A Swiss study reveals a decrease in job advertisements for new graduates as AI transforms entry-level positions.

      An analysis of 7.3 million job ads reveals a significant decline in entry-level positions since the advent of generative AI, particularly in roles that these tools can easily perform. In 2025, the number of job advertisements in Switzerland targeting new job seekers was nearly a third lower than the average from before generative AI emerged, according to a study released on Wednesday by the recruitment platform Jobs.ch.

      The most pronounced drop occurred in jobs identified as “AI-exposed,” which include white-collar, knowledge-based, and office roles that can be easily supported or partially automated by these technologies. This data presents a clear indication of the thinning opportunities at the lowest level of the Swiss labor market.

      This information is sourced from the company’s AI Report 2026, which analyzed 7.3 million job postings on the platforms Jobs.ch, Jobup.ch, and JobScout24.ch from 2019 to 2025. The analysts compared the postings to a “pre-AI phase” spanning 2019 to 2022—prior to the widespread adoption of ChatGPT and similar tools—and augmented the advertisement data with surveys of employees and companies in Switzerland.

      The study included 18 occupational categories across 19 regions. Within the sectors exposed to AI, it was found that the proportion of junior roles decreased by 16% compared to the pre-AI period, while the share of senior positions increased by 26%. The fields affected include administration, human resources, banking and finance, marketing, procurement, sales, and information technology and telecommunications.

      These developments illustrate a labor market that is subtly elevating the entry-level threshold: there are fewer positions requiring minimal experience and more that demand significant experience.

      Jobs.ch is cautious in interpreting these figures. The study suggests that companies may now be emphasizing experience for tasks that were once entry-level, or that these tasks are increasingly being addressed by AI tools. However, this is based on advertising trends rather than a definitively proven cause, and the report refrains from asserting that AI alone is accountable for these changes.

      The recorded data reflects what employers post, but not the reasoning behind such postings. Swiss hiring conditions have also been influenced during this time by an economic slowdown and general caution, factors that the advertising data cannot completely disentangle. The report includes employee and company surveys partly to glean intentions that the postings themselves cannot convey.

      Nevertheless, the trend aligns with findings from other researchers. A study in Europe indicated that roughly 30% of EU workers now utilize AI in their jobs, primarily in text-based activities like writing and translation, leading many companies to reevaluate job roles.

      The shared concern is that the routine tasks that traditionally provided newcomers with entry points—such as drafting, data entry, and preliminary analysis—are the same tasks that AI is quickest to take over. This has implications that extend beyond a single year of recruiting. Entry-level positions serve not only as jobs but as environments where judgment, adaptability, and professional habits are cultivated. If the foundational rung of the career ladder is being automated, then individuals expected to fill these roles must arrive already equipped with the necessary skills, which is a tension that is evident elsewhere as well.

      For similar reasons, American companies have been scaling down internship programs, and recent graduates have started incorporating AI into their interview processes, which are designed to evaluate them.

      However, the Swiss data does provide a layer of nuance that the main narrative might oversimplify. The reduction in junior roles is not uniform across all entry-level positions; rather, it is specific to the AI-exposed sectors. The report notes that some newly defined entry-level roles are actually increasing, indicating that what is disappearing is the traditional, non-specific bottom rung.

      For school-leavers and graduates in fields such as administration, finance, or marketing, the practical takeaway is stark: finding the initial job is becoming more challenging, and the remaining opportunities will likely expect more qualifications than before.