A Swiss study reveals a decline in job advertisements for entry-level positions as artificial intelligence transforms the landscape of initial employment.

      An analysis of 7.3 million job postings indicates that entry-level positions have experienced a significant drop since the advent of generative AI, with the largest reductions in roles that these tools can most easily perform. According to a study released on Wednesday by the recruitment portal Jobs.ch, the number of job advertisements in Switzerland targeting career starters in 2025 was nearly one third lower than the average prior to the introduction of generative AI.

      The decline was most pronounced in jobs categorized as “AI-exposed,” which includes white-collar, knowledge-based, and office positions that are most susceptible to support or partial automation by these tools. This offers a clear indication of the shrinking opportunities at the lower rung of the Swiss labor market.

      This information originates from the company’s AI Report 2026, which analyzed job advertisements from Jobs.ch, Jobup.ch, and JobScout24.ch posted between 2019 and 2025. The analysts compared these postings to a "pre-AI phase" spanning 2019 to 2022, before ChatGPT and its competitors became commonplace, and supplemented the data with surveys from employees and Swiss companies.

      The study examined 18 occupational categories across 19 regions. Within the sectors identified as AI-exposed, the report noted a 16% decrease in the share of junior roles compared to the pre-AI baseline, while the share of senior roles increased by 26%. Affected areas include administration, human resources, banking and finance, marketing, procurement, sales, and information technology and telecommunications.

      These two trends illustrate a market that is effectively raising its baseline: there are fewer entry-level openings requiring minimal experience and more that demand extensive expertise. Jobs.ch is cautious in interpreting these figures. The study suggests that companies may be placing more emphasis on experience for roles that were typically entry-level or that such tasks are increasingly being managed by AI tools.

      This correlation is derived from advertising trends rather than a definitive causation, and the report refrains from asserting that AI is solely to blame. The data reflects job postings rather than the motivations behind them. The Swiss hiring landscape has also been influenced by an economic slowdown and general caution, factors that the advertising statistics cannot fully delineate. The report incorporates employee and company surveys to better understand the intent behind the postings.

      However, the observed trends align with findings from other studies. A European study revealed that about 30% of EU workers now use AI at their jobs, especially in text-intensive tasks such as writing and translation, with many companies reevaluating job roles as a result.

      The shared concern in both scenarios is that the routine tasks historically accessible to newcomers—such as drafting, data entry, and initial analyses—are the very tasks that AI can most rapidly take over. This shift carries implications that extend beyond a single year’s hiring data. Entry-level jobs serve as crucial learning opportunities for judgment, adaptability, and professional habits. If this foundational position is increasingly automated, individuals who would have formerly occupied it are now expected to be pre-equipped with skills, reflecting a broader tension.

      Similarly, American companies have been reducing internship programs for comparable reasons, while graduates have begun integrating AI into the interview process itself, which is meant to evaluate their capabilities.

      Nevertheless, the Swiss data contains some nuances that a headline might overlook. The contraction of entry-level positions is not consistent across all junior jobs; it is primarily within the AI-exposed segment. The report notes that some newly defined entry-level roles are actually on the rise rather than disappearing. What is diminishing is the outdated, undifferentiated entry-level tier.

      For school-leavers and graduates in fields such as administration, finance, or marketing, the clear takeaway is that securing an easy first job is becoming more challenging, and the remaining positions will likely demand more than they did in the past.