senior responsibilities more quickly.
Others support this idea that AI could lead to quicker advancement, and a redesign of the career ladder. Young workers familiarity with technology may even give them an advantage as they are able to help organizations adopt new technology (Diaz, 2026).
We may even see a broader reimagining of the workplace, shifting from the traditional career ladder to flatter organizations, which would again allow young workers to take on more responsibilities from the outset of their career (Laurence Jockims, 2025).
Conclusion
While the future outcomes from of AI are unknown, we do know the technology has opened new possibilities. While we may see less demand for some jobs, so far, the evidence does not support the claims of widespread job losses, even for entry level workers.
Focusing on the potential, and unknown future, does not provide the best support for today’s youth. Instead, we should turn to evidence-based insights, and reliable labour market information to help young people make informed decisions as they navigate an already difficult labour market.
References
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Billy-Ochieng, R., & Arif, A. (2024). Entering the labour market during recession can leave lasting scars. TD Economics. https://economics.td.com/ca-labour-market-during-recession-can-leave-scars
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