The Brian Lehrer Show A Tough Job Market For Young Grads
Mar 25, 2026
Lindsay Ellis, a Wall Street Journal reporter who covers labor and the job market, discusses the fraught landscape for recent college grads. She explores how AI is reshaping entry-level roles, shrinking internships, and changing hiring networks. Short takes cover UX and design risks, accounting and finance impacts, and whether schools should teach AI fluency or hands-on skills.
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Student Told UX Jobs Might Vanish
- Jaden Tate searched for user-experience roles after studying informatics at University at Albany and was told his field might not exist in a few years.
- He attended AI conferences and applied broadly while friends took retail or food-service work to bridge gaps between internships and white-collar roles.
Why Employers Are Freezing Entry Hiring
- Entry-level hiring is collapsing because firms plan headcount far in advance and won't commit amid geopolitical, inflation, and AI uncertainty.
- AI's rapid progress lets hiring teams ask if a role is necessary six months from now, so firms delay offers and return offers to interns.
Front Load Training To Replace On The Job Learning
- Employers can front-load training or run intensive onboarding to give hires the hands-on experience AI might otherwise remove.
- Companies are creating training cohorts because managers expect future leaders learned by doing grunt work now replaced by AI.