The occupations most and least affected by AI according to this study:
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2507.07935
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I’m screwed. I can’t do any of the jobs that are least impacted !!
Apparently the world actually does need ditch diggers too….
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I also think there are nuances that are not captured by “affected by AI”. Example as an economist: the increase in computing power, software etc that has become available to economists over the past few decades has meant that less time has to be spent on things like actually setting up and running regressions/doing the nuts and bolts of econometrics, leaving more time to spend on value-added analysis. (Even just excel charts compared to how we used to do charts back in the old days…but yes, the people whose job it was to create the charts eventually lost out to excel). I can see AI uses in the profession doing the same, taking care of some of the time consuming stuff that needs to be done and freeing people up to do more in depth research. I am sure there must be numerous examples in other types of jobs of this.
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I didn’t know that telephone operators were still a thing . . .
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No more accurately according to the list, the world needs ditch digging equipment operators (and presumably repairers). That requires a bit more skill.
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I would have thought something like hazardous waste removal is a perfect opportunity for an AI robot. I know we are not there yet (has anyone seen that footage of the robots playing soccer?) but one day …
NBC News asked people who recently finished technical school, college or graduate school how their job application process was going, and in more than 100 responses, the graduates described months spent searching for a job, hundreds of applications and zero responses from employers — even with degrees once thought to be in high demand, like computer science or engineering. Some said they struggled to get an hourly retail position or are making salaries well below what they had been expecting in fields they hadn’t planned to work in.
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“Recent college graduates are on the margin of the labor market, and so they’re the first to feel when the labor market slows and hiring slows,” said Jaison Abel, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
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Add a +1 to that data set. This perfectly describes my 2024 grad’s experience.
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I don’t think the economy is bad everywhere in the country. I was surprised how smoothly it went for my D, after she gave up dancing this summer. As I mentioned in another thread she got a fill-in job at the climbing gym within a week, had multiple interviews every week since then, turned down one job already and has now accepted an admin position in an arts organization that she’s really excited by. She’s also turned down a bunch of second/third round interviews and is still being called by companies she’d applied to.
Clearly she got pulled from the pile of resumes very frequently, she had at least 10 interviews from her first 30 applications, and for the job she’s now accepted, the company reached out proactively to her when it came up, after she’d previously interviewed with them for a temporary part-time position.
OTOH here in the Bay Area, two of our neighbors have kids who are back home and have found nothing in a year of trying. One is going to the U.K. for a masters in the fall as there’s little sign of things improving.
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interestingly my D always seems to have no problems getting jobs. She is not a teacher but her interests lie with kids, and career goal is running a summer camp. I am out of the tech world, and currently sub teaching and tutoring. So it seems that certain sectors still have good job prospects, but not the high paying ones. Meanwhile, my S was out of work for 6 months as a computer programmer. He finally got a job with a govt contractor.
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My son is a rising senior, looking for the first “grown up” job after he graduates. He had two fantastic internships the summers after his sophomore and junior year. Fantastic in that they gave him great experience in learning some new things, the people loved his work and invited him back, but one of the things he learned was that neither job was the right place for him. (One it was the wrong kind of work, the other it was not the right company for location and company culture reasons.)
So as he heads into senior year, he’s diving into the search. What’s killing me, as an observer, is that he is being picky. I get wanting a good fit, but I’m worried for him that he’s going to let Good Enough opportunities pass him by while he’s waiting for the Perfect Everything.
He is a double major, mechanical and civil engineering. One of the internships was CivE, and he’s learned he really doesn’t want to do that, he wants to do MechE. Both internships involved lots of project management - he’s excellent at management, but really wants to be doing more design.
So ok, requirement 1 - MechE job doing design work, or at least not straight up management work. To my mind, this is a perfectly fine requirement, lots of MechE jobs. It’s likely to be a little challenging for him to get, because most of his experience isn’t design related, but he’s got stellar references, courses in the right areas, and some project experience that relates. Not easy or a slam dunk, but achievable.
Next.
Both summer jobs were in locations where he didn’t know anyone. In one job they made a solid effort to do team building and get the intern (he was the only one on site) involved and that helped. In the other, a much more vibrant city, there was no team building, most colleagues worked remotely, and he found himself really lonely all summer as he struggled to build networks outside of work in just the summer time.
Which leads to requirement 2 - he’d like to stay in New England. Most of his friends from college will be in MA/CT/RI - he’d like to be close enough to maybe have someone as a roommate or at least be able to see them on the weekend, because the loneliness and isolation were challenging. Ok, this limits his job possibilities a decent amount, but still achievable. There are definitely engineering jobs in New England. A limiting factor but, again, not insurmountable.
Then comes thing three - industry. He feels really passionately about working in the renewable energy industry. His first internship was working to bring clean energy from Canada to NYC, second internship was working with nuclear energy. He’d be happy to work on renewable energy in any way. He knows that’s limiting, so he is also looking for other MechE positions that allow him to do design work. The problem, though, is that he also feels pretty passionately about NOT working for the defense industry - be that actual DoD or contractors. And lots and lots of MechE jobs are defense oriented. Again, I think he could chase this dream of renewable energy or at least avoiding defense/weapons focused positions. But it’s a definite limiting factor.
We had a short discussion last night about this, but I’m afraid that if he tries to find all three: MechE doing design; in New England; doing Renewable Energy preferably but definitely not Defense related work - that he’s limited himself out of a job. Maybe two of the limits are ok, but all three is going to make it very very hard to find something, especially since many of the posted jobs for “entry level” MechEs say “1-2 years experience required”. I suspect that he’ll realize that he’s drawn the parameters too narrowly eventually, I’m just worried about how many opportunities that might have met two out of three criteria he will have missed by then.
He’s got another 10 days or so before he goes back to school. We’ll see if he can use that time to prioritize his preferences and to see if he’d be willing to bend anywhere, and what that might look like. Any suggestions for how I can help him noodle through this?
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Use Handshake at his university.
Network with MechE alum , see if any are working in NE , in design, renewable, etc.
May be lots of adjacent opportunities in construction, recycling, or project managment in that region.
I would suggest that he talk this through with one or more of his professors. They will give it to him straight…most likely “totally respect your parameters around industry and role. But if the best opportunity is in Atlanta or Cleveland…you need to deal with a 24 month commitment to Atlanta or Cleveland”. Or they’ll have solid networking ideas for him. Or they’ll suggest an independent study this coming semester focused on ABC, a way to beef up his experience in an up and coming area.
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In my opinion, students cannot be picky about their first job. Picky is when you are already employed and are looking to move to the next job! My daughter is on the engineering recruiting team for her company and the number one requirement is willingness to relocate
I think the green energy sector is also taking a big hit so looking for companies who make sustainability one of their values can be a good stepping stone. There are plenty of manufacturing companies out there that are very eco-conscious even if that is not their industry.
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It’s absolutely brutal out there. My 2025 graduate son’s job fell through as the company lost funding. He has 3 summers of experience with great internships, but right now EVERYONE wants 5 years of experience. It’s rough. I’m sure it’ll all work out, but if anyone thinks it’s not a rough time for new graduates you are NOT in the trenches.
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I think it’s ok to be picky early - to target what he wants. You deserve that if you can get it. That doesn’t mean if someone is at school or doesn’t exactly fit that he shouldn’t apply to. But spending his time on preferred industries or organization this early makes sense to me.
Having had two internships you have to give him the benefit of the doubt. IMHO. He’s earned it.
I think you have to be picky about the role/career path and be less picky about location and salary etc. Very often the subsequent roles will have a fair amount of overlap with that 1st role but location and salary are more controllable down the line.
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@Hippobirdy - thank you and yes, he definitely needs to use Handshake, I don’t think he’s really investigated it much, so that’s at least something to look into to make sure he understands it’s capability. The school does a decent career fair, but he was disappointed last year that the two employers he was most interested ended up being no shows (after he skipped class to go to the fair). I told him not to impute that to future employers participation.
@blossom - good call on talking with the professors. There are two that he’s TA’d for, and two more that he’s doing a year long research project with this year that know him well and would probably give him some solid advice. I’ve suggested the whole “you can work anywhere for two years then have the experience to get the job in the location and industry you really want” and so far that message isn’t getting through. But maybe with repetition it will?
@momofboiler1 - I agree, this isn’t the time to be picky. Which is why I’m struggling with how to talk with him about it. Some of what he’s saying is an ok way to start a search - like type of job, or location - it’s fine to have some kind of starting criteria. It’s adding them all together that is causing me anxiety. And yes on the hit to the green energy sector. He originally wanted to work with wind energy, but that’s not going to be feasible for a long time I think.
@Darcy123 this - the brutality of it now - is what I’m worried about for him. Fingers crossed for all our kids…
@tsbna44 - I’m thinking that maybe I try to steer him towards an attitude of ok, picky until November (or something) then lets adjust. Because I don’t want to say you can’t shoot for the moon, he has worked hard to know what he wants. I’m hoping an early focus helps him both find something and also see what is and isn’t generally available to create a solidly realistic plan.
@ucscuuw - fortunately, he isn’t being picky about salary. He’s lucky in that we paid for all of his undergrad and he won’t have loans. If he can find the job, he can take it. I’m encouraging him to apply for some awesome jobs in the industry that aren’t where he wants to live, because the experience would be amazing. We’ll see if he is willing to bend on that…
Sounds reasonable - you can show him some horror stories from this year, so don’t wait too too long. But - you’ve worked hard and how great would it be to fulfill that goal as desired if possible.
It’s great he has a passion for a specific thing. Not everyone does.