More than a third of UK employers have reduced entry-level jobs over the past year, adding to pressure on young people trying to enter an already weak labour market.
New analysis from the Work Foundation at Lancaster University found that 36% of employers had cut the number of roles available to people aged 16 to 24. The proportion rose to 48% among medium-sized organisations and 46% among large employers, compared with 24% among small businesses.
The findings are based on a Survation survey of 1,001 UK senior business leaders. Employers also reported a connection between technology investment and the contraction in junior opportunities: 43% said investment in AI or automation had reduced the number of entry-level roles available, rising to 60% among large employers.
Ben Harrison, director of the Work Foundation, said: “Young people are entering one of the toughest labour markets in years.”
The research arrives against a subdued recruitment backdrop. Office for National Statistics data put the number of UK vacancies at 707,000 in the three months to July, down 19,000, or 2.7%, from a year earlier. There were 2.5 unemployed people for every vacancy in the April-to-June period.
Separate Work Foundation research published in June found that average weekly “starter” vacancies accessible to someone entering the workforce for the first time had fallen 49% between 2016-17 and 2025-26. The organisation said there had been only one starter vacancy for every three young people not in employment, education, or training in late 2025.
The contraction cannot be attributed to automation alone. Employers have also faced weak demand, higher labour costs, and uncertainty over the economic outlook. Vacancy levels have remained close to their lowest outside the pandemic period for more than a decade, while many organisations have become more cautious about adding permanent headcount.
AI nevertheless changes the economics of some junior roles. Entry-level positions have traditionally included administrative work, basic research, data preparation, customer support, and content production — areas where generative AI and other automation technologies can now perform a growing share of routine tasks.
Removing repetitive work can improve productivity, but it also alters the way employees gain experience. Junior responsibilities frequently provide the route through which people learn an organisation’s systems, customers, commercial processes, and professional standards before progressing into more complex positions.
That creates a workforce planning question for employers reducing traditional entry routes. Fewer junior positions can lower immediate recruitment and supervision costs, but organisations still need a pipeline of employees able to take on more specialised and senior work later. Apprenticeships, graduate schemes, placements, and structured internal development may therefore become more important where routine tasks are being automated.
The findings also complicate the wider picture of AI and employment. Recent Business Quarter coverage found that some employers are associating AI adoption with new job creation and increased skills investment. Both trends can occur at the same time, with technology creating specialist roles while reducing demand for more routine junior work.
The Work Foundation survey found that 73% of employers believed young people faced greater barriers to entering work than five years ago, while the same proportion described youth worklessness as a national crisis. More than one million people aged 16 to 24 are currently not in education, employment, or training.
The pressure is likely to become more visible as AI adoption spreads beyond early technology users. Employers will need to decide which tasks are best automated, which continue to provide useful training, and how employees can build experience when fewer conventional starter roles remain available. The answer will shape both youth employment and the future supply of skilled workers into more senior positions.
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