The rapid change in employment among young Americans in the AI era

Daily life living alongside artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer a future fairy tale. As AI takes on cognitive labor, the difficulty of finding jobs for college graduates is worsening, and the rapid consumption of electricity is quickly driving up electricity prices in areas near data centers. The reality that can be seen is that AI brings high growth, but its benefits are tilted more toward things like job creation than toward benefits in areas such as employment. This article tracks the state of rapid AI rollout in the United States.

Employment conditions in the United States are changing. Data from the U.S. Department of Education’s student information center that collects information on students across the nation—the National Student Clearinghouse—shows that in spring 2025, enrollment at vocational training schools teaching trades such as pipe fitters and carpenters increased 12% year over year. That is far higher than the increase in the number of college enrollments (4%).

This trend has been strengthening for several years, against a backdrop of public concern about the future being altered because of AI. A survey this year by Conjointly targeting parents of Generation Z—those aged from their teens to their 20s—shows that only 16% think that “having a college degree guarantees long-term stable employment,” while 77% say it is very important to choose “jobs that are difficult to automate.”

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Nikkei Inc. and the Financial Times merged in November 2015 into the same media group. An alliance formed by two newspaper companies—Japan and the UK—both founded in the 19th century is moving forward under the banner of “high-quality, the most powerful economic journalism,” promoting wide-ranging cooperation such as joint special reports. This time, as part of that, there is an exchange of articles between the two newspapers’ Chinese-language websites.