A. M. 
Generative artificial intelligence is increasingly displacing workers in entry-level positions, with new data showing that women and young people are bearing the brunt of job losses as automation transforms the global economy.
Women face a disproportionate job threat
A United Nations report released in september revealed that 27.6% of jobs held by women globally are potentially exposed to automation by generative AI, compared to 21.1% of men’s roles. The UN Gender Outlook 2025 warns that women dominate the professions most vulnerable to AI displacement, including administrative, clerical, and public sector roles.
“The world faces new disruption, and there is a risk that inequality will become codified in the future if we do not learn from past mistakes”, the UN report warned. In high-income countries, the disparity is even more stark, with women nearly three times more likely than men to lose their jobs due to generative AI.
The threat extends beyond current employment. Women remain severely underrepresented in tech fields that could offer protection against AI disruption, making up only 29% of the global tech workforce and holding only 14% of tech leadership positions.
Youth unemployment reaches crisis levels
Young workers are experiencing the most immediate impact of AI-driven job displacement. A Stanford University study published in August found that employment for workers aged 22 to 25 in AI-exposed occupations has declined 13% since the end of 2022. Software developers in this age group saw their employment drop by nearly 20%.
The trend is particularly pronounced in Canada, where youth unemployment for 15- to 24-year-olds reached 14.7% in September 2025, the highest level in 15 years outside of the pandemic years. Statistics Canada reported that student unemployment increased 3.1 percentage points compared to the same period in 2024.
“Entry-level jobs… work that perhaps wasn’t the most complicated or the most difficult… are increasingly being automated”, University of California, Berkeley professor James O’Brien told CTV Your Morning. He noted that artificial intelligence now writes at least 20% of the code in some organizations.
Entry-Level Positions Under Siege
The displacement primarily affects roles where AI automates rather than augments human labor. Research from the World Economic Forum indicates that between 50% and 60% of typical entry-level tasks—including report writing, research synthesis, code correction, and data cleaning—can already be performed by AI.
Jacqueline Silver, a recent computer science graduate from McGill University, experienced this reality firsthand, spending more than a year applying to hundreds of jobs before finding work. “It may still require someone to refine it or scrutinize it, but overall, there’s less need for multiple people to write it now, since generative AI can take care of that,” he said of AI’s impact on programming work.
The phenomenon extends beyond technology. A recent study by the British Standards Institution found that 41% of business leaders in major economies say AI is already enabling them to make layoffs, and 43% expect to cut entry-level positions over the next year.
Conservative MP Garnett Genuis warned that Canada’s “deepening youth unemployment crisis” will affect the career paths of young workers for the rest of their lives, as unemployment is at a 15-year high outside of the pandemic years.
Read also:
