As companies send mixed signals about how AI will impact white-collar jobs, one thing is certain: entry-level jobs are facing the brunt of AI uncertainty—and the effects are being felt around the world.
A new report from the Irish Department of Finance found that AI’s impact on the labor market is concentrated most among young workers. About 63% of jobs in the country are “relatively exposed” to AI, but some industries, like tech and financial services, are already seeing the effects of AI adoption.
Young workers (ages 15 to 29) in the tech sector are experiencing one of highest rates of job stagnation in Ireland, with employment falling 20% between 2023 and 2025. During that same period, employment for “prime-age” workers (ages 30 to 59) grew by 12%, the study found.
The effects are most felt among younger workers in the financial, tech, information and communications sectors. Employment among 15-to 29-year-olds in ‘at risk’ sectors declined by 1%, between 2023 and 2025, even as employment continued to grow in these sectors overall.
The study found that between 2023 and 2025, high-AI risk sectors like financial services and tech experienced “significantly weaker employment growth,” of only 4%. Other “at risk” industries in the study include real estate, financial services, insurance, legal, accounting, defense, and retail. In comparison, low-risk sectors, such as construction or healthcare, experienced a 6.25% growth rate.
This is not simply a reflection of a hard job market for Gen Z, but rather it’s unique to high-risk industries. Interestingly, the study notes young workers are outpacing their older counterparts in lower risk sectors.
Few places are a better case study for how AI is impacting the once-reliable tech and financial services industry than Ireland, a country of 5.3 million people that has a high concentration of international conglomerations that dominate the tech, banking, and insurance industries. In November 2025, over 11% of all job postings in Ireland on Indeed referenced AI-related terms, around three times the level recorded in both the U.S. and Europe.
“AI-related labour market adjustments have occurred mainly through changes in hiring and entry, rather than through the displacement of existing workers,” noted the report.
Youth unemployment in Ireland is almost at 12%, a number that has been rising since the third quarter of 2024. Ireland has the highest share of STEM graduates per capita in the E.U. and is frequently ranked as a top country for AI talent. However, rapidly improving technology has disrupted previously secure career pathways for STEM graduates.
What Ireland’s youth employment problem could mean for the U.S.
Young Americans are similarly feeling the sting of AI taking over their jobs. Early-career Americans aged 22 to 25 who are working in the most “AI-exposed occupations” have experienced a 16% relative decline in employment, according to research from the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
AI industry leaders in the U.S. have put white-collar workers on notice. Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman warned last week that all white-collar jobs that involve “sitting down at a computer” will be automated by AI within the next 18 months.
Even more cautious voices, like Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, have said that AI could eliminate half of all entry-level, white-collar jobs within five years and lead to a paltry 10-to-20% employment rate.
The report notes it’s not just younger workers in Ireland experiencing this job stagnation. AI has knocked out entry-level jobs globally, leaving young jobseekers in a brutally competitive job market. Just like in Ireland, highly digitized jobs in tech and finance, where AI can easily do entry-level tasks, are expected to take the biggest hit, according to the report. The Irish government, the report’s authors recommend, should respond with policy to support upskilling and reskilling. In the U.S., the Trump Administration has put forward an AI Action Plan that involves retraining workers, but details on which industries and demographics will be targeted have not been shared.
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