Entry-level jobs down by a third since launch of ChatGPT

Summary

The UK jobs market continued its cautious recovery in May, with annual vacancy growth and rising wages offering signs of resilience despite a modest monthly decline in job postings. However, entry-level opportunities have taken a significant hit, dropping by nearly a third since the advent of widely available generative AI tools at the end of 2022. According to the latest UK Job Market Report from job matching platform Adzuna, the number of advertised vacancies fell slightly by 0.51% in May to 858,465 roles. Despite this, year-on-year growth remained positive at +0.49%, marking the third consecutive month of annual improvement and suggesting a slow but steady recovery from the recent market slump. Pay continues to be a bright spot, with average advertised salaries rising for the twelfth month in a row. May saw the average advertised salary reach £42,403, up 0.3% from April and up 9.38% compared with a year earlier – making it the strongest run of annual pay growth since mid-2022. This rise has been bolstered in part by April’s 6.7% increase to the national living wage. However, these broader improvements are not benefiting all parts of the workforce equally. Graduate job postings dropped by 4.2% in May and are now down 28.4% compared with the same time last year—the lowest level seen since July 2020. More broadly, entry-level roles (including apprenticeships, internships and junior jobs) have declined by 32% since November 2022, when ChatGPT’s commercial breakthrough triggered a rapid transformation in how companies operate and hire. Entry-level roles now make up just 25% of all jobs advertised in the UK, down from nearly 29% two years ago. “May reinforced the sense that the job market in the UK is gradually regaining its footing,” said Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna. “While overall vacancies dipped slightly, we’ve now seen three straight months of annual vacancy growth – a clear shift after more than a year of decline. Advertised salaries continue to climb, to...